In the financial services industry, client experience has become the ultimate differentiator. Products and pricing are increasingly commoditized, but the quality of the client experience—how well you understand needs, how seamlessly you deliver service, how proactively you provide guidance—creates lasting competitive advantage.
This article examines real-world strategies and case studies demonstrating how financial institutions leverage Salesforce Financial Services Cloud to transform client experiences. From regional banks to global wealth management firms, these organizations prove that exceptional client experience isn't just aspirational—it's achievable with the right platform, strategy, and execution.
Recent research reveals clear client expectations:
Personalization
78% of banking customers initiate contact via digital channels, and over 50% expect institutions to use their preferences for personalized experiences. Yet less than 15% strongly agree their financial needs are being anticipated. Meanwhile, 84% would switch institutions if they felt their information was mishandled.
Convenience
One-third of customers cite ease of use as a primary reason to switch institutions. They expect seamless experiences across all channels, prefer self-service options for routine transactions, but desire human interaction for complex needs and emotional situations.
Trust and Transparency
Another third cite transparency as a primary reason to switch. Customers demand clarity about how their data is used, expect regulatory compliance and data security as baseline requirements, and value proactive communication that builds confidence and loyalty.
Financial Wellness
Customers want institutions to help them achieve financial goals through proactive guidance and education. Life event support—whether for home purchases, retirement, or education—creates deep loyalty. They expect a holistic financial view across all accounts and relationships.
Mascoma Bank, a community bank serving New Hampshire and Vermont, faced a common challenge: fragmented customer data prevented bankers from delivering personalized service and proactive financial wellness guidance.
Their specific pain points included customer information scattered across core banking systems, loan platforms, and CRM; bankers lacking visibility into complete customer relationships; inability to identify opportunities to help customers achieve financial goals; and difficulty competing with larger banks and digital-first fintech competitors.
Mascoma Bank implemented Salesforce Financial Services Cloud integrated with Data Cloud to create a unified customer view and enable personalized engagement.
Key implementation elements included:
Data Integration — Connected core banking system to FSC using MuleSoft, integrated loan origination and servicing platforms, linked external account data, and created real-time data synchronization.
Customer 360 View — Unified customer profiles showing all accounts, loans, and relationships; household relationship visualization with Actionable Relationship Center; financial goals tracking; and complete interaction history.
Personalized Engagement — Segmentation based on financial goals, life stage, and engagement level; automated alerts for goal milestones; personalized financial wellness content; and proactive outreach triggered by life events.
Advisor Enablement — Customized banker desktop with complete customer context, Action Plans for standardized processes, mobile access for relationship managers, and Einstein Analytics dashboards.
Mascoma Bank achieved significant improvements across customer experience and business outcomes. Bankers gained complete relationship views enabling more meaningful conversations. They delivered proactive financial wellness guidance based on customer goals and behavior, achieved faster service delivery through streamlined processes, and saw increased customer satisfaction scores.
Business outcomes included higher cross-sell success rates through better opportunity identification, increased customer retention, improved banker productivity and efficiency, and enhanced competitive positioning against larger institutions.
Key success factor: Mascoma Bank focused on empowering bankers with actionable insights rather than overwhelming them with data, prioritizing the most impactful use cases and expanding systematically based on results.
Elements Financial, a credit union serving aerospace and defense industry employees, wanted to strengthen member relationships by better understanding financial goals and providing personalized guidance.
Their challenges included tellers and branch staff lacking quick access to member financial goals, management unable to easily identify trends across the member base, generic product offerings that didn't reflect individual needs, and difficulty demonstrating value beyond basic banking services.
Elements Financial deployed Einstein Analytics for Financial Services embedded directly on account home pages, providing instant insights to frontline staff and management.
They implemented pre-built financial services dashboards customized for credit union needs, captured and tracked member financial goals, maintained comprehensive interaction history and engagement scoring, and created personalized product recommendations and targeted campaigns.
The member experience transformed significantly. Tellers could instantly see member goals and provide relevant guidance. The credit union delivered personalized product recommendations aligned with individual needs, provided proactive support for members approaching financial milestones, and built stronger emotional connections through goal-focused conversations.
Business outcomes included increased product adoption and cross-sell success, higher member engagement and satisfaction scores, improved staff confidence and effectiveness, and enhanced member loyalty and retention.
Management gained visibility into member trends and opportunities, enabling data-driven decision making for product development and marketing, faster identification of at-risk members, and optimized resource allocation.
Key success factor: Elements Financial made analytics accessible to frontline staff, not just management. By embedding insights directly in workflows, they ensured data actually drove better member interactions.
RBC Wealth Management U.S., serving high-net-worth clients across the United States, needed to scale personalized service while maintaining the white-glove experience clients expected.
Their pain points included client information fragmented across multiple platforms, advisors spending excessive time gathering information rather than providing advice, inconsistent client experiences across advisors and offices, difficulty coordinating complex client relationships, and limited ability to proactively identify client needs.
RBC Wealth Management implemented Salesforce Financial Services Cloud with Marketing Cloud and MuleSoft to consolidate client information and enable sophisticated personalization at scale.
Key elements included:
Unified Client Profiles — Integrated wealth management platforms using MuleSoft, consolidated data from multiple systems, linked household relationships and multi-generational wealth structures, and connected external data sources.
Einstein AI Integration — Embedded AI recommendations in advisor workflows, predictive analytics for client needs, Next Best Action suggestions, and automated meeting preparation and follow-up.
Marketing Cloud Orchestration — Personalized client communications based on portfolio activity and life events, automated campaign journeys, segmented messaging, and omnichannel coordination.
Advisor Collaboration — Shared client views for team-based service, coordination tools for complex situations, standardized processes, and knowledge sharing.
The client experience improved dramatically. Advisors arrived at meetings prepared with complete client context and AI-powered insights. The firm delivered proactive outreach based on portfolio events and life changes, ensured consistent, high-quality service regardless of advisor or location, and achieved seamless coordination for complex client needs.
Advisor productivity increased through reduced time gathering information, increased time for high-value client interactions, better identification of opportunities, and enhanced collaboration across teams.
Business outcomes included increased assets under management through better client retention, higher client satisfaction and referral rates, improved advisor efficiency and capacity, and stronger competitive differentiation.
Key success factor: RBC Wealth Management focused on advisor adoption from day one, involving advisors in design decisions and demonstrating clear value through pilot programs before full rollout.
One of the most impactful yet underutilized features of Salesforce Financial Services Cloud is Action Plans—a tool for capturing and automating repeatable processes that ensure consistent, high-quality client experiences.
Action Plans are templates for multi-step processes that define all required tasks, assign tasks to appropriate roles automatically, set deadlines and dependencies between tasks, track progress and completion, include document checklists, and ensure compliance checkpoints are met.
Financial Planning Reviews — Schedule meeting, gather updated information, analyze portfolio performance, prepare recommendations, conduct meeting, document decisions, implement changes, and follow up.
Account Opening — Collect customer information, verify identity and run KYC checks, explain features and terms, obtain signatures and disclosures, submit application, fund deposit, provide welcome materials, and schedule follow-up.
Loan Application Processing — Pre-qualify customer, collect application and documents, order credit report and appraisal, underwrite application, prepare loan documents, conduct closing, fund loan, and set up payment processing.
Client Onboarding — Welcome new client, gather financial information, conduct discovery meeting, develop initial financial plan, present recommendations, implement strategies, schedule review cadence, and introduce service team.
A mid-sized wealth management firm implemented Action Plans for their client onboarding process with remarkable results:
Before Action Plans:
After Action Plans:
Modern clients don't think in channels—they expect seamless experiences regardless of how they interact with your institution. A client might research products on your website, start an application on mobile, call with questions, visit a branch to complete the process, and manage the account through your app. Each touchpoint should reflect awareness of all previous interactions and maintain consistent context.
Traditional Fragmented Experience:
Salesforce-Enabled Omnichannel Experience:
Results:
Customers increasingly prefer self-service for routine transactions and information access. Done well, self-service improves customer satisfaction through convenience, reduces operational costs, frees staff for high-value interactions, and provides 24/7 access to services.
A regional bank implemented comprehensive self-service capabilities with impressive results:
Before:
After:
1. Start with Customer Needs, Not Technology — Understand what clients actually want and need before implementing solutions. Technology should enable better experiences, not drive them.
2. Unify Data First — You cannot deliver personalized, seamless experiences without unified customer data. Make data integration and quality your foundation.
3. Empower Frontline Staff — The best technology in the world fails if frontline staff don't adopt it. Involve them in design, provide excellent training, and demonstrate clear value.
4. Standardize Core Processes — Use Action Plans and workflow automation to ensure consistent, high-quality experiences while freeing staff to focus on personalization and relationship building.
5. Measure What Matters — Track both customer experience metrics (satisfaction, effort, loyalty) and business outcomes (retention, cross-sell, efficiency). Use data to drive continuous improvement.
6. Balance Automation and Human Touch — Automate routine tasks and transactions, but preserve human interaction for complex needs, emotional situations, and high-value relationships.
7. Think Omnichannel, Not Multi-Channel — Ensure seamless experiences across all touchpoints with consistent context and no repeated information. Customers shouldn't have to think about channels.
8. Iterate and Improve Continuously — Client experience enhancement is a journey, not a destination. Continuously gather feedback, analyze performance, and refine your approach.
The case studies and strategies in this article demonstrate that exceptional client experiences in financial services are achievable with Salesforce Financial Services Cloud. From regional banks to global wealth managers, institutions of all sizes are leveraging Salesforce to create unified views of client relationships, deliver personalized proactive guidance, streamline processes for efficiency and consistency, orchestrate seamless omnichannel experiences, empower staff with intelligent tools, and scale high-quality service delivery.
Success requires more than technology—it demands customer-centric strategy, data discipline, change management excellence, and continuous optimization. But for institutions willing to make the investment, the rewards are substantial: higher client satisfaction and loyalty, improved operational efficiency, and sustainable competitive advantage.
The question isn't whether to enhance client experience with Salesforce, but how quickly you can implement these proven strategies to transform your client relationships.
Vantage Point specializes in helping financial institutions design and implement client experience transformation programs using Salesforce Financial Services Cloud. Our team combines deep Salesforce expertise with financial services industry knowledge to deliver measurable improvements in client satisfaction, operational efficiency, and business results.
David Cockrum founded Vantage Point after serving as Chief Operating Officer in the financial services industry. His unique blend of operational leadership and technology expertise has enabled Vantage Point's distinctive business-process-first implementation methodology, delivering successful transformations for 150+ financial services firms across 400+ engagements with a 4.71/5.0 client satisfaction rating and 95%+ client retention rate.