When Gary Palmer, director of Peak Financial Services, first tried out Marloo, he wasn't sure how the AI meeting assistant would handle his team's niche needs. The firm specialises in insurance advice and mortgages, with 17 advisers, most of them Filipino nurses turned financial advisers. The majority of client meetings happen in a fluid mix of English and Tagalog (The Philippines’ most widely spoken language).
"The translation part is just amazing," says Laarnie Tagalog, one of the firm's top insurance advisers. "It's almost like it does context clues. I speak English and Tagalog in the same client conversation and it really understands what we’re both saying”.
Rather than forcing advisers or clients to stick to one language, Marloo seamlessly processes both, capturing the nuances of bilingual conversations.
The Philippines has multiple languages beyond Tagalog and for Bobby Chua, another senior adviser at the firm, the translation feature solves a problem that previously meant a lot of manual translation work moving between dialects.
"We didn't have a translation tool before, we just did our own way to English, manually. Now Marloo will generate a summary, then you just have to read it and edit smaller stuff".
The time savings are substantial. When you look across their full workflow both Laarnie and Bobby are saving up to two hours per client. That's: meeting notes, follow-up emails, needs analysis forms and the crucial Statement of Advice document. For Laarnie, that's translated directly into business growth, with Marloo she’s now increased her capacity to see clients by nearly 70 per cent.
“Because there’s less paperwork afterwards. Marloo has opened up time for me to be able to see more clients".
Before Marloo Peak Financial’s advisers would conduct an hour and a half meeting while simultaneously taking notes and completing a needs analysis form. After the meeting, they'd spend 15 minutes drafting a follow-up email, another 10 minutes double-checking their handwritten notes, up to half an hour accessing and inputting data into quote comparison tools, and then a full hour completing the 27-page Statement of Advice template.
"Now, at the end of the interview, Marloo creates the email, which takes literally 60 seconds," Gary explains. "The needs analysis form is completed during the interview by Marloo. The Statement of Advice takes Marloo five minutes to generate. That's a 50-minute saving right there”.
For advisers considering similar tools, Bobby says,
"You don't fight technology, because technology always wins. We advance our society through adapting to technology. Marloo is AI for advisers, so don't fight it, adapt".
Gary says Marloo’s impact goes beyond efficiency metrics.
"It's freed up time for the team. Most of my team have families, young families. Using Marloo means they can spend more time with their kids. Some advisers use it to expand their business, so they can see more people. Others use it to expand their free time and their lifestyle".
How critical are Marloo's translation features for your business?
Gary Palmer: It saves time and it saves confusion. Technically we can send out the Statement of Advice in Tagalog. The FMA are quite comfortable with that, provided we have the ability to translate it if they want to examine a file. At the moment we keep an English version on the file as well, for my benefit, so if I'm cross-checking stuff I can read it. Probably over 80 per cent of our business is referral, so the team do such a good job, especially at claim time, that clients keep referring people to us. They trust them because they can speak to them in their own language.
How were you handling official documents for Tagalog-speaking clients before Marloo?
Gary Palmer: Until Marloo, we didn't even consider sending out official documents in Tagalog. We were reliant on the fact that clients understood because it was explained to them in detail by the adviser. Occasionally emails or messenger discussions were done in Tagalog, probably 50 to 60 per cent of those, because it's quick and easy. But none of the official documents were in Tagalog before Marloo. It was more just the quick-fire communications between advisers and clients.
How has Marloo improved your Statement of Advice production?
Gary Palmer: Before Marloo my advisers would spend an hour and a half on average for a normal client interview online, taking notes and completing our needs analysis form. Then they'd walk through what the client needs, all happening online. Once they finished, they'd have to analyse that information, make a decision, then write up a Statement of Advice using our template. They'd bring in illustrations from quote comparison tools to support their position. That second stage after the meeting used to take around two hours, sometimes longer depending on additional communications or information they might have missed.
Laarnie Tagalog: I would probably say I save about 30 minutes or so when I write my Statement of Advice. And not only that, just the follow-up is specifically summarised for me to write the follow-up email. So I would say I've been saving 45 to an hour for the whole process, and not only at that point, but also the follow-up because I just keep going back to the summary of the meeting if I want to send follow-up emails and things like that. I really appreciate how it captures the details of the meeting. The Statement of Advice has never been that templated, but now it's very tailored to the client's needs, to the client's circumstances.
How are the rest of your advisers across the business using Marloo?
Gary Palmer: All of them are playing with it, they're just getting their heads around it. Bobby and Laarnie jumped in bang! We've got our company conference in the beginning of April, and I'm going to sit down with those who aren't using it quite as much and just go through it. It's like anything, you introduce something new, some people are really early adopters and others take a little bit more time. Marloo is still very new for us. Three new advisers came on board last year, so they're still going through the learning phase, and they're starting with Marloo, which is great.
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