Brewin Dolphin How Brewin Dolphin fosters expert client relationships with an FT Professional Subscription

Founded in 1762, Brewin Dolphin is one of the largest investment management houses in the UK. Through their network of over 30 offices, Brewin Dolphin takes a highly personalised approach to investment, which is reflected in their company values - genuine, expert and ambitious.

They emphasise the need to blend their technical expertise with strong relationships in order to tailor financial plans that enable clients to achieve their goals.

Where clients are now often mindful of the economic environment and the impacts on themselves and their families, Brewin Dolphin identified the need to ensure all staff have access to current and trustworthy market analysis in order to stay on the pulse of trends most likely to affect their clients.

Being client-focused is at the forefront of any successful customer-facing business, but at Brewin Dolphin this is a common thread that ties all their divisions together. “What’s absolutely central to us is our clients and their perceived value of what we do for them,” explains Darren Norman, head of dealing. “From the research team, to the investment managers, and to ourselves who transact in the market, we all want to obtain the best value for our clients.”

In an environment where industries and economies are subject to a rapid pace of change, it’s important that staff keep informed on current issues, firstly to ensure internal teams are on the same page, but crucially to adapt and respond quickly to what matters the most to clients.

Darren Norman outlines the role their FT Professional Subscription plays, commenting “we’re all talking the same language about current issues. FT.com provides real value, as we’re seeing the commentary and analysis in real-time.”

The benefits of digital access across multiple platforms are reinforced by Norman’s wider team. Michael D’Arcy, divisional director, uses the FT app on his smartphone to get up to speed on market moves during his commute: “while I’m seated on the train, I can get an instant update on what’s happened in Hong Kong and across Asia overnight,” he says.

Access to accurate intelligence is crucial in Brewin Dolphin’s ongoing drive to promote expertise across the firm, but how best to ensure the value of that information is being maximised?

Through their FT Professional Subscription, Brewin Dolphin enjoys enhanced service levels, including collaboration with an FT account team. The firm was able to partner with their FT customer success manager to organise a groupwide ‘Lunch and Learn’ event for staff, which included unique access to the FT’s Lex writers.

The aims of this initiative were to inspire thought, inform opinion, and help staff effectively navigate the FT content and tools available to them. As noted by Guy Foster, group head of research, “It’s one thing to purchase a subscription and put it in the hands of the user, but it’s another to educate them on how that’s optimised and embedded day-to-day.”

In addition to covering macroeconomic topics, the session provided a behind-the-scenes look at FT Lex, the oldest and most influential column of its kind, as well as an opportunity for Q&A.

Brewin Dolphin benefits from a range of additional services as part of its FT Professional Subscription. In addition to the support and tailored training offered by the FT customer success team, the Enterprise Tools platform helps their administrators easily manage the subscription and access usage data to understand how the FT is being used.

The flexibility of a Professional Subscription provides a cost-effective means of making quality analysis and commentary available to all teams and divisions.

To learn more about Brewin Dolphin, visit www.brewin.co.uk.

For more information about how the Financial Times can help your organisation or to request a free trial, please get in touch.