If anyone knows if GReminders can do these more robust features, let me know. I've avoided Acuity because you can't have clients add more than one person to a meeting when scheduling, which makes NO sense.

@Barbara Domingo Thanks! That answers my questions and, unfortunately, isn't the functionality I'm looking for.

@Lisa Bacon Your service model is the basic framework for services, your CX is what your clients experience from start to finish and how that makes them feel in the process. It is your website, prospect processes, onboarding, service model, your technology, how the team answers the phone, and what kinds of gifts you send. The best experiences are cohesive, aligned with your brand, and evoke a feeling. Simple example: a firm I knew once said, we help clients simplify their financial life. Yet their onboarding process had a 20-page intake form. They had a service model, they didn't have a client experience. In terms of service model, there are varying structures by firm type or just preference. An investment mgt, financial planning, wealth management, and financial life planning firms all have different services. So I include in the service model, what components of investments, planning, tax, insurance, FLP, you deliver. I've seen everything from a more high-touch monthly modular approach, the tiered model Kate shared (super common) to a niche focus where you have a single annual service model that organizes what you do into segments of the year (hyper-efficient) and builds very unique offers such as student loan consultants. Some firms do "client surges" and some don't. Financial Life Planning firms have more behavioral components. If you have a niche, it's adding those additional components that are truly unique to the niche. Hope that's helpful, and full disclosure my firm helps design both service models and client experiences for firms. Here if you need deeper support.

While calculated benchmarks are interesting starting point, I find they don't hold true as firms scale and vary greatly depending on the type of firm and services. Unfortunately, there isn't a study that looks at per CSA, instead it's per advisor and per total headcount. By comparing your advisor and total headcount ratios you can get a rough sense if your over or understaffed but there is a lot of 'play' in this. $100-$200M seems to be relevant range if you're averaging. Family Office type and Life Planning firms tend to have lower ratios, firms that focus just on retirement planning higher ratios, lifestyle solos have higher. Firms that specialize roles, such as internal planning increase their ratios. So take them as a baseline and start to monitor and set your own, then start seeing how you measure to them. This is in part because capacity is dependant on client size and assignment (1000 legacy/small clients is different than 100 full service clients) and role. Some CSAs are pure operations, some are hybrid CSA/EAs, some do what might be traditionally considered Associate Advisor duties, particularly in BD space. Add to that factors that impact capacity: 1) Experience & Training. If someone is fairly early in their role their capacity and efficiency is going to be lower. Better training shortens their learning curve and typically more efficient they become. Some people learn slower, so take longer to get up to efficiency. Don't expect your 2 year CSA to perform the same as someone with 7 years experience. 2) Personality/Pace: Not everyone handles working at the same pace and style, which can also be impacted by things like anxiety, ADD, learning disabilities, etc. 3) Growth rate. Firm's bringing on a higher number of new clients will tend to see a decrease in ongoing service capacity since it's more time consuming. So capacity will vary based on how many new clients are being onboarded and what role the CSA plays in onboarding. 4) Engagement & Motivation: Employee engagement has a huge impact on productivity and performance. Sometimes, but rarely it's a bigger issue (like not actually working or having a separate job taking up their time).

@Tiffany Baptist If the contract doesn't include a termination clause, it doesn't mean that ending it doesn't breach the contract. I'd certainly look for the language regarding breach of contract. Vendors don't typically care if you cancel if eat the annual subscription, so if it's small then it can be a painful learning but not worth going beyond the first few conversations. If it's large, then James is on point. Either way, it's about communicating with the vendor as a starting point. I'd recommend being clear about what the issue is and what you're asking for in return. Don't accept the first answer and depending on their support model, you will potentially want to escalate it. Hard to tell without understanding what type of vendor and their size.

Same, during onboarding as a part of data gathering. Though, I'd be intersted if anyone is using OnBoard.