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January 31, 2019 at 11:00 AM
Lori Yaverbaum cut her teeth in customer service at Fidelity Investments from 1989 to 1999 and was recognized for her work on the first online information system for customer-service agents. She went on to contribute to two Internet startups and joined Commonwealth in 2001.
In addition to starting Commonwealth’s usability department, Yaverbaum created a website-builder program for advisors and formed a new front-end development group.
“Her ability to understand and predict user behavior has continually proven ongoing thought leadership in developing software that is easy and engaging to use,” according to the firm.
“If I’m doing my job right, clients shouldn’t ever have to think about ‘technology,’” she explained.
What’s the focus of your work? I am incredibly fortunate to be able to focus on what I believe to be one of the most important areas in technology, and that is in how we can create intuitive, trusted and engaging experiences for our internal and external customers as they work with our software and our people. If our customers can’t, or don’t want to use our technology, nothing else really matters.
The range of what I work on spans from creating more effective technical communications to leading efforts around creating software and processes to reduce customer frustration, proactively provide solutions, and empower those in our community to work more efficiently and effortlessly.
What technologies are you bullish on in the short term? Sentiment analysis, predictive analytics and biometrics.
Sentiment analysis because we respond to every piece of feedback, our advisors have learned it’s worth their time to continue giving it. Sentiment analysis will help us better ascertain and react to our customers’ greatest pain points. We’ve already been experimenting with this technology, and I’m very optimistic about the value it will provide.
Predictive analytics because we always try to provide service before our advisors even know they need it (we call this “indispensability”). Predictive analytics will provide us with a higher quality of information, resulting in more confidence in what can, will, or possibly happen based on a given set of circumstances.
This takes Business Intelligence one step further, and I see a twofold benefit: one to Commonwealth as a company as we will become more efficient and effective in highly impactful decision-making, and a second to our advisors, as we become more proactive in addressing problems and providing solutions.
Biometrics because we are consistently balancing information security and ease of use, which is why I’m especially excited for biometrics. More widespread adoption will enable us to keep our information secure while also providing a better customer experience.
What are you bullish on in the long term? AI is extremely exciting to follow and I’m looking forward to the benefits I am sure it will offer in our industry. I would say the vast majority of both our competitors, and even those in entirely different vertical categories, would say the same.
