Since launch in December 2015, Trussle.com has received some ringing endorsements from clients on review site, TrustPilot.
The average age of a Trussle mortgage adviser is under 35, which sets the template for the model founder and CEO Ishaan Malhi wants to grow of younger advisers, trained in-house and overseen by experienced managers.
Feedback from the advisers themselves has been positive he says, and those who prefer face-to-face advice are unlikely to work for the firm.
“Our advisers really enjoy the fact they can deal with more clients without spending the majority of their time on administrative tasks like gathering information and completing paperwork.”
At this stage, Trussle advisers will still do some of the more traditional role but that will be very different in the near future as the product evolves.
Trussle’s customer support team manages the website chat, with Malhi sometimes dropping in to help when the website is busy.
But where does the technology end and the adviser begin?
While after every customer interaction, Trussle’s advisers feed back to the rest of the team to improve the automated system, the firm is still considering the exact shape of the out-of-hours customer support.
Equally, it’s too soon to prove if the entire home buying process, to completion is quicker because lenders and solicitors are still being engaged in the process.
However, Peter Brodnicki, CEO of Mortgage Advice Bureau, Trussle.com’s AR and digital partner says:
“If the technology is good enough and the customer is ready to use it, then business models like Trussle will be successful as they are only responding to consumer demand. The intermediary is only part of the process, and so other parties such as lenders, solicitors and estate agents also need to fully embrace technology as the whole mortgage and house buying or moving process is currently unnecessary complex and disjointed.”
Brodnicki says MAB made the decision 15 years ago to develop technology in-house rather than being restricted in any way by inflexible ‘one hat fits all’ third party systems.
“Our investment has never been greater than it is today, and we are making significant inroads by using technology to generate more leads for advisers, simplifying data capture and the application process, and enabling the customer to be far more engaged and in control.”
Lender co-operation
Trussle completed its first case with Nationwide and won’t be drawn on completion figures to date, admitting lender buy in will take time.
But Malhi says lenders have never had brokers coming to them asking for the things he is asking.
The website’s initial sourcing results are a verified mix of adviser market experience of lender criteria like Loan to Values, for example, and published rates on lender websites. However, Malhi says where £1.1m of investor cash got lender attention, the summer launch with Zoopla should accelerate partnership-building with lenders.
The cost-savings and efficiencies must be appealing so isn’t MAB going to adopt it wholesale?
Brodnicki says: “We do a huge amount of customer research, and technology is most definitely going to feature more strongly than ever at MAB because that is what an increasing number of consumers tell us they would like to see to make the process simpler and faster. However, they also tell us they attach huge value to being able to meet an adviser, and so it’s about providing customers with the choice.”
Whether channel advice is delivered through, or in a hybrid-form, digital innovation can only have a positive effect on existing business models, he adds.
Establishing regulatory relationships
“We sat in a room and described our vision and they said this is great because you’re not focused on just finding a suitable recommendation, you’re focused on finding the absolute optimal recommendation,” says Malhi.
Other elements that appeal to the regulator include clean audit logs for every advice journey and customer contact and a structured and efficient online process.
“You could argue it’s too structured, which is why you need a hybrid of man and machine,” says Malhi.
Brodnicki says: “However far technology can go to enhance the intermediary proposition and customer experience, it will not build relationships with customers and provide the same level of reassurance the way an experienced adviser can.”
Have any customers chosen not to deal with a broker at all yet?
“Yes. One of them complained,” says Malhi.
“He was young. His thinking was that if the information is so transparent and if I trust the source of the information, why do I need to hear it from a person when I could just look at my phone? That’s where things are going for a subset of people, including Millennials and the tech savvy.”
The future
Malhi has no plans to sell his technology through white labelling or franchise agreements to the mortgage advice industry.
“We’ve put in a great amount of effort to get to where we are, but we’re still at the sharp end of our journey as a company.
Our continued focus is on understanding our customers’ needs and developing a great product that provides the best experience possible. But not looking at white-labelling for now,” says Malhi.
Elements of the mortgage market will always be unsettled by change. However, Brodnicki is insistent that this isn’t a threat to current distribution models and says this can only add to the customer, adviser and lender experience.
“We have seen on-line estate agency really take off in the last few years, with companies such as Purple Bricks combining the best of digital and traditional estate agency practices. If the technology wasn’t on the money and customers were not ready to use it, then these new models wouldn’t survive, however customers are proving that they are ready and that there is a demand.”
Brodnicki adds: “Robo advice is effectively about evolution not revolution.”
There’s no doubt that many different business models will continue to thrive in the intermediary sector to reflect the diversity of the mortgage customers they serve. However, like sourcing systems, digital signatures and digital applications, Trussle is another step, albeit a big one, along the way.
See The future of mortgage advice. Part man. Part machine. Part one, published on Mortgage Solutions yesterday.
