The national lockdown and new tiered system are aimed at ensuring that the NHS is not overrun by Covid-19 cases and can perform effectively across all areas.
Limited capacity audiences are slowly being introduced within some regions for sports events and live performances.
And firms across the mortgage market are also having to deal with backlogs and service issues amidst heightened property-related activity and adapting to what remains a fluid situation.
Swift problem solving
At the beginning of the first lockdown, the shockwaves were felt across the mortgage world. The plug was essentially pulled on physical surveys and we, as an industry, had to act fast to keep the property market running as best it could.
Swiftly moving to a desktop valuation model enabled thousands of brokers and their homeowner/homemover clients to gain access to their mortgage offer.
From our perspective, this included getting 14 lenders – who account for around 50 per cent of all mortgage volumes – onto desktop valuations within days of the lockdown.
Credit to the lenders for their swift response and this really underlines how important scalability is, especially in the most challenging of times.
Over the lockdown period, we knew it was only a matter of time before surveyors would be able to get back out in the field and how pent-up demand would only increase servicing pressures.
Work certainly did not stop behind the scenes at surveying firms.
For example, we introduced a range of workshops which delved into better understanding post valuation queries (PVQs) to improve the customer journey and the time to offer.
Harness technology
Inevitably, technology also played a major role.
We further developed our online portal which enables clients to send PVQs, including attachments, and receive responses in one central hub.
The portal also works to provide a full audit trail for each case and includes a chat facility which enables staff to ‘web chat’ for general or case specific queries. In short, it helps reduce call traffic and improve efficiencies throughout the surveying process.
Incentivise staff
When emerging from the initial lockdown period, challenges did not go away, focus simply shifted.
Surveyors had to move quickly to get all their teams back to work and tackle pipeline cases, all while ensuring that staff and customers were being kept as safe as possible.
Of course, capacity and scalability pressures remain for surveyors, lenders and intermediaries. When it comes to the surveyor – lender relationship, these can often be managed through incentives, either by lender or location.
If volumes for a specific lender increase significantly above normal levels, we incentivise valuers to take more instructions for that lender. Similarly, if work levels increase in a specific area then we incentivise weekend working. Both of these will generate extra capacity when needed.
Communication, flexibility, integrating the right kind of technology and relationships are key in successfully managing capacity and scalability. And the next few months will really test all components within the process to the max.
