In my line of work, I get to meet a lot of mortgage brokers. If we get chatting, I’ll often ask them what they do for a living. Those that don’t think I’m being a little slow on the uptake will look at me askance for a second before replying that they sell mortgages.
It’s an entirely appropriate answer and one that’s not inaccurate. But it’s not the complete response. Or at least it shouldn’t be.
Any mortgage broker who just ‘sells mortgages’ isn’t doing their job as well as they could and, more importantly, isn’t offering the best service possible to their clients. In the process they could be missing out on potentially thousands of pounds of income and a lifetime of business.
Take a fairly basic example, which I used recently.
A customer goes to see a broker. They’re after a mortgage.
The broker treats them very well, gives them a great service and sells them a mortgage. They walk off into the distance never to be seen again. The customer is happy because they’ve bought the right product for their needs and the broker is happy because they’ve made some commission.
Another client, living in a different area of the country, also goes to see a broker about a mortgage. Again, the broker treats them very well, gives them a great service and sells them a mortgage. However, in this case the broker does something extra. He or she also offers them a whole range of complementary products. Conveyancing, payment protection and household insurance are all discussed. When the customer walks away this time, they’re still happy they’ve bought the right product for their needs, only in this case they’ve acquired, or at the very least agreed to review, two, maybe three additional financial services. Here, not only has the broker given the client the best service possible but he or she has massively increased their commission potential.
The broker now has a reason to get back in touch with the customer at some point to see if they want to renew their existing insurances or take out some new policies. In addition, this conversation also affords the broker the opportunity to see if the customer needs any other financial products. And it’s the conversation that keeps on giving. The broker can do this year after year.
In both the cases mentioned above, the initial needs of the customer have been met and they’ve gone away happy. The second case, however, is exponentially better for all concerned. Providing the broker isn’t too pushy and only offers products that might genuinely be of interest and meet their customer’s needs, there’s an opportunity to develop a long term relationship and in the process increase earnings per client enormously. From the client’s perspective, building a financial relationship with someone they trust, rather than having to start from scratch every time they want to make a purchase, is something of huge value.
And offering great service can reap dividends beyond the immediate customer. A recent survey suggests that 85 per cent of brokers expect referrals from existing clients to be their best source of income.
So does technology have a place in all of this? Absolutely. Although building relationships with clients is partly a matter of the human touch, it’s not the whole story. Alongside a face and a voice they can trust, clients like speed, accuracy, efficiency, and the right product at the right time. And technology, in the shape of CRM and other systems, plays a vital role in making that happen.
There’s nothing more likely to make a returning customer feel valued than a broker knowing exactly what they enquired about last time and showing an immediate and comprehensive understanding of their financial situation. This knowledge will also help brokers to offer the most appropriate complementary products.
With the best will in the world, no broker can keep all this information in their heads, and with CRM systems they don’t have to. It’s all there at the touch of a button when the customer calls.
As an additional benefit, CRM systems also makes for much easier record keeping should the FSA come knocking.
The bottom line is that those brokers who look at customers as one off sales are missing out on a substantial amount of repeat business over the years. And those brokers who don’t use CRM as an integral part of gaining that repeat business are missing out again.
Brokers who think of all dealings with prospects and customers as offering a lifetime of service, not just helping them with an immediate need, will definitely reap the rewards in the long term.
Mark Lofthouse is Chief Executive Officer of Mortgage Brain
