The advice firms were speaking on Mortgage Solutions Television in association with Skipton Building Society, and highlighted that greater use of technology did not necessitate a change in business model and operation.
Habito head of mortgages Will Rhind emphasised how much consumer behaviours had shifted as a result of the pandemic and it was dangerous not to respond.
“Not embracing technology is risky at the moment. It’s not about the way you give advice,” he said.
Rhind noted that website tools for customers to do their own calculations on quickly and easily could be better for the borrower and broker.
“From a business point of view that’s good as you can help customers who are ready to transact and you can also guide those who aren’t ready to transact,” he continued.
“It’s not necessarily about what you do in the core model of your business, it’s how can you use technology to communicate or for other means.”
Trussle vice president of sales and operations Miles Robinson encouraged brokers to evolve to survive and adapt to the current ways customers want to transact.
And he noted this did not need massive investment to see results.
“There’s some real basic things people can do to improve,” he said.
“Even just a secure online document upload facility for customers where perhaps most customers might have posted them into the office, just getting something like that up and running so you’re not relying on getting physical documents from customers.
“Many lenders stopped needing certification [during the first lockdown] or changed their policies, they were putting the onus on the broker to verify the information was correct,” he added.
Skipton Building Society business development manager for London Michael Brown explained he had seen firms on his patch evolve in a number of ways.
“It’s interesting to see that some have adopted to take on technology through third parties and almost enhance their approach to technology and there are some who don’t use technology at all and still try to maintain their business,” he said.
“It depends on the type of clients and the type of situation.”
