Being a mortgage adviser isn’t solely about finding the perfect product. In this technological age, it is the service your customer receives during the mortgage process and the way you use technology in simplifying the mortgage journey that can set you apart from your competitors. Customers expect a swift conclusion to their search for the perfect mortgage with two in five expecting to be able to engage with their intermediary through physical and digital channels[1].
No two cases are the same and customers’ circumstances can change quickly, posing advisers with additional challenges when performing their mortgage research. Equally, with ever-changing policies and product availability, it can be a long process.
The more complex cases become, the more time you need to spend on administration and sourcing activities, with calls to many different lenders or visits to their websites looking for accurate information, or even continually re-keying a customer’s information into various platforms as the case progresses. It can be time consuming, and customers expect more with so much technology available.
Embracing digitalisation
Making full use of technology and embracing digitalisation can help you to make your processes more efficient, the information you gather more accurate, reduce the amount of re-keying, and minimise the time you spend researching whilst approaching a wider portion of the market, resulting in a better experience for your customers.
To a certain extent, the pandemic has already necessitated the use of more technology, with lockdowns meaning that face-to-face meetings were no longer possible which forced a move to digital communications and virtual meetings. Indeed 2020 (and the start of 2021) has added to existing pressures and acted as a catalyst to drive the digitalisation of the mortgage market[2], disrupting and shaping areas such as:
- Processes/technology transformation
- Customer insight
- Personalised customer experience
- Innovation of products and services
Businesses are starting to appreciate the benefits of digitalisation and the need to meet customer expectations of speed and excellence of service, with 70% of organisations having a digital transformation strategy in 2020[3].
So where should you start with your digitalisation strategy?
The journey starts here
It starts with your website. It is likely to be the first impression potential customers will have of your business and the place where a good percentage of your leads are generated. Never underestimate the impact a professional looking website has at a time when customer expectations are higher than ever.
Web Brain provides you with mortgage search and best buy table plug-ins that add professionalism to your website, encouraging users to spend more time on your website, and complete and submit an enquiry form.
Time-saving technology – reuse client data, minimise errors
How much time do you spend re-keying customer information as you take them through their mortgage journey? And how many errors can appear because of that? Again, technology can save you time and reduce errors by limiting the amount of rekeying.
Using Mortgage Brain’s back office system, The Key, can save you time throughout your entire process whilst meeting evolving customer expectations by granting access to the Client Portal where you can securely exchange documents and messages, and even track cases 24/7, again speeding up daily tasks and meeting customer expectations for secure and speedy communication.
Customers can generate an enquiry on your website which is pulled through to The Key. From here, you can issue an online Fact Find enabling the customer to enter all the necessary information themselves, and once that information is complete it is returned to The Key. Next, you can securely transfer this client data into other Mortgage Brain solutions such as product sourcing and online application submissions without the need for re-keying!
As Mortgage Brain’s online application and submission platform Submissions Brain is integrated with The Key, you can start an application using all the information contained within the back office system. Submissions Brain is a free and easy to use service that provides the ability to digitally complete, submit, administer, and track applications to multiple lenders from a single login.
When it comes to sourcing, customers want swift answers on which products are available to them and expect that information to be accurate and up to date. For you, the process can be time consuming.
Transforming mortgage sourcing
When it comes to sourcing, customers want swift answers on which products are available to them and expect that information to be accurate and up to date. For you, the process can be time consuming. Finding a product that suits the needs of your customer, matches their criteria, and is affordable involves detailed research.
Here, technology can generate huge advantages in time saved, while providing a robust audit trail and accuracy of research that gives you confidence that submissions to lenders will be right first time, leaving customers with an enhanced and less stressful experience.
Streamlining existing processes as opposed to creating new ones, while showing evidence of decisions across multiple areas of the research journey (where it may have previously been reliant on a phone call) can support businesses to embrace technology without a drastic overhauling of the sales process.
For example, using a platform such as Criteria Brain gives you the ability to quickly perform a search of up to six criteria across over 70 lenders, many of which you may otherwise not have been exposed to or thought to approach, particularly more specialist lenders. The search results include the power to expand lender notes including outside policy information that is otherwise not readily publicly available, and then produce supporting documents that offer a significant time saving on the manual alternative of researching each criteria on each lender’s website.
Imagine if this information could then be accessed and transferred during a product sourcing journey? Full integration with the market-leading product sourcing solution Sourcing Brain means you can do this within a single journey for further efficiencies.
When determining a client’s affordability, Affordability Brain can accelerate the process by providing a platform to populate a single standardised form with your client’s property, complex income types, expenditure, and debt, that is then sent to the affordability calculators of 35 lenders with detailed results returned for each. For you, taking advantage of such digitalisation would enable a wider view of the market and in a fraction of the time, in line with customer expectations.
As standalone products, these are compelling solutions but combining all three means you can add efficiency and time savings to your processes by being able to get a complete picture of the market from within a single suite of technology. All this with the additional benefit of having all research supported by documentation to meet compliance regulations.
Give your business the edge
Digitalisation and technology are moving on apace, the time to embrace the possibilities they offer is now. They help you meet the high expectations of your customers, give you an advantage over your competitors, and will future-proof your business ready for any new developments that can give it a boost.
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