Bob's Blog

Bob Hunt, CEO of Paradigm Mortgage Services, has actively championed the DA community since the launch of Paradigm in 2007. Both publically, and behind the scenes, Bob works hard to use his experience and influence to ensure appropriate recognition and fair treatment for intermediaries in a range of areas, from Proc fees and quality metrics to product access and dual pricing. Paradigm has proved that despite tough market conditions it is possible to not only compete against other larger scale more established Distributors, but in creating a new model of distributor – a partnership model – to reward firms for the consistency, quality and loyalty of their business support.

Bob’s latest article is available below, and there is an extensive Blog Archive including all past articles.

06 Dec 2019

Keep in touch with clients or lose them for good

There's a balance to be struck between too much contact which risks alienating a client and not enough resulting in their no longer being your client.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a tricky strategy to get right. 

And yet, I would always veer to communicating with greater regularity, rather than waiting until three to six months before the end of a client‘s mortgage deal. 

After all, as we know, the likelihood is that the existing lender will have been in regular contact during that time and may well have been providing product transfer details way before you, as the adviser, are able to access these.

Abandoned clients

In a recent Canada Life survey of existing homeowners, 42 per cent said their adviser had not been in contact with them since they took out the mortgage, which seems to me a very high number. It shows the dilemma many firms have — or perhaps shows the lack of a coherent client contact strategy. 

Of course, we don’t know how long it has been since the contact with the mortgage adviser took place; would we really anticipate, for instance, the adviser would have been in touch with the client regularly if the mortgage had only just gone through?

I have to say, yes I would. Why wouldn’t you, for example, check on that client soon after the mortgage completed? 

Why wouldn’t you keep them abreast of product options and opportunities, not necessarily in the mortgage space, but right across the board? 

Why wouldn’t you – with their agreement – send them the firm’s newsletter? Or provide a regular countdown on when that special deal ends? Perhaps you might just outline the need for them to initiate contact should their circumstances change? 

Or ask them to make contact if their existing lender does offer a product transfer to ensure you can check it against the rest of the market?

This makes sense, doesn’t it? In fact, you could probably structure your client communications within any given timeframe, depending on the length of mortgage they have taken out. It’s all about taking the opportunity to keep you front of centre in their advice thoughts

And again, judging by the Canada Life research, the industry needs to do more of this, because 32 per cent of homeowners said they had no plan to use their current adviser when their deal ended. 

Losing nearly a third of your existing client base would not be a positive outcome for any business, so it’s obvious that we need to get better at this.

Technological advantages

Into this gap perhaps comes the technology of a system like Dashly – which I’m personally involved in – and is currently being trialled with Paradigm firms. 

It works in the background for the adviser, 24/7, assessing whether an existing client could be better off moving mortgage, and provides that information back to the adviser so they’re able to make contact should they think it’s worth the client’s while.

Having this running at all times means that advisers don’t need an excuse to contact the client – they have the tangible data and product options at their fingertips in order to make such a decision and potentially save that client money.

Even if you’re not utilising such a platform, there is clearly a lot to be gained from having regular communication with your client base, and (judging by these results) a lot to be lost should you not put yourself in the shop window. 

Especially when it comes to those who are already familiar with your services and what you can do for them. Don’t make the mistake of letting those 32 per cent be any of your clients.

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