Delivering Exceptional Service

We are blessed with good systems such as 360Dotnet that allows communication in whichever method clients prefer.

Paul Hampton

Approved Mortgage Solutions Ltd

Based in Sunderland, Approved Mortgage Solutions specialise in providing their clients with top quality mortgage, GI and protection advice. The firm joined the HLPartnership network in 2020 and have built a reputation on developing strong relationships with clients, seeking to deliver exceptional service in every instance.

With the current strains experienced from lenders, solicitors, and estate agents, it’s never been more important, or more challenging to deliver good customer outcomes.

Manage Expectations A big part of delivering good customer service is managing expectations. As a good mortgage adviser, you are the centre of communications, dealing with the lender, client, estate agent, solicitor, and insurer. We are usually the first to hear when clients are not satisfied with the service of others.

PARTNER FEATURE

We start by letting the client know what to expect of them, the need for accurate information in the fact find, the documents required and advise at the earliest stages that lenders will ask for proof of the facts, which makes the rest of the process much easier.

Under promise and over deliver Service levels from every lender are currently poor in comparison to what we have grown to expect. Our clients don’t have any expectations, so if we moan and whinge about lender’s service, the client will too. If we tell them that the lender has a great product, so they are a little busier than normal, we are still letting the client know about processing delays, but we are portraying the delays as a positive thing. It’s an old saying, but ‘under promise and over deliver’ has never been more relevant than it is today.

The importance of communication and SLAs It’s vital to maintain regular contact with clients. We are blessed with good systems such as 360Dotnet that allows communication in whichever method clients prefer. We also strive to make it personal, with calls, emails, SMS to clients and so on.

We have found that service level agreements (SLA’s) are also important too, it’s easy to see when a lender has not met theirs, but few of us set our own. Setting SLA’s and communicating them with your team can be a massive win. They can be something as simple as pledging to email clients with an update every Friday, for example.

Most clients become frustrated or dissatisfied when they are kept in the dark about progress or even worse, are given wrong information. We make a point of asking our clients if they have any concerns or worries upfront, before committing to a product, and make efforts to keep abreast of what they are feeling to help head off most niggles before they can become dissatisfied.