Outstanding customer service is the most successful sales tool

There’s a very old but true saying, “It costs more to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one.” And I don’t think that you could see a better example of this than what’s going on in our industry today.

Related topics:  Finance News
Monica Bradley
4th May 2017
Monica Bradley
"Increasingly, customers have the opportunity to transact online direct with their lender for a product transfer or remortgage deal online"

Think about the current opportunity we have to move our client bank to a record low interest rate on a remortgage.  Now, a lot of clients don’t see remortgaging as ‘sexy’ or understand that at the moment, there’s an incredible opportunity to save money or pay off their mortgage early.  It’s not top of most peoples’ priority list, that’s for sure. So, it’s all about putting the time in, understanding and analysing who in the client bank are perhaps sat on an old tracker deal that could now benefit from fixing, and then making the calls; educating the clients as to why it’s a good time for a financial review and continuing to gently remind them that they could be saving money until they do something about it. Which with current consumer apathy towards interest rates, could take a while.

That’s the ‘long play’ approach, and it’s going to take a lot of time and effort by a broker to put into practice. Some would prefer to generate new business rather than farm an existing client bank.  Perhaps because they feel that a new customer moving home, who may have been introduced via an estate agent, is a better and more immediate source of income. 

But those brokers are missing the point by a country mile. It’s all about maintaining the relationship with the customer; the opportunity to guide them through a product transfer with their existing lender or work through their remortgage options not only cements our relationship with them, it provides the ability to review their GI, protection products and provide other associated services that make us, frankly, indispensable. Increasingly, customers have the opportunity to transact online direct with their lender for a product transfer or remortgage deal online, so any contact we have with our customers can, if handled correctly, return revenue. But this can only happen if our customer service is of the highest quality.

I say this to my team all the time - it's the little details that count, like a Completion call.  That's what customers remember, and why they recommend you. The fact that you bothered to ring them on one of the most stressful days of their life to congratulate them, and let them know you’ll be in touch in a couple of weeks to check the first mortgage payment went out OK is, unfailingly, met with a warm response. And will mean that, not only will they come back to you again in the future, they’ll refer you to other people too.  

I’m passionate about taking the holistic approach to advising, rather than simply selling. It’s all about financial education and making sure that a client is set for financial success.  I always say to my clients, "My job is to make sure that you have a mortgage for the least amount of time possible." And I truly believe that. Because if my team and I do our job well, not only do our customers get the best possible outcome, but we gain traction and grow organically as a business, at the least possible cost.

Fantastic customer service isn't just an ambiguous aim - it's a very real methodology that tangibly generates repeat business. 

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