Time to ditch the jargon?

Within any market there’s always a large amount of terminology that can appear absolutely baffling to the layman or woman.

Harpal Singh
9th February 2018
Harpal Singh, Broker Conveyancing

Financial services and property however appear to have more than their fair share; indeed, our own sector – conveyancing – has a name that many people buying a property for the first time will have little clue about, no doubt wondering why this isn’t simply called the property legals and what the process is, the service they’ll receive and why they’ve got no prior knowledge of it.

After all, it’s not something you’re taught at school, unless you’ve got a very forward-thinking teacher.

Which leaves many purchasers snookered when it comes to, firstly, their choice of conveyancer, and secondly, what the process should actually look like and whether their own experience of it is the norm. It’s perhaps no wonder that in a recent survey of 5,000 people who had completed a property purchase or sale, by far the worst satisfaction scores came around the explanation of legal terminology. Don’t get us wrong, 75% still said this was excellent, and 19.5% said ‘good’ but when compared to scores on overall service (90.6% said excellent) and keeping to deadlines (86% excellent) it was some way down.

Now, some in the profession might say it’s not their job to be the educators when it comes to explaining to the client the terminology of buying/selling a property, however I’d have to politely disagree. When clients choose a professional to deliver a service, that’s exactly what they expect of them, especially when the process may seem shrouded in mystery, and (let’s not forget) the terminology is many, varied, and completely baffling to most. It’s in that situation that the client, quite rightly, will be looking to the conveyancer to hold their hand, talk them through the requirements of their transaction, and outline any specific terminology that might be deemed confusing.

It’s exactly the same in the mortgage advice world – where the use of acronyms can appear to be something of an art form given their preponderance. Just because we all know – one hopes –what an SVR or an ERC or a KFI is, doesn’t mean that the client before you does. In deciphering this jargon, the adviser cannot just make the customer feel at ease that the process is not as complicated as they might have feared, but it also proves your professionalism and gives them total confidence that you’re willing to take the time to guide them, that you have their best interests at heart and, subsequently, that you’re going to get them the best outcome possible given their wants, needs and circumstances.

In both these markets, I fear we sometimes forget what it’s like to walk in the shoes of our clients, particularly those who have never been through the process, are nervous about it already, and (lest we do forget) are likely to be putting down significant sums of money, and making long-term commitments, that they won’t ever have done before. That can be a daunting prospect, for even the most seasoned of housing market ‘players’ and there’s always going to be a level of nervousness about this, especially when we add in the length of time it now tends to take to go from viewing a house to completion. When you’re talking about months of time, to have a professional who is willing to reassure and spell out just what’s happening along the way, will undoubtedly be welcomed and of course won’t be forgotten when they’re looking for future advice, or providing recommendations to friends and relatives.

From that perspective, advisers continue to have a major role to play in ensuring their clients are well-serviced from all professionals. After all, they’ve come to a professional for their mortgage/financial advice, why wouldn’t they expect the same level of quality from all those who they’ll need advice from in the course of their transaction?

It’s an oft-used point, but you wouldn’t allow a friend or family member to go off ‘blind’ in terms of the conveyancing firm they use, so why would you allow the client to do the same?

You can make a sizeable difference to the quality of conveyancing service they receive, by making a recommendation based on experience and understanding, while at the same time picking up some income for that advice as well. It’s consistently called a no-brainer for advisers – especially given the ease of recommendation through a distribution platform like ourselves – so why wouldn’t you make that decision, drop the ‘free legals’ and put your clients in a far more comfortable position.

We may not be able to get rid of the jargon but you can recommend firms that help clients understand it, and hopefully help them through to completion in a far quicker and less stressful time.

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