Mortgage advisers instinctively understand the benefits of retaining customers. It takes a lot of work to find a new client, win their trust and find the right mortgage for them. And it should make perfect sense for the adviser to continue delivering mortgage advice over and over again as the customer remortgages or moves up or down the ladder.

That’s the theory – but data suggests that it doesn’t always work like that.

Despite all the work we do in helping intermediaries work with customers again, such as providing product maturity alerts, encouraging customers to talk to their broker and even helping brokers to secure a new deal for their customer with us up to four months in advance of maturity, we still see around 30 per cent of customers introduced to us via brokers contacting us direct at maturity.

How can we explain this? Two, three or five years is a significant passage of time for any client. If contact isn’t sustained between client and adviser for this length of time, the customer may default to the perceived simplest option (not requiring any underwriting) of a product transfer with the existing lender. Borrowers are also often time-poor and may not always understand the value of mortgage advice.

We know that taking advice each time you remortgage or move house is essential. And in the current climate, where many customers’ financial circumstances will have changed, perhaps significantly, mortgage advice takes on an even more vital role.

The reality is that neither broker nor lender ‘owns’ the customer. The customer owns the customer. They will choose what they feel to be the right option at that time.

Know your customer

Staying in touch with clients throughout the lifetime of the mortgage is important. Ongoing communication can encourage them to return to you, so brokers should consider how they can become a more familiar presence in their clients’ lives, not just in the months prior to the maturity of their mortgage product. In fact, some successful client relationships go beyond even this, where brokers are able to establish a client for life.

Keeping in touch with customers was perhaps more straightforward back when the bulk of borrowers opted for two-year fixes and the advice given to them was still fresh in their minds. Intermediaries could contact them a few months before the fix came to an end, confident the client would remember them and be open to hearing about new deals. But the market is in a different place today: Recent figures from conveyancer LMS show that nearly half (46 per cent) of borrowers who remortgaged in October 2019 opted for five-year deals.

If a client who signs up for a five-year deal doesn’t hear from you until its time to remortgage, how likely are they to use you? It’s essential to find ways to keep in regular contact and be seen as a source of advice without falling into the trap of spamming clients with irrelevant information.

Staying in touch

Many brokers have found success in the form of regular email newsletters to their clients. Consider sending a quarterly update on what’s going on in the market, highlighting new lenders that have entered the sector or how rates have changed. Alternatively, you might prefer to send emails on a more ad hoc basis depending on major events such as base rate cuts, changes in the Budget – or even a global pandemic causing the UK housing market to be shuttered!

Mortgage networks and clubs often provide templates that you can adapt. If you’re not part of a network or aligned with either a mortgage club or compliance support service, there is also a wealth of free tools online that can help you with design, even if you didn’t get an ‘A’ for art at school!

While keeping websites fresh and up to date is still important to attract new clients and help existing customers access additional services they might not have used previously, building a broader online presence is also important. Some brokers are using social media – including podcasts and Facebook – to share engaging, relevant content with clients.

The possibilities here are enormous – you can share your thoughts, record videos, post blogs, share things you think customers might find interesting and identify potential clients you wouldn’t have otherwise known about. The tools to target specific customer groups are now very sophisticated too.

It’s a simple fact that brokers need to be accessible to all potential borrowers – regardless of their demographic.

Contacting clients you’ve served before should be just as exciting – perhaps more so – as the thrill of the email ping or phone call from a customer you’ve never met. The market is opening for business again and remortgage customers and homemovers alike are keen to get the right deal. They need your insight.

Beyond mortgages

Ongoing client relationships that involve multiple products and advice touchpoints are more likely to create better outcomes for your business and your clients. The importance of protection products has been made brutally clear by the pandemic – that’s a conversation brokers could be looking to have with their clients or by referring them to specialists.

Forming partnerships with pension advisers, equity release advisers and financial planners can be equally fruitful – referral programmes between likeminded but non-competing advisory firms help ensure customers don’t go elsewhere, as well as offering potential for additional revenue streams.

As we emerge from the lockdown period into what is likely to be a markedly different housing market – at least for some time – it’s never been more important to remain in close contact with customers both past and present. It doesn’t have to be either/or. Every business needs a funnel of new customers, but existing opportunities can be just as beneficial – both go hand-in-hand and a healthy mix of both is critical to success.

Kevin Purvey, director of mortgage distribution, Coventry Building Society