During the pandemic years brokers needed service from lenders to be at its best. Whether it was via their BDM, an underwriter or elsewhere in the journey, being confident that their lender was serving their, and their clients’, best interests during such uncertain times was necessary. That might have been through advanced product pull warnings or honest reasoning behind difficult decisions, but it was welcomed, and it will have gone some way to helping customers navigate the varying circumstances they found themselves in.
Fast forward to today and things may still seem as uncertain and unpredictable as before, but for different reasons. Some advisers won’t have worked in a rising rate environment previously, and many homeowners won’t have rolled off what we now know to be record lows on to rates three or four percent higher than they were on. Although new challenges, the same requirement for good service, now if not more than ever, remains.
So why do we still see some brokers unhappy with lenders’ service? I regularly get a feel for broker sentiment when I scroll social media. Peppered between the many success stories, it’s notable that the service some advisers feel they get remains an issue. And I get it. I know just how hard advisers are working, particularly at the moment, and when they’re unable to secure a rate for a client before it’s pulled or increased, or turnaround times are way beyond expectations they take the brunt of customer frustration, as well as have to do twice the work resubmitting or chasing cases.
As a lender, it’s a constant challenge to keep service levels optimal, and all lenders will say they’re doing their best. Warning shots were fired our way by brokers many years ago, and we’ve worked hard to improve our service to that seen and rated by brokers today. It took time, investment and commitment, but it’s been well worth it.
It’s a balancing act that requires careful management of our people, systems, processes and products to make sure we’re able to meet brokers’ expectations, consistently. And it’s consistency that’s the key for us – maintaining a reliable level of quality service to reduce the chance of any spikes in volume wherever possible to make sure our service doesn’t drop, and so we can continue to offer an innovative and competitive product range.
This is much harder for lenders to manage in the current volatile landscapes we’re operating in, particularly when the interest rate environment spirals upwards. Being the only lender left standing in a particular area of the market or being priced out of line with competitors can leave a lender vulnerable to being overwhelmed by business as brokers chase the best deals for their clients.
This sudden influx can be the start of faltering service. Timescales are pushed, mistakes can be made and to manage it, a lender may withdraw or price up a range to catch their breath – which without notice can lead to frustrations among advisers. Then, when acceptable service levels are restored, new products are launched at competitive prices to attract new business and the problems resurface as cases flow in and service levels peak once again. Peaks and troughs are a vicious cycle that can be hard to get out of, which is why proactive consistency is so important.
It’s one of the reasons Accord’s recent return to the market was staggered. We took the decision not to return everything at once, so that we could monitor the volatile market and return in a controlled and consistent way. While we accept this isn’t ideal for everyone, it allowed us the considered time to make sure that when we returned, we could stay and provide some stability advisers crave.
There’s no one size fits all way to manage service levels, and all lenders have their reasons for a particular approach, but we must always consider how our actions make brokers feel.
We know we need to be at our best to support brokers to be at theirs and it’s only by being open and transparent, facing into difficult conversations or decisions and giving brokers notice so they have time to take relevant action, that we’ll collectively continue to serve customers well while the going remains tough.
Jeremy Duncombe is managing director of Accord Mortgages
