Somebody told me the importance of ‘adding value’ very early in my career, and never has that been more important than it is now.

Put yourself in the shoes of many first or second-time buyers, and you’ll recall that when you were young you felt that low interest rates were here to stay, but now you can see why they might feel they should run for cover.

After all, times are pretty challenging in the mortgage and housing markets right now presenting hurdles to leap for anyone looking to buy or remortgage, and therefore the brokers who serve them.

For reasons unknown, there are still those expecting rates to drop back to the way it was but read my mind, there’s still lots lenders can do that makes price only part of the answer.

The reasons for our challenges are well-rehearsed: historically high house prices – despite recent dips – making proving affordability an issue for many; the increased cost of living squeezing monthly budgets and uncertainty over interest rates and wider economic stability, among other things.

All of this means we, as lenders, face both an obligation and an opportunity to think outside the box when it comes to our mortgage propositions and the service we deploy, to help people find solutions wherever possible despite the market dynamics and macro-economics at play.

All these things that I’ve done since I started at Accord over five years ago have been to enable us to add value. One of those ways – even in better times – is through our common-sense approach to lending, which sees us applying flexibility and a human touch to cases in order to best help particularly underserved groups of borrowers.

Indeed, there are many things lenders like ourselves can do to ease the ongoing strain on borrowers and provide them with new solutions, including joint borrower, sole proprietor offerings and offering greater flexibility around income multiples, for example. Higher cashback alternatives have a part to play too, by giving borrowers a much-needed helping hand with the significant upfront costs associated with buying a home. The underlying goal, of course, is to try to provide new and creative options for a diverse range of evolving needs.

Service with a Smile Like You Mean It

Of course, however, the products are only half the story, albeit a significant part, and the service brokers and borrowers receive during the process of securing them is also key. Taking a common-sense approach to decision-making and operating a range of communications channels to suit brokers’ different needs at different times – from easy-access information they can source themselves quickly online to and automated or manned chat services for those wanting to interact quickly online, to more traditional phone lines and face-to-face relationships with business development managers – is vital.

Crucially though, what we’ve found is that whatever the tool, and however simple the new technology we might offer our brokers, , ensuring that access to real people underpins all of those interactions is absolutely vital. Particularly so when things are more volatile than usual, as they are now. Jenny was a friend Of mine, and always said that the technology is only as good as the people that sit behind it, and so I’d urge caution to those who think that black and white system driven answers are anything more than a dustland fairytale.

As a lender, we believe it’s important to continue investing in that all-important personal element and genuine expertise necessary to power those conversations, which is why we combine self-service access to straightforward facts about aspects like criteria via our website or chatbot, with the opportunity to talk to a real, highly trained person at any stage of the process, including our underwriters.

Our own chatbot is itself based on a continually-expanding series of frequently asked questions, fed in by real members of our team with the experience to understand what our broker customers typically need to know. However, wherever this isn’t sufficient brokers can shift their query to our webchat service and phone lines, run by real people, who are mortgage-advice trained experts and can answer intermediaries’ queries on the spot or refer them immediately to a colleague who can. This is because we understand that, while automated chat systems are perfect for answering simple, quick questions, they can rapidly become frustrating if the query is more complex than they can deal with.

And, now more than ever, brokers in particular just don’t have time to waste engaging with an automated system that isn’t capable of answering individualised or nuanced questions, if that’s what a case needs.

They need to be able to find the specific answers they need, fast, to support their clients who, in many cases, are also under real pressure and stress. Lenders offering direct access to underwriters, in addition to their sales team, for those queries which are more complex, or related to more complex circumstances and require additional judgement will therefore stand out.

Power to your people

Fundamentally, lenders who understand that in times of turmoil like the present, people need personalised support above all else will excel . And if you can empower your workforce to either deal there and then with a query, or escalate it immediately for more specialist input with a view to finding a flexible solution where possible, all the better.

And it’s about upskilling and motivating the team providing it, to enable and inspire them to always go above and beyond to try to find solutions in each and every case – whether that be the face-to-face BDMs or others manning fast-access channels. Ensuring they understand the mortgage criteria inside out and have the knowledge to escalate and pitch for an outside-criteria decision wherever they believe there may be scope to apply some appropriate flexibility, can make a dramatic difference to

case approval rates and broker/customer satisfaction – even if the answer ultimately has to be a ‘no’, it should be a quick ‘no’

All-in-all, challenging market conditions need everyone involved in the mortgage industry to go that extra mile to help borrowers navigate a path through. For us, that starts and ends with the people involved – supported by use of the latest, efficiency-boosting technological tools where appropriate.

In the words of one of my favourite bands – The Killers (who inspired this piece) – good night, travel well.

Jeremy Duncombe is managing director of Accord Mortgages