Generating more time to spend with clients is the tech holy grail

In many ways, the mortgage landscape has changed massively over the years, in others it remains largely the same. The client has, and always will, remain the most important component within any intermediary business. It’s how we’re engaging with them and how we’re servicing their needs which has changed beyond all recognition.

We all got into this industry in different ways, with different aspirations and different goals. Did I ever think I would be so focused on building a tech offering? Not a chance. So, what brought this on?

Technology is now a fashionable word throughout the mortgage industry but there are many brokers out there who still don’t trust it and/or don’t really understand how it can help their business. I can fully understand this. Like many brokers, I enjoy developing relationships and cultivating a client bank. I like nothing better than getting to grips with a variety of client requirements and the satisfaction attached to finding the right solution for them. However, souring and evidencing these solutions has become ever more complex and time consuming. This really is where technology can enable advisers to spend less time on administrative duties and spend more time focusing on the advice process. After all, this is what we all love to do, right?

I’m sure we’ve all had our own moments of enlightenment which often emerge during times of clarity, or downright frustration. One day (although this was obviously a far from rare occurrence) I was surrounded by files and paperwork and I thought to myself there has to be a better way to process mortgages. There must be a way to reduce the time spent on paperwork and allow more time to be spent with clients. This was back in 2010 when technology wasn't advanced enough for this dream to get off the ground. So, that idea was parked until 2016, the year I felt that technology had reached the right stage for us to set some of these wheels in motion.

Advances in technology mean that solutions such as Ladder can now showcase functionality which includes a digital credit check, identification verification, integrated mortgage quotes and auto suitability letters. Secure uploads further streamline the process and all of the information gathered feeds seamlessly into our CRM. A transition which eliminates the need to rekey data. Believe it or not, our digital fact-find can now be completed in under 10 minutes by either a client following an online journey or by a broker using Ladder as a back office platform both of which can be fully white-labelled. A world away from times gone by.

But where do we go from here?

The tech journey is still in its infancy, although we are swiftly moving to a place where platforms are becoming sophisticated enough to pull information from various sources to complete an application in a matter of seconds. There will come a time when paperwork will be no more. I also believe the market will split into advised and non-advised sales processes, with many banks and online challengers going down the non-advised route. And all advised sales will adopt a hybrid model in which advice will be the main focus.

When we talk about technology, it’s sometimes easy to gloss over the role played by the advice process within this. Technology is at its best when it generates more time for advisers to spend with their clients. For me, this is the tech holy grail and is something we should all be moving towards.