Lloyd Thomas, MPA Top 100 Broker and director of Direct Property Network, talks about why innovation is vital for brokers now more than ever
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Lloyd Thomas, MPA Top 100 Broker and director of Direct Property Network, talks about why innovation is vital for brokers now more than ever
MPA: How has DPN maintained an innovative approach as it has developed?
Lloyd Thomas, director of business and product development: We have been intentional in creating a culture of innovation as opposed to it been a passing fad. It is a core value and practice for us, meaning our leadership and executive are perpetually focused on innovation, and it is a standard discussion point. We have a relentless commitment to continually improving, to investing a significant amount of money and resources to lift the standard of what we do and any new business we enter into.
Many companies look at their competitors and aspire to excellence. We believed that to merely excel beyond what was being done in our industry wasn’t enough. Innovation around finance has predominantly focused on technology – technology is one aspect – but we have decided that owning the emotional connection is critical, and positioning our business as a lifestyle brand, not a financial services company. From our website to our office space, packaging and branding, staff dress code, font selection, we have been determined to have a phenomenal presentation more akin to a luxury label, creating emotion around the brand.
As a design and customer-centric company we have determined to be vertically integrated across both finance and property so we can control the quality of the products and the customer experience. We have recently launched a property management business so we can have one company managing a client’s properties. We are about to launch our own branded loans, allowing us to approve loans in-house, much faster than relying on credit teams of the major lenders.
MPA: Why is being innovative so important for brokers, especially in today’s competitive world?
LT: The market is changing. Look at lending today – it’s completely different to lending even six months ago, with the new criteria and restraints and all that type of thing that’s around lending at the moment. And it’ll be different in six or 12 months’ time again I gather. So you’ve got to move and change with the market and be effective in that movement, because otherwise you really will miss the boat in a lot of ways.
MPA: Can you explain DPN’s ‘surprise and delight’ customer experience program and how effective it has been?
LT: We have created two programs. One is a referral rewards program called Apprecier, which gives gifts to our clients and the people they refer. The second is the Merci Program, which is a number of gifts throughout the entire customer journey – across major milestones. The gifts are a combination of lifestyle experiences as well as designer items that have been carefully curated and selected to ensure the brand values are expressed and the customer experiences wonder.
LT: There is continual dialogue in encouraging them to differentiate our products through design. We have also encouraged them to commit to our customer experience programs so they invest not only in the products but the way those products are delivered to market.
They have more loyal and satisfied customers who refer and repurchase.
We are only at the start of this journey and have seen our culture of innovation rub off on them, as they are lifting their standards and the quality of their products across their own businesses. They are also now coming up with ideas of how to improve and make suggestions versus us always making the requests. These partnerships have opened up doors for them, as people always want to work with those who focus on quality.
MPA: How has DPN become the highly successful one-stop shop for investors that it is today?
LT: It’s been a real focus of ours to make it a one-stop shop. We have a property management company that we own now – DPN Property Management. It provides an end-to-end customer service that we can start to really control. When you refer people on to different avenues, sometimes you do it and you truly hope that they get a great experience. And sometimes that’s the case, sometimes it’s not. So the more that we can control that service, the more we can create that culture of great experience that they’ll get along the way.
MPA: How has DPN maintained an innovative approach as it has developed?
Lloyd Thomas, director of business and product development: We have been intentional in creating a culture of innovation as opposed to it been a passing fad. It is a core value and practice for us, meaning our leadership and executive are perpetually focused on innovation, and it is a standard discussion point. We have a relentless commitment to continually improving, to investing a significant amount of money and resources to lift the standard of what we do and any new business we enter into.
Many companies look at their competitors and aspire to excellence. We believed that to merely excel beyond what was being done in our industry wasn’t enough. Innovation around finance has predominantly focused on technology – technology is one aspect – but we have decided that owning the emotional connection is critical, and positioning our business as a lifestyle brand, not a financial services company. From our website to our office space, packaging and branding, staff dress code, font selection, we have been determined to have a phenomenal presentation more akin to a luxury label, creating emotion around the brand.
As a design and customer-centric company we have determined to be vertically integrated across both finance and property so we can control the quality of the products and the customer experience. We have recently launched a property management business so we can have one company managing a client’s properties. We are about to launch our own branded loans, allowing us to approve loans in-house, much faster than relying on credit teams of the major lenders.
MPA: Why is being innovative so important for brokers, especially in today’s competitive world?
LT: The market is changing. Look at lending today – it’s completely different to lending even six months ago, with the new criteria and restraints and all that type of thing that’s around lending at the moment. And it’ll be different in six or 12 months’ time again I gather. So you’ve got to move and change with the market and be effective in that movement, because otherwise you really will miss the boat in a lot of ways.
FAST FACTS
Year founded
1996
Team
6 brokers; total of 54 staff
Headquarters
Cronulla, Sydney
Ownership
5 directors
Income
Investors – finance, property purchase and rental management
Year founded
1996
Team
6 brokers; total of 54 staff
Headquarters
Cronulla, Sydney
Ownership
5 directors
Income
Investors – finance, property purchase and rental management
MPA: Can you explain DPN’s ‘surprise and delight’ customer experience program and how effective it has been?
LT: We have created two programs. One is a referral rewards program called Apprecier, which gives gifts to our clients and the people they refer. The second is the Merci Program, which is a number of gifts throughout the entire customer journey – across major milestones. The gifts are a combination of lifestyle experiences as well as designer items that have been carefully curated and selected to ensure the brand values are expressed and the customer experiences wonder.
“Innovation around finance has predominantly focused on technology – technology is one aspect – but we have decided that owning the emotional connection is critical”
MPA: How has choosing to partner with builders, land suppliers and architects grown the business?LT: There is continual dialogue in encouraging them to differentiate our products through design. We have also encouraged them to commit to our customer experience programs so they invest not only in the products but the way those products are delivered to market.
They have more loyal and satisfied customers who refer and repurchase.
We are only at the start of this journey and have seen our culture of innovation rub off on them, as they are lifting their standards and the quality of their products across their own businesses. They are also now coming up with ideas of how to improve and make suggestions versus us always making the requests. These partnerships have opened up doors for them, as people always want to work with those who focus on quality.
MPA: How has DPN become the highly successful one-stop shop for investors that it is today?
LT: It’s been a real focus of ours to make it a one-stop shop. We have a property management company that we own now – DPN Property Management. It provides an end-to-end customer service that we can start to really control. When you refer people on to different avenues, sometimes you do it and you truly hope that they get a great experience. And sometimes that’s the case, sometimes it’s not. So the more that we can control that service, the more we can create that culture of great experience that they’ll get along the way.
