One of the industry's thought leaders, Josh Bartlett, talks about his biggest challenge and how he handled it.
Each week MPA brings you advice from the industry's thought leaders on their biggest business challenge and how they tackled it. This week we speak to Josh Bartlett, mortgage broker at Loan Market Cheltenham.
MPA: What has been one of your biggest challenges in business to date and why?
Josh Bartlett: In the beginning it was learning credit policy. The biggest challenge with my business at the moment is our back-end and keeping up with the processing of loans. My business has grown fast, and I wanted to make sure that all clients get the same great experience. Without processing systems and customer satisfaction your business will not last the test of time.
MPA: How did you overcome this challenge?
JB: I have worked closely with an IT company to design a very detailed processing tool that keeps the client up to date. It is a vitally important tool in our business. The team that designed my prospecting tool EBROKER are now designing the system to keep up with the lead sources it created!
MPA: What are some of the key lessons you learnt from this experience?
JB: Whenever you have something in your business that is a blockage to future business building success it can be fixed. I am building the process and systems in my business to support more staff and proccesses, which will then write more volume, so if I dont work on the business systems now I will have unhappy customers.
MPA: How have those lessons benefited you in business since?
JB: Due to improvements we are now writing more volumes with happy clients. Our monthly averages are going up which is vitally important for the growth of the business in the future.
MPA: If you were to tackle this again, would you do anything differently?
JB: Being new to the industry, I would never have known the issues and blockages that would occur, so I dont think I would do anything differently. The speed at which my business has grown has highlighted issues faster than it may for someone else - so I'm lucky that I have had to learn fast!
MPA: What advice would you give to other brokers facing a similar situation?
JB: Work out an efficient way to run your business, but above all make sure the end goal of everything you do is customer service at the heart of the system, as this will lead to a great business.
