David Gilman is partner in charge of Blacks Connect
The New Year is always a good time to take a fresh look at your business, and to take stock of the partnerships you have in the mortgage industry.
Brokers have had a challenging few years and you may not always feel like you are in a position of power when it comes to some of your business relationships. But with others, like conveyancing partnerships, you are the one referring business to us.
And that means we need to be listening to you.
Expect more
I believe that brokers should demand more from their conveyancing providers. This starts with better communication, something solicitors are notoriously bad at, as I talked about recently in my blog, Solicitors are wrong to block brokers out.
Think about it: If your clients called you for an update on a case, you wouldn’t dream of being vague, unhelpful, or even worse, rude. That would be neither professional nor good for your business.
But we all know that some solicitors regularly shut out brokers because of the old-fashioned assumption that conveyancing is their domain and they don’t need to explain themselves. They are wrong.
It’s vital that you have a relationship with your conveyancing partner that is open and clear. You need to be up to date with how your cases are progressing and your conveyancer should be happy to keep you informed.
Hopefully they have quality technology that gives you this information instantly, but you should also have access to a friendly and efficient contact that you can call at any time for further explanation.
Don’t settle for poor service
Remember, it’s your time that is wasted when you have to chase your conveyancer. And it’s your client that feels frustrated when things are being held up and there isn’t a good explanation about the delay.
You have to work hard to gain your clients’ trust and to get repeat business. As conveyancers, we should do the same to keep hold of you, our valued broker partners.
If there is anything about the service you are getting from your conveyancer that you are not happy with, tell them to sort it out. If they don’t respond, take your business elsewhere.
We’re listening
At Blacks Connect we have forged good relationships with many mortgage intermediaries in the six months since we launched our dedicated broker proposition.
Our New Year’s resolution is to continue to listen to you, to ensure we fully understand your needs. We’re committed to better communication, and we’ve put our money where our mouth is, hiring an experienced business development manager, Emma Mason. She’s already busy, getting out on the road to visit you, speak to you and meet you at roadshows and other events.
We are serious about getting to know brokers better, and the same should be said for all conveyancers. Make sure you demand more from us!
