David Gilman is the partner in charge of Blacks Connect
Communication is key to business and, as mortgage brokers you know better than anyone how important it can be to your relationships with your clients, lenders, networks, and all of your business partners.
Those who are good at it have a head start because firstly they build better relationships than those with poor communication skills and secondly, everyone they deal with is very clear what they are doing, why they are doing it and when it will be completed.
Room for improvement
I’ll be the first to admit that solicitors have not traditionally been good communicators – and they have been particularly lax when it comes to building relationships with the mortgage broking community.
How many times have you had to call up a conveyancer for an update on one of your cases?
If your client asks you for a progress report, you need to be up to speed so you can answer them directly. You don’t want to be trying to get hold of your conveyancer to see what they have been doing for the past three days.
I know that in the past some solicitors have been protective over what they see as their sphere of work and their specialism. They have been guilty of thinking that brokers should trust in their expertise and let them get on with the job without interruption.
They are wrong.
In the know
When you introduce a client to a conveyance they are still your client and you need to know exactly what is happening.
As a profession we need to get better at getting this information to you and it is one of our priorities at Blacks Connect.
After all we have launched a broker-focused conveyancing proposition so it stands to reason that we need to be good at communicating with you.
Some of this can be achieved with technology and that’s already happening with many good solicitors and conveyancing firms that have invested a lot of time and money into cutting-edge IT systems.
Of course technology helps to keep you in the loop but it isn’t enough.
Solicitors need to realise that if they want to work with the broker market, that means being happy to deal with you on a daily basis – answering calls quickly, minimising delays and making sure that you and your clients get the best service possible, including updates whenever you want them.
We are listening
And it’s a two-way street because conveyancers can only improve their service to brokers by getting feedback from you.
The days of solicitors sitting in their stuffy offices, doing things their own way and thinking business would keep on walking through the door are long gone.
At Blacks Connect we want to build relationships with our broker partners, because we know that we can only provide you with an excellent service you will use time and time again if we talk to you, find out what you want, and always keep you updated on your cases.
It’s not rocket science.
