Neal Roberts, a mortgage adviser at The Mortgage Broker Limited, told Mortgage Introducer of his concern that lenders will not let BDMs ‘get their hands dirty’ and allow them to rectify urgent problems. Roberts, a former BDM, said if lenders empowered their BDMs it would result in increased business.
This echoes the sentiments of Paul Hunt, head of marketing at specialist lender Platform, who last week said the quality of BDM visits should be the main focus, rather than the quantity.
Roberts said: “The BDM is, with rare exceptions, toothless when it comes to providing a service that matches the products. The lender doesn’t want them to get their hands dirty. They are only there to convey the messages. The call-centre team are judged on the number of calls missed and how quickly they deal with the rest – not on how effective the resulting action is.”
He continued: “I’ve been the BDM who has been called in to help the team but I wasn’t allowed to actually do anything to assist. The orders were ‘take the call, make a note, pass it on, take the next call’. Maybe if one person could actually do something to resolve the issue, everybody would save time. It might even impress the broker.”
Rod Murdison, proprietor of Murdison & Browning, agreed: “There has been a marked decrease in the number of broker consultants both as a result of them leaving their jobs as targets are reviewed forever upwards and as they fall victim to cost-cutting.
With no one to meet face-to-face and thereby generate feelings of loyalty and trust, brokers find themselves gravitating towards the few companies that do value them as human beings rather than just as units of production and potential profit centres.”
