The award is not only evidence of the effort we have put in to getting things right, but more importantly represents the huge distance TMB has come as a lender in the last 18 months.
So what has happened to put TMB back up with the market leaders? Why had it slipped off the pace in the first place and how can it guarantee packagers and intermediaries that it will perform for them into the future?
Certainly there is no point in trying to pretend that TMB had not, to some extent, lost its direction and in only receiving a Three Star service award last year there were clearly problems with the commercial processes and practices in place. However a huge amount of time and effort has gone into refocusing TMB as a lender both within the HBOS Group and the wider mortgage market.
At TMB we want the market to be in no doubt as to our role as the UK’s leading packager and intermediary facing specialist lender. This is what we do now and what we will continue to do into the future.
There have also been wholesale changes in the personnel at TMB and while this has not been without its challenges, we have proved to the market over the last year that not only could we make the changes necessary, but also continue to deliver an excellent standard of service while doing so.
Now that the personnel changes have been made and are well established, TMB is in an excellent position to stride forward into 2007 and we are certainly excited about the prospects that next year holds. It has also been easier with the amount of new faces in the company to bring about a cultural change at TMB that has been a vital part in the progress we have made.
Our philosophy is based simply on meeting the needs of our intermediary partners and in dealing with those needs we are committed to ensuring that today’s business gets done today. Where things were allowed to slip in the past, the simple message across the business is that this is simply not acceptable moving forward.
Across the board, the team at TMB is measured and monitored on its ability to deal with each day’s business. More clearly defined targets have also helped focus staff on the job in hand, while alterations have been made to some of our basic processes to help them move towards these targets.
We have now developed a team that has a well-organised and robust structure in place to deal with business no matter what sort of volumes we are handling and this has been proved on various occasions over the course of the year. Now the focus is to maintain the high standard we have set and continue to do so long into the future.
Now that we have really established a solid operational footing, next year will see changes to the IT systems we have in place and by improving this side of the business we aim to improve and develop the service we are currently offering packagers and brokers. The most important aspect of any such changes is to ensure that they have no impact on the day-to-day running of the business during development and implementation. A lot of time and resource has already been spent in planning the changes and more will be spent over the coming months ensuring the plan we have adopted covers off every eventuality. We truly look forward to improving on the service we are already providing for our intermediaries and building on the trust we have re-established with our lending partners. There will be a degree of capital outlay in upgrading the IT systems and money has already been spent in the personnel and process changes that have been made. However these improvements will deliver huge savings to the business and have already begun to do so. By delivering a much-improved service to our partners, fewer cases need to be touched and pass straight through our processing systems without problems. This means that packagers and brokers do not need to make multiple calls to find out what is happening with their applications and TMB spends less time dealing with queries and more time processing mortgages.
Once service problems develop, they are quickly compounded by the extra work that dealing with them generates. It is essential therefore to be right on top of business at all times and to have up to the second information on how things are running operationally. Not only is this important for the inhouse management team to allow them to anticipate and deal with problems before they develop, but also for business partners looking for clear and frank assurances of the daily service levels. To this end TMB now publishes, on a daily basis, its business service levels. Intermediaries can immediately get a clear idea of what to expect and in turn feed the information on to their own clients.
This not only demonstrates the confidence that TMB now has in its ability to deliver on a consistent basis, but also its insistence that lending partners are kept right up to date about developments at the company and are not left in the dark at any point in their relationship with us. Communication is key and this is very much a part of our strategy moving forward.
Top quality service goes deeper than just the speed at which applications can be dealt with and this is something we have made part of the new culture at TMB. We are a specialist lender providing specialist solutions to the specialist market. We are focused on providing solutions to borrowers who have different needs from the mainstream, but who still want the best value and highest levels of service. If this is our business, then speed should not be the only factor we instil into our operation. Flexibility, adaptability and excellent communication must also be integral to the way we work.
This is exactly the approach we have taken and from the very beginnings of product design through to the post completion servicing we are looking to work as smoothly and as efficiently as possible with our partners. We want our products to meet the needs of their clients and will work together to find the best possible solution for each case. We want to work in the best way for each of our partner’s business models and will work together with them to make sure this is possible.
To this end our door is always open and we welcome any dialogue with intermediaries over the service we are offering and how we can better work with them. This is primarily the reason TMB has developed its packager index and with feedback coming in from over 400 individuals we are trying to get a real feel for the needs of the market. An extensive customer survey was also carried out earlier in the year and this helped hugely in providing more information and allowing us to get to know our partners better. Further information gathering exercises will be ongoing.
Looking to the future, the aim at TMB is to challenge the concepts that packagers and brokers have of the market and deliver for them where they did not think possible. We will be a constant force in the market moving forward and look to offer a service that is consistently high and reliable and continually evolving and progressing.
In the last eighteen months TMB has tripled the volume of business it is doing and eradicated all processing backlogs. It has done this amidst the flurry of personnel and processing changes and is now primed to build on these improvements and really deliver so much of the potential that was left to lie dormant in the past.
The Five Star Award is something that we have been working towards in all that time and every member of staff has had their part to play. This team approach will continue and by working together with our packagers and intermediaries, we aim to build on our success long into the future.
The real goal now is to maintain what we have achieved and so while there is some satisfaction to be taken from our success, there is no time to sit back and rest on our laurels. Reaching the Five Star level is simply the first step. Remaining at this level is the ongoing challenge from which we can hopefully draw, with our partners, further satisfaction as time progresses.
