Recently, as a business, we’ve taken the opportunity to take a step back – to look ahead at the next few years and how we can ensure we remain relevant, up-to-date with market innovation, and deliver what our brokers really need in terms of service, propositions and support –for both new and existing borrowers.
This led to growing our management team, which happened in May this year - focusing on enabling our sales teams to offer the very best service to our valued brokers, by setting ourselves up in the most efficient way to provide them with the support they need.
This also meant looking at technology and how we could make the most beneficial use of it – without losing that crucial human touch. How to balance these two things is a debate I’ve heard a lot recently in the industry and indeed is gathering pace as time moves on.
However, my take on this is quite clear. I believe that technology can be invaluable if it is used in the right way – in other words, to free up business development teams, reducing administration tasks and allowing them to focus on the things that really matter to brokers. Our aim is to save our brokers valuable time and effort, too!
Of course, brokers also need to play their own part here. By utilising tools and technology where possible, they can self-serve for enquiries they can source easy and simple answers for, by using web chat facilities or visiting a lenders’ website. This will allow business development manager (BDM) teams to ensure they’re available to offer help where they really need it, by concentrating on value-adding tasks and more complex queries.
With all this in mind, we’ve been looking for new ways to free up our teams to allow for this. One example is new technology we’ve integrated into our systems, using our customer relationship management system to pilot a fresh approach to booking appointments with brokers. This allows our BDMs to reach out to brokers to book an appointment at their convenience, electronically using a link, which provides them with full access to the diary of their own BDM. It also enables them to book their appointment straight in – even recognising whereabouts in the country the BDM will be on that day - with no need for manual back-and-forth via email or phone.
This new tool has been up and running for three months, and has generated some great feedback from brokers, as well as over 1,200 appointments, along with creating valuable BDM time which they can use to be proactive with brokers.
All that said, we recognise that technology can’t – and shouldn’t - do everything, so as great as this new system is, if, during the booking process, the broker needs to speak to someone at any point, they can still do so.
Thinking about the wider debate around how technology should be utilised – this last point is key. Firstly, in my experience, it’s much easier to embrace technology for what it can offer if the reassurance is always there that contacts can speak to a person if needed. Secondly, technology developments should always be accompanied by a commitment to using freed-up time positively, to enhance other interactions which do require a person – such as a complex case which needs discussing in detail. Finally – technology should not be (and indeed is not for us at Accord) about replacing people – it’s about freeing them up to do the value-adding work that brokers really appreciate and need.
Quality human interaction – using skills such as empathy, understanding, trust and confidence – is a fundamental priority for our business – and indeed any business. These are the things that make us human, after all. I don’t believe that will ever change, however sophisticated technology eventually becomes.
