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A Western Australia-based brokerage has become one of the first to trial a new lead-referral app, in a bid to enable its brokers to receive and act on leads more quickly.
Diversifi, which comprises six agencies and 11 brokers, is currently trialling an app made by financial technology provider Epictenet that brokers, referrers, and clients can use.
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Building on from the Diversifi app that enables brokers and broker customers to access calculators to determine their borrowing power, fixed deposit rates, budget planner, stamp duty, income tax and home loan repayment calculations, the new app also enables referral partners to send leads to one another in real time and maintain a record of the client contact.
Speaking to The Adviser about the trial, Diversifi director Rose de Rossi explained that the app enables the agencies in the company to “bring on board referrers so they can interact with [brokers] more efficiently”.
She explained: “We have all of our brokers listed on the app and it has a profile for each broker, and then if the referrer has the relationship with that particular broker they can get onto the app, send the referral or client details straight through to their nominated broker and it sends the broker a message to say please call this client, along with the details.
“That means that the broker has the lead straight away in real time. So, you are not waiting for them to send an email. There is the opportunity then for the broker to ask the app to reply to the referrer to say to that they've received the lead and/or contacted the client etc. That keeps it all in a timeline as well so you can see all the interactions as well. What we were planning on doing is using that to add a value to our referrers so they can use the app and give us leads that way.”
The founder and CEO of Epictenet, Ritesh Srivastava, told The Adviser that the app is particularly useful as the current linkage between aggregators’ CRM platforms can be “quite difficult”.
He said: “Through the app you now have the functionality to capture the lead and post it into the CRM directly.”
Ms de Rossi said that the new app is particularly useful for brokers “out on the road”, as they “don’t have to set up a computer, or log into the system… you don’t have to have your laptop, as you can do it off straight off your phone.”
She continued: “This way you have it at your fingertips. With digital disruption and all the fintechs coming online, the more you can have on your mobile devices — whether a client or a broker or a referrer — the quicker you are able to get that lead. And you don’t want any down time from when a customer needs a broker to finding one, because the lead can go ‘cold’. So with this, you can see the lead on your phone, respond and/or call them immediately.”
The new app will also have the capability for customers to fill in lender applications on the app, which is then sent back to the broker for credit assistance, and will also include a listings ability, so brokers can gain revenue by selling advertising space to those involved in the house buying process (i.e. conveyancers, plumbers, electricians etc).
Ms de Rossi concluded: “I think it's the way to go. This is an example of how fintech is not going to replace the broker but enhance the broker experience that the customer has. The customer (and referrer) has a real time and fast response. It’s win-win.”
[Related: Lenders must ‘adapt or lose share’ to fintechs: Lender CEO]
