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It’s a common question that I ask my clients and the responses are never common, but invariably it comes down to two reasons: lack of knowledge and unwillingness to change.
It’s also most common for brokers to say they only use their CRM so they can get paid their commissions - pretty poor reason to use multimillion dollar systems if you ask me.
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Brokers have long baulked at using the inbuilt electronic lodgement capabilities of their CRM system because of perceived cost and effort. Brokers complain the costs charged by their aggregator or software provider and cite their prevalence of free lender based e-lodgement systems as a viable alternative.
They also complain (legitimately at times) of the extra effort required to enter missed data into their aggregator e-lodgement systems because of poorly built interfaces to the industry’s main e-lodgement supplier.
Combatting these debates, brokers should consider what their time is worth given the time it takes to double data enter a loan into the lenders free system, the lack of true back-channel reporting into their CRM and the extra effort involved in that cumbersome follow-up process, surely its cost and effort well spent utilising the CRM a little better.
Keeping compliant
Most CRM systems allow brokers to generate the necessary NCCP documents automatically based on the data entered into the CRM. A lack of effort by brokers to understand this function and their bad data entry habits mean the benefits of automatic NCCP document generation are impossible to use.
Brokers also say they won’t use the forms because they are not “sexy enough” and that they are aggregator centric designed to only meet the aggregators’ compliance needs.
Aggregators create documents based on their legal advice from lawyers specialising in the creation and maintenance of NCCP requirements and brokers need to understand that these forms are created for the specific reason of meeting legal requirements, not to be sexy.
The time (and cost) a broker takes to create documents for every application is simply absurd. Use your systems forms and you could cut your processing time down by at least 20 per cent.
Spotting areas for improvement
It never surprises when a broker says that their idea of CRM is sending birthday cards to their clients.
The main reason they have this view is because the substandard quality of data entered into their system means that’s about all they can do with their data.
Brokers often fail to understand the true value in mining their database and the only way to effectively do this is to ensure that they have a complete and accurate database from the outset.
Data mining is and always will be a buzz topic for any business to learn more about their clients and using that knowledge to increase repeat revenue opportunities. Once a broker understands the true value of their data, they can start to use this to create alternate revenue streams through cross selling, marketing and general contact management.
If a broker gave up a single two hour block to look at their CRM a little further, they would see that these underutilised areas could reap them huge rewards.
Brett Spencer, CEO at Stargate Group.
Brett has been actively involved in the Australian Mortgage industry for almost 20 years. Having started his career at Interstar Securities whilst completing a triple degree in Business, Finance & Accounting, he has worked in all facets of the mortgage process from broking, arrears and credit management, customer service, underwriting, loan processing, sales and marketing through to technology. After being part of the non-bank mortgage landscape in his 10 years at Interstar, he co-founded the current Stargate business in the late 1990’s. Has been instrumental in introducing the first Automated Underwriting Platform, Mortgage Broker CRM System, BPO Loan Processing Solution and Automated Valuations platform into the Australian Mortgage Landscape. Under Brett’s leadership, the Stargate Group has won the MFAA Excellence Award for Best Support Services Provider in 2007, 2010 and 2011 along with being a 5 time finalist for the AMA Best Industry Service Award.
