With brokers growing in popularity, keeping up with demand can be tough. This month we ask…

Workflow management tools

We use Trello. We’ve adapted Trello for nearly 12 years now and we’ve made it so that it suits our business. Even though I have three different offices, all my PAs know exactly where each file is up to and where each client is in the process.

Trusting your staff and making sure they’re able to do what they need to do and know exactly where every client is up to is very important. If Trello ever goes down or decides to shut up shop, I think I’m in a lot of trouble!

BrokerEngine, DocuSign, and Quickli

As you get busier, the business gets harder to manage. When big volumes start to hit, it hits hard and then you have to run and keep up. Having tech apps does help a lot.

With the volumes we now have, it’s a necessity to start bringing in more tech and we’ve recently started using Quickli for servicing, which saves a lot of time.

We’ve also brought in scheduling software such as Asana for Instagram and Facebook.

We started implementing BrokerEngine and we try to use DocuSign wherever possible just to keep things moving as fast as we can. There’s very little paper in the business so a lot of tech is there.

We’ll also use Teams if we’re interacting with people who are time-poor. Instead of doing a face to face, we can use Teams and do a video call if they prefer.

Outlook and systemised CRMs

I use my Outlook calendar and I make sure I’m really structured with my time. [On] Mondays I’ll do one thing, Tuesday is another thing, Wednesday is another thing, etc.

To make sure I’m on top of everything, I’ve also systemised my aggregator CRM so the letters that go out are the same for every customer. So, if I change the status of a customer, they automatically [send] a letter, an email, or a text, which speeds up the time it takes to do things. I’ve got pro formas for this, pro formas for that.

I use Quickli a lot to work out servicing. I find that saves a lot of time, too.

Adobe

One of my lead brokers, Jake [Hindley] introduced us to Adobe Sign and I was amazed how much more time I got back in my day by not having to drive around and get wet signatures and how compliant it is, too.

BrokerEngine has been a massive game changer for us as it has enabled us to consolidate all our processes and push tasks instantly to another person. I don’t have to write a procedure manual because everything is in BrokerEngine. It also pushes out all our credit and privacy and compliance documents to clients.

We also use Microsoft Teams to keep the team connected and for initial client meetings.

And our parabrokers live in Quickli. I think it has probably shaved off 30 per cent of the time we would have previously spent doing multiple bank calculators!