Mortgage Lending
Hamish Shares His Tips for Success in Business
Mortgage Broker and Adviser Hamish Patel of MortgagesOnline.co.nz shares his business tips for Loan and Mortgage professionals.
Clinton Waters of Axton Finance talked to us about technology and tools for Mortgage Brokers. Grab his top tips on automating your systems and streamlining things for your customers.
Clinton has been in the business for 17 years providing top service out of Hawthorn, Melbourne to Australian home owners.
Working with over 25 bank and non-bank lenders, including the “big four”, the team at Axton Finance pride themselves in giving: No run-around, no jargon, no worries, service.
I had a chat with Clinton as he's a like minded techie - not afraid to make use of cloud tools to improve his business. So let's hear from Clinton.
I see tech as an enabler for our business, not a threat to it. Mapping our processes to be seamless and as easy as we can make them for our customers, has meant we can achieve more with less".
I'm keen to hear about how it used to be.
"The old days were painful. We'd email clients a list then manage the confusion that followed. Clients would send the wrong info, wrong format and files missing key information. I knew there must be a better way so got onto Google.
Booking a meeting was a bunch of back and forth over email, scanning and faxing was a pain, and nothing integrated. So much of it was manual.
Even thinking of doing what we currently do on our phones was impossible, and customers had to reply on work scanners or bring original documents into the office!"
What's been your approach to tech?
"With all these tech tools, definitely do not assume that your clients won’t like it or feel it's challenging - they will love it. I promise. We put the customer experience first as we know:
Consumers look for the point of least resistance to get the result they’re after. So use integrations, streamline your systems and don’t be afraid of the tech and introducing your clients to it."
What tools do you recommend to other Mortgage Brokers?
"Some of our favourite tools are:
- Slack.com - for collaboration and communicating internally. Connect this with your other systems so that you have one place to visit for updates. Saves you having to have a bunch of tools open if you can integrate them to slack.
- Lastpass.com - the last password you'll ever need to remember, which works across all your devices. Instead of using the same password everywhere and putting your business at risk, use Lastpass.
- Formstack.com - for creating forms. A good way to automate manual forms.
- Calendly.com - Use this to share a link to customers and let them book a time that is convenient for them. It saves the back and forth to find a time that suits.
- Gorgias.io - to manage all our communication channels in one spot.
- And give FileInvite a try if you haven't already. Get your client file requests out of your inbox and into a platform that you and your support team can all access securely."
"With all of these tools and FileInvite in particular, don’t be cautious. Try it with your clients and test it with a personal email account as if you're a client if you must. You'll see how intuitive it is for clients with the client portal. Use the templates to clearly outline what documents your require and tips for supplying them."
OK, we need to talk document collection. Why FileInvite?
"The main reason we chose FileInvite? It's simple for clients to use.
It's also easy for our team to use and manage. They love it because they have less to do 😃.
The template requests, Google Drive integration and bankstatements.com.au integration have been brilliant too.
Clients happily provide us requested documents without fuss. They regularly give us feedback that it was easy for them to use and clear on what was required."
"Put simply, our time is being better spent doing higher value things."
Do you think over the two years you've been with FileInvite it's been worth the investment?
YES, for sure.
"Look in terms of time, is hard to say exactly, but I probably say it saves us around 1-2 hours per request. That's time I get back to build my business.
Money wise? Safe to say the time FileInvite gives me back to earn, is a multiple many times the cost!
It might even save days in getting a deal submitted because the clients have clear visual queues on what is required. An email list inevitably results in customers sending us what is convenient for them, not what we need to get the job done."
The time FileInvite gives me back to earn, is a multiple many times the cost!
Is FileInvite safe and secure?
"Yes. This is important to us and we understand that FileInvite take this very seriously too. Getting these sensitive documents out of our inbox and into a secure platform is key."
Would you recommend FileInvite?
Haha, I recommend it to anyone who cares to listen to me.
"Seriously, I would recommend to any business that needs to collect client documents on a regular basis so yeah brokers, financial planners, accountants, real estate agents, conveyancers, or anyone wanting to streamline their document collection."
What's next for you and Axton Finance?
"We need to beat the drum a little more on the great results we deliver for our clients in this challenging marketplace.
A lot of people are daunted by the process of refinancing because of the effort required to get themselves organised, but FileInvite is one of our major tools that makes this process a little easier."
"In the current environment it's worth reaching out to see what we can do for you."
To learn more and request a demo, visit FileInvite today.
