The sight of forms overflowing in bulging accordion folders, in-trays piled high with documents and A4 boxes stacked hip-high in corners… paper is so yesterday.
Loan Market has always been an early adopter and innovator of digital. It hasn’t just recognised the opportunities of saving time through streamlining the process online – its developed them.
The ‘paperless office’ puts an end to clutter and importantly reduces wastage. But it does so much more than making the workplace tidier while keeping documents at your fingertips, online.
The aggregator has developed a suite of digital tools for its brokers to:
Save them time;
keep them safe;
help them find and keep clients;
And, help them build bigger and better businesses;
Now, let’s take a look at what’s in Loan Market’s bag.
A CRM that drives brokers’ entire business
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems were one of the first pieces of technology to sound the death knell of paper in brokerages.
But Loan Market thought CRMs could be more than a portal from which client details were stored. And so after working extensively with their own brokers, MyCRM was born.
MyCRM drives every part of Loan Market brokers’ businesses – and that’s no overstatement. MyCRM was designed by brokers for the needs of brokers. It can do everything:
Track and service customer leads;
automate payments to referrers or loan writers;
create customisable performance dashboards;
manage and report on contacts, pipelines, deals and tasks;
produce ready-to-go local templates for first home buying, refinancing, investors and upgraders
deliver regular, engaging content to customers, converting them faster;
It’s the centrepiece of Loan Market’s digital suite, hosting tools we’ll highlight below.
It also hosts Springboard, Loan Market’s online training and education platform from where brokers and their staff can complete certifications and upskill, anywhere, anytime.
So how can brokers turn 100% paperless? Well Loan Market have seen brokers do it, winning back oodles of time and ticking all the compliance boxes.
Here’s how they did it, and you can too!
Your tailored Hello Pack
When initially engaging a client, you have to provide a credit guide – everything they need to know about getting a mortgage and the role and responsibilities of a mortgage broker. So why not personalise it with your own message, make it look professional, and attach it to an Online Fact Find (see below) as well? It will fast-track the conversion process as well. It’s a no-brainer.
Loan Market’s Hello Pack outlines your credentials, how you can partner the client in the financial journey and positions you as THE LOCAL EXPERT.
The Hello Pack also invites clients to book a time in your calendar, using Calendly – an easy appointment-setting app!
It can all be done with a few clicks of the mouse within MyCRM.
The Online Fact Find
It’s a pain chasing and collecting clients’ paperwork and formalising their intentions. The Online Fact Find allows clients to upload information including bank statements, payslips and other necessary information directly into MyCRM, at their own pace.
Melbourne-based broker Jacob Decru uses the Online Fact Find as a major part of his offering. It recently helped him breakthrough for his first $10 million months of settlements.
Jacob Decru, paperless mortgage broker, VIC
Online Fact Find gathers client data in an easy, online solution, empowering the customer to co-create their application and collaborate with their broker. It allows Mr Decru to spend less time gathering documents and inputting data and more time with his customers.
“We’ve gone paperless in the office for ease and efficiency, but customers also expect that, today – they want the professionalism of a digital broker,” he said.
“To think that I was filling out CPAs by hand 18 months ago now seems incredible to me.”
Bank Connect
Coupled with the Online Fact Find, Bank Connect enables brokers to collect:
Official bank statements
Gap statements
summary pending reports
Again, saving the need for paper – and loads of time for you and your client – everything is automatically categorised and saved to MyCRM.
An add-on, Bank Connect Plus, allows clients to better understand their expenses and helps brokers have budgeting discussions by simply loading the files on an iPad.
E-Sign
E-sign is the knock-out punch in Loan Market’s fight against paper, pens and printers.
Client Preliminary Assessments (CPAs) and Client Quote Proposals (CQPs) have been revolutionised by the electronic signing app, which uploads forms directly into brokers’ MyCRM platform for transparency, speed and accuracy.
Online signatures aren’t a new concept, but housing E-Sign within MyCRM is a game-changer.
Brokers tailor the forms in MyCRM before sending. The client then signs the document, which is then stored into MyCRM. That’s an enormous saving in tedious paperwork, eliminates any chance of misplaced forms, and frees up staff to focus on more productive activities. ADIOS, PAPER!
Leads on demand
Paper is the #oldschool way of finding leads. When you’re trying to quantify the success of a marketing campaign, flyers and DL drop cards just don’t cut it anymore.
Via Loan Market’s Pay Per Lead program (PPL), brokers customise a leads subscription to determine:
the volume of leads they wish to receive each month;
the geographic radius they want to mine;
the days and times of the week they’re ready to act on leads to fit their process and lifestyle.
Pay Per Lead also enables brokers to scale their marketing spend with confidence, delivering lead to settlement conversion rates up to 20% and deals that are an average 11% higher in size than equivalent offline leads.
The magic URL
What if all digital engagements brokers have – social media posts and ads, websites, email campaigns, google reviews, email signatures, referral partner marketing and more – could bring qualified leads directly to you for a personalised experience? My Lead Generator does that with the ‘magic URL’.
The URL is unique to the broker. It kickstarts a customer journey featuring the broker’s personal brand including their photo, name, contact details and an automated introductory email – ‘humanising’ the digital experience.
It’s two-step mobile verification feature enhances the accuracy of customer data delivered to brokers.
Regional brokers thrive with a paperless office.
“I’ve always sought to employ credit specialists who are highly experienced, who I don’t have to train. My staff juggle work with family commitments and work remotely. I needed a paperless office to make the remote workplace functional – my staff don’t have printers – and the digital tools that Loan Market offers help me achieve that. The Online Fact Find is particularly helpful, enabling customers to upload their information directly to My CRM.”
Paul Hixon, mortgage broker QLD
Automated digital marketing solutions
In the digital era, IT’S ALL ABOUT AUTOMATION, BABY!
Loan Market has armed its brokers with automated marketing solutions for the pre and post-settlement customer.
For customers who aren’t quite ready to proceed, there’s Nurture.
Nurture enables brokers to:
stay top-of-mind with clients who are not yet ready to proceed;
provide bite-sized, educational content that’s relevant to their client segment;
be more efficient with a personalised, automated client communications solution, at scale.
Being automated, Nurture saves brokers about 10-hours a month and hundreds of dollars in mail-outs.
A personalised email is automatically sent from the broker to the customer. It contains educational content that helps them better understand their opportunities and how their broker will help them.
Emails are sent fortnightly until the customer converts. And content is relevant to the customer: First Home Buyers, for instance, want information on building a deposit, the loan process, deciphering loan jargon and what a broker does.
Stay in Touch does exactly what it says – it maintains the broker-client relationship across the life of the financial journey.
Once activated in MyCRM, brokers can opt-in or opt-out of 9 different client communications starting at pre-approval notification right through to the interest-only expiry period. You don’t even have to sign and send another birthday card!
Bringing the client closer
Loan Market has developed a secure online dashboard so clients can share their personal information with you. That means no more long winding email trails, or dog-eared print outs in bursting manilla folders.
And following on from the intent of Bank Connect, where customers can find out how to tighten their spending habits, Loan Market has developed a dashboard for clients for goal setting. The dashboard allows clients to articulate their financial and property goals clearly with you, forming stronger relationships without filling the waste-paper basket.
The paperless office is coming
The industry is not quite ready for the 100% paperless office. However, many lenders are preparing for that day with plans underway to accept digital signatures on final contracts.
In the era of finite resources, reducing waste is important for the planet. But it’s also important for productivity and growth.
Loan Market’s brokers are digital brokers, embracing technology to:
Save them time;
keep them safe;
Find and keep clients;
And, build bigger and better businesses;
If you’d like us to help you ditch pens, paper and printers and future-proof your business, talk to us today.
PUBLISHED December 10th, 2019 IN Stories and insights
Jason FurnellChief Customer Experience Officer Loan Market Group
Jason has over 20-years of experience in the implementation of business strategy through sophisticated technology design. Leading a lean-agile design process he rapidly drives technology solutions that provide rich and useful customer experiences. Jason prides himself on delivering application designs that effortlessly shoulder the weight of functional complexity in simple and engaging ways.
