• Guy Johnston, executive at Backbase


• 20.10.2021 09:06 am

Until now, siloed systems and drawn-out mortgage processes have all led to a tedious journey for customers and employees alike. With millennials comprising 70% of first-time buyers in the UK, 57% of whom would likely choose a digital channel if applying for a mortgage today, digitalising mortgage journeys and overcoming the inefficiencies caused by banks’ siloed structures will be vital for banks to move into the 21^st century. Only in taking this approach will banks be able to maximise efficiencies and achieve their primary aims: gaining and retaining more customers and increasing their profits.

Q) What frictions are mortgage journeys causing as they stand for customers, banks and their employees?

A)Banks are still using methods like faxes and letters to update their customers, meaning customers often don’t know the stage or timeline of their application. This leads to high call volumes, lengthy completion times, and increased stress for customers over a decision with often lifelong consequences.

And for banks’ employees, legacy IT means that they have to sieve through numerous different systems to find the correct information – resulting in inefficiencies.

To overcome these inefficiencies, banks must prioritise digitising processes holistically across all products and business lines and breaking down silos, to ensure a seamless strategy with a focus on orchestrating value around the customer rather than financial products.

Q) Why should overhauling the mortgage journey be a priority for banks?

A) The incentive for banks to improve mortgages is primarily financial: the more customers they can process in the same time period, the greater the profit.

Banks’ traditional organisational structure, defined by siloes, has created several problems, including poor customer engagement service. By implementing an engagement banking platform, banks improve their cross-communication and provide a smoother journey for customers, increasing the likelihood of repeat customers.

Q) How can Engagement Banking platforms solve the current challenges that banks are encountering when it comes to the mortgage process?

Engagement Banking platforms provide a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints and business lines. Currently, banks consider their product offerings in isolation. A holistic engagement banking platform provides a system where the benefits of digitisation can be felt across the bank’s products. It will help banks digitise all customer interactions over time, rather than dealing with them case by case.

It also allows employees to gain a full view of each customer and their interactions across all products that the banks offer, allowing them to deliver a superior customer service experience and helps lower operating costs, increase efficiency and keep customers with the bank.    

Q) What are the current and future trends for the mortgage market?

A) We expect to see increased use of technology– but the personal touch will remain a priority. Tactics like video calls and digital document sharing are on the way in, and COVID-19 has accelerated this further.

Banking is one of the last industries to be disrupted by new technology-based competitors. A single engagement platform serving all products and touchpoints for both customers and employees is part of what has brought so much success to technology companies such as Uber and Netflix. This platform approach to customer engagement in banking is definitely a trend to look out for.    

We expect this trend to continue as banks continue looking at what they can improve, especially since the pandemic exposed slow, opaque processes that need to be addressed.