Research has indicated that mortgage borrowers may prefer a wealth-like ongoing service plan from brokers. The Mortgage Insights 20/21 research, conducted by eKeeper’s parent company, DPR Group, incorporated more than 2,000 responses from mortgage consumers, brokers and lenders. It explores the challenges faced by the different respondents to provide a unique insight into the current state of the mortgage market.

When questioned about on-going service after a mortgage had been arranged, 60% of mortgage consumers expected brokers to proactively inform them when they were coming to their deal end period; what’s more 49% were looking for better deals from their broker.  Other aspects of on-going service saw 35% expecting regular annual reviews followed by 26% wanting regular communication.

However, the survey also revealed that this is easier said than done for some brokers. 37% of brokers say that they have no technology solution in place to enable them to communicate regularly and easily with their customers and 62% of those brokers have no plans to source such a solution.  This contrasts with the remaining 63% with a solution in place, with two thirds reporting that they had effectively retained over 60% of existing business through the use of such technology.

David Bennett, commercial director of eKeeper, commented: “It will always be customers that dictate the level of interaction and engagement they want from any business. Our research certainly highlights the desire from a good proportion of mortgage customers for a post-sale relationship like those employed by financial advisers.  Of course, engaging with customers prior to the deal end date is simply a necessity for any mortgage and protection intermediary to preserve that relationship and continue to demonstrate value. It will also help to keep the relationship with the customer, which should enable additional protection sales and prevent the customer going straight to the lender for an automatic product transfer.”

He continues: “Within the eKeeper CRM systems, retention tooling is an integral functionality which ensures that leads and diarised reminders are automatically generated.  However, it is concerning from both a commercial and servicing perspective, that a third of brokers do not use any technology for retention and a large amount have no intention of implementing such tools.”