I’ve lived by the mantra saying yes to something means saying no to something else for many years, it’s something I regularly tell the team here. As the clocks turned back and we all gained an hour this weekend, I still spent some time reflecting on what really saves time, and what actually causes friction.
How can we be clearer about what to yes and no to?
For our teacher mortgage customers providing a time saving service is crucial. During term time they’re working both before they teach and again afterwards – weekdays just don’t offer time for life admin.
So, when they come to us directly we say yes to simple things. Offering out of hours call backs. Ensuring they get assigned a single adviser so they don’t have to keep repeating themselves about their case. Having a team who know and understand their profession, not just in terms of what it means from a borrowing perspective, but what they’ve had to manage just to find time to talk to us about one of the biggest financial decisions they’ll ever make.
For our broker clients providing a frictionless service is just as important to us. Your customers expect you to juggle different lenders and mortgage options, criteria and service levels against their specific personal needs, and we understand that.
DECISION-MAKING
Whilst we’d love to say yes to every case you offer us, the reality is that’s not an option. But as a smaller lender there are lots of things we can say yes to that work to your advantage, and ours.
We can say yes to clarity and consistency. Which is where being a small lender works to our advantage. Ease of access to decision makers. Consistency over who in our team you know, can access and can rely on. The ability to tick people, not boxes. A responsive service. Knowing what we’re good at – lending on unusual properties, for people who need a bridging alternative or to monetise assets without accessing them.
But what about the housing market more generally though – is there a way to call a ‘reset’ on that?
WIDER UNCERTAINTY
As the Autumn Budget approaches there’s certainly a lot of debate on what policymakers might change. For those of us in the industry we know that speculation on what may and may not happen is normal.
But to a first-time buyer – even a previous homeowner looking to make a change – lack of clarity over potential reform decisions, rate decisions, and support schemes can create uncertainty. Will the changes make things easier or more complicated for borrowers? Should they try and speed up their decision making now, before anything new lands, or wait to see if things get better later?
I want to reset those feelings and I’d love to see the industry do so too.
We know what needs to change: affordability, access to services, consistency of policies, reliability over schemes – things that build trust and restore confidence for those essential but lower paid key workers like teachers that devoting their life to lower paid careers won’t mean sacrificing their home ownership dreams.
Whether you spent your extra hour snoozing, exercising, enjoying family time or working this weekend it doesn’t really matter – it’s just an hour. But, it is a reminder that we can ‘reset’.
Here’s how we’re continually re-setting as a smaller lender:
- To our customers. To intermediaries. To industry experts I’ve been spending more of my time meeting both groups and listening to what’s needed from a lender like us. I will keep investing time here.
- We use what we hear to deliver improvements – whether that’s the way we phrase a letter or develop a new product or service.
- Championing clarity. Complexity slows everything down. From criteria to communications the less time we have to spend interpreting and understanding and the more we spend being transparent the easier it will be for us all to move forward.
- Leading by example. As a smaller lender we might not set national policy but we can model what thoughtful lending, personal service and lending for purpose looks like.
- I’ll keep using my voice to advocate for teachers and similar key workers. Who are you advocating for?
