Now is the time for your CRM to shine

By: Brett Spencer, CEO Stargate

Now is the ideal time to contact your customer base and leverage the data in your Customer Relationship Management system to provide you immediate access to who and what is important for your customers.

Before implementing any CRM system into your organisation, keep in mind that the only way it is going to be a solid new business strategy is if you are prepared to take the time to understand and embrace your new system.

Calculating the return-on-investment from your CRM system should be one of the main decision factors for adoption of a CRM as some CRM technology can become quite costly when you factor in hardware, licensing and setup costs. Cloud based models are now the most popular form of CRM systems globally, enabling users to take advantage of lower costs and zero infrastructure requirements. Once you’ve made the decision to go down the path of CRM adoption, it is time to concentrate on what you want your CRM to do for both you and your clients.

So how do you move an old filing system(often in the form of an Excel spread sheet) into a new state of the art cloud based CRM? Sounds daunting to most brokers but rest assured it’s normally an easy process if you plan for it properly. Your data is the single greatest asset to your broking business and if you don’t protect it, then your business will fail. A seamless integration process will save you lots of sleepless nights and speed up the deployment of your new CRM system so make sure you CRM vendor has an articulated Data Migration program before you agree to sign up for their products.

In today’s market with immediate access and connectivity to our customers, if you’re not actively talking with them about opportunities to either save them money or enable them to earn more money, then your competitors possibly will. Databases and communications are paramount at this time when year-end festivities create the perfect opportunity to discuss more than just business.

Your business relationships drive better results and the broker- client connection MUST different.

My top 10 (add) tips for staying in touch with your customers to generate more business:

• Pick up the phone! Take the time to make the conversation genuine and sincere. In this age of batch emailing and SMS, technology can only assist so much. We are people and personal interactions such as a phone call instead of an email are very compelling; remember our industry is all about relationships.

• Establish a plan for what and how you will acknowledge your clients’ milestones, such as anniversary of settlement or expiration of fixed rate periods.

• Ensure that your customer-facing team understand and deliver a consistent experience to each client, so they feel the impact of your efforts.

• Remember the little things; they always make the difference between a surprise and an ‘OMG moment’, committing to memory birthdays, spouse/children’s names all build stronger connections.

• Ensure your data is accurate, when was last time your client was contacted? Is it recorded? If you don’t know, you still have time to update this from your other notes sources.

• Always save your customer interaction information. You never know when this could come in hand. A passing comment by a customer at a social gathering about wanting to purchase a new home next year should be diarised for follow up at a later date.

• Keep a record of what your customers’ interests are. Record them in your system. Birthdays are a basic but often overlooked date. Easy to do and once saved, very hard to forget.

• It may be useful to set up calendar reminders for this and have a consistent response across your team. Some clients even go as far as having a snail mail card posted 2 days prior with an email and phone call on the day. True customer service.
  

Go the extra mile for your customer. Offer them other services in addition to a mortgage. Never underestimate the value to your client of the “little extras” on offer.
And always remember your ABCs – always be communicating!

Brett has been actively involved in the Australian Mortgage industry for almost 20 years. Having started his career at Interstar Securities whilst completing a triple degree in Business, Finance & Accounting, he has worked in all facets of the mortgage process from broking, arrears and credit management, customer service, underwriting, loan processing, sales and marketing through to technology.

After being part of the non-bank mortgage landscape in his 10 years at Interstar, he co-founded the current Stargate business in the late 1990’s. Has been instrumental in introducing the first Automated Underwriting Platform, Mortgage Broker CRM System, BPO Loan Processing Solution and Automated Valuations platform into the Australian Mortgage Landscape.

Under Brett’s leadership, the Stargate Group has won the MFAA Excellence Award for Best Support Services Provider in 2007, 2010 and 2011 along with being a 5 time finalist for the AMA Best Industry Service Award.