REVEALED: What brokers want from their aggregator

The Momentum Intelligence 2019 Aggregator of Choice survey, commissioned by The Adviser, aims to give mortgage and finance brokers across Australia the opportunity to voice their own experience with their aggregator, in an effort to help shape the future direction of the group.

For the aggregators, it is an opportunity to help them quantify their broker relationships, understand their position within the marketplace, identify their respective strengths and weaknesses as well as hearing first-hand experiences from brokers.

Both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were adopted for this year’s survey, with participants asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire via an online survey portal. Brokers were asked to rate their aggregator across 14 attributes: leadership, agility, value for money, innovation, culture, communication, business support, professional development, industry support, BDM support, software, marketing support, compliance and regulatory support, and lending panel.

A number of in-depth phone interviews were also conducted with brokers who participated in the survey.

This year, the research resulted in a total usable sample of 1,233 brokers.

Brokers are generally very satisfied with their aggregator

Overall, the results of the 2019 Aggregator of Choice survey show that 86 per cent of brokers are satisfied with their aggregator, with only 8 per cent planning to leave in the next 12 months. However, there are stark differences between aggregators.

Generally, brokers that have spent a longer time with their current aggregator were found to have the lowest rates of satisfaction and the highest rates of intended attrition.

Geographically, brokers from Victoria and South Australia were the least satisfied with their aggregator.

What brokers want from an aggregator

Given that the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry concluded this year and caused widespread disruption (with the flow-on effects still being felt and resulting in ongoing change), it is perhaps unsurprising that the most important attributes in driving aggregator satisfaction were leadership and agility.

For this review, leadership is defined as the overall quality of the aggregator’s leadership team, including their behaviour, integrity, knowledge and decision-making.

Indeed, Momentum Intelligence found that leadership was not only the number one attribute driving broker satisfaction with their aggregator, but was also consistently referenced in satisfied broker verbatims and in the in-depth broker interviews.

Brokers that were most satisfied with their aggregator also said that the agility of the aggregator (the ability to adapt, change quickly and succeed in a rapidly changing, ambiguous, turbulent environment) was also key.

Other critical components were value for money (the level of fees charged by an aggregator in comparison to the aggregator’s overall offering), innovation (creating more effective processes, products and ideas to create efficiencies and business growth for brokers) and culture (the set of shared attitudes, values, practices and accepted behaviours within the aggregator).

Interestingly, software was also consistently quoted by brokers as a critical consideration when choosing an aggregator; however, the quantitative results indicated that this element has a lesser effect on driving real-time satisfaction of brokers.

Which aggregators are leading the way

Of the 13 aggregators/broking groups that were analysed in their entirety in the report, brokers that operate under family-owned aggregation group Loan Market were found to be the most satisfied.

Loan Market ranked first on all four key relationship measures, including customer satisfaction (CSAT), NPS, retention and overall performance, across the 14 attributes and was a clear standout amongst the 13 aggregators analysed in this year’s report.

Outsource financial, Liberty Network Services, AFG and Connective all followed with over 90 per cent of their brokers satisfied, a positive Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and consistently low rates of brokers planning to leave.

The research also found that Connective was consistently reported as the aggregator that brokers would consider switching to if they ever decided to leave their current aggregator. This may be influenced by the fact that Connective was also consistently reported as the aggregator that has the greatest recruitment activity.

Thank you to all the brokers who took the time to participate in this year’s Aggregator of Choice survey.

The full comprehensive results of the Aggregator of Choice survey 2019 are available for purchase through Momentum Intelligence. This interactive report is designed to be a detailed competitive analysis tool for aggregators to view, compare and contrast their performance against the market.

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[Related: Brokers rate non-major as the best performing bank]