The founder of Fox Financial Solutions shares how he became a broker and how he curated his award-winning customer service.
How and why did you become a broker?
So I got in as a broker in about 2016.
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Prior to that, I had spent time working within financial institutions, had wanted or started the path towards getting into home lending, but had seen what I felt was a lack of tools working for one particular lender.
So I made the transition into being a broker because I didn’t want to be bound by one set of rules. I wanted to open it up to everyone. I wanted to say yes more than I said no. I wanted to see more positive outcomes to things so that kind of led me to moving into the broker space under a larger aggregator. When it was peak COVID-19, I decided I was going to launch Fox Financial Solutions!
What have been the biggest challenges in your career?
It was trying to [decide] which aggregator I wanted to use and whether the[y] had access to the lenders that I’d previously been doing business with.
Then it was trying to get up and running and putting a brand out there that no one knows. While you have clients that have followed you … is that going to sustain a business, is that going to grow a business? I had to go out to find lead sources. I came from working under a big aggregator, under a franchise, and they had handled a lot of that. So, it’s constantly learning and trying to keep rebuilding the business.
What do you think is the sign of good customer service and what’s your process?
I don’t turn anyone away. Some people would say that’s a detriment, but I will engage with everyone because I don’t know who they know.
If you’re there and you’re supporting someone and you’re helping them, they will tell others about you.
Even if I can’t help someone on the spot, I will potentially outsource; some of my referral partners are actually other brokers who specialise in commercial asset finance. I believe that they will always remember me first and potentially will come back to me first before they seek out these other people.
I ask everyone for testimonials online, whether it’s Facebook or Google. You can never have too many good reviews. I think in Adelaide, everything is word of mouth. If you’re always putting positivity out there, if you’re always giving … help to others, it will come back.
What tech do you use to make your job more efficient?
As you get busier, the business gets harder to manage so we started implementing BrokerEngine. We try to use DocuSign wherever possible just to keep things moving as fast as we can. There’s very little paper in the business so a lot of tech is there.
We’ll also use Teams if we’re interacting with people because I can use teams and do a video call if they prefer if they’re time-poor.
We’ve recently added tech like Quickli, which I originally didn’t use, but now with the volumes we have, it’s a necessity to start bringing in more tech. We’ve also brought in scheduling software such as Asana for Instagram and Facebook.
When big volumes start to hit, it hits hard and then you have to run and keep up. Having tech apps does help a lot.
What are your top tips for new brokers?
I would say building a referral network, but build it with complementary businesses or people, who have very similar values. I find that each of the people I refer to, they’re almost like a mirror image of me and everyone likes dealing with themselves.
So if your client likes you and they trust you and they trust what you’re doing, they’re going to trust those referral partners and vice versa. You can overdo it with referrals otherwise.
Another one [is] definitely testimonials. You can never have too many positive Google reviews or too many positive Facebook reviews. Don’t be afraid to ask for them, it’s how you’re going to stand out.
[Related: How Lee Barron is providing exceptional customer service]
