Bluestone boss on how you can measure customer satisfaction and grow your brokerage
Bluestone boss on how you can measure customer satisfaction and grow your brokeragess
It goes without saying that customer satisfaction is a high-priority metric that’s critical in the mortgage industry, where relationships are the bloodline of business.
For years, larger operations have used surveys to assess experiences, improve relationships and gain insight into how to increase sales by investing in their audience. However, for smaller operations, formal customer satisfaction tracking isn’t typically the norm. But it’s worth considering as a means to deepen relationships, increase retention, generate revenue and provide a competitive edge – particularly in an environment that’s becoming increasingly aggressive and saturated.
With the continual advance of technology, there’s now a number of low-cost online survey platforms that enable satisfaction to be tracked without breaking the bank. To maximise response rates, we suggest:
1) Send out the survey the week after the loan has been settled with messaging along the lines of: “Congratulations on your new home! We’d love to hear about your experiences with us”
2) Use mainly quantitative questions as this style of survey is quick and easy to do (i.e. yes/ no, unhappy, neutral or happy; score 1 – 10, etc)
3) Limit the volume of questions (6-8)
There are endless metrics that can be applied to measure satisfaction. We suggest orienting questions around overall satisfaction, expectation vs perception (i.e. whether their expectations were met), along with drilling down a little deeper to get insight into your customer’s motivators. Ask questions such as:
1. What’s most important to you when selecting a loan? (Tick one)
4. How happy were you with the outcome? (Unhappy; neutral; happy)
5. How happy were you with your overall experience? (Unhappy; neutral; happy)
6. How likely would you be to recommend us to your friends and/ or family? (Not likely; likely; very likely)
7. Was there anything you would have liked to be done differently? (Please specify)
However, there’s no point tracking satisfaction unless you’re going to use the results. Here’s how we suggest you get maximum return of the data obtained:
1) Set KPIs against each question (i.e. that 80%+ of clients surveyed are happy)
2) Follow up with customers that state they’re “unhappy/ not likely” to recommend you
3) Convert rankings to statistics and use them to promote your company in your sales materials and through social media (i.e. “95% of our customers were happy with our service,” etc)
4) Track repeat business and referral rates based on responses
The upside of happy customers is clear. We encourage brokers to use customer satisfaction tracking as a means to grow their business and stay ahead of the game.
Royden D'Vaz is the national manager of sales, marketing and distribution at Bluestone Mortgages. Previously he worked at NAB, Challenger and GE Capital. Read more about Bluestone: https://www.bluestone.com.au/
It goes without saying that customer satisfaction is a high-priority metric that’s critical in the mortgage industry, where relationships are the bloodline of business.
For years, larger operations have used surveys to assess experiences, improve relationships and gain insight into how to increase sales by investing in their audience. However, for smaller operations, formal customer satisfaction tracking isn’t typically the norm. But it’s worth considering as a means to deepen relationships, increase retention, generate revenue and provide a competitive edge – particularly in an environment that’s becoming increasingly aggressive and saturated.
With the continual advance of technology, there’s now a number of low-cost online survey platforms that enable satisfaction to be tracked without breaking the bank. To maximise response rates, we suggest:
1) Send out the survey the week after the loan has been settled with messaging along the lines of: “Congratulations on your new home! We’d love to hear about your experiences with us”
2) Use mainly quantitative questions as this style of survey is quick and easy to do (i.e. yes/ no, unhappy, neutral or happy; score 1 – 10, etc)
3) Limit the volume of questions (6-8)
There are endless metrics that can be applied to measure satisfaction. We suggest orienting questions around overall satisfaction, expectation vs perception (i.e. whether their expectations were met), along with drilling down a little deeper to get insight into your customer’s motivators. Ask questions such as:
1. What’s most important to you when selecting a loan? (Tick one)
a. Competitive rate
b. Easy process
c. Broker relationship/ advisory role
2. How would you rank your satisfaction with these areas? (Unhappy; neutral; happy)
b. Easy process
c. Broker relationship/ advisory role
a. Competitive rate
b. Easy process
c. Broker relationship/ advisory role
3. How happy were you with the process? (Unhappy; neutral; happy)b. Easy process
c. Broker relationship/ advisory role
4. How happy were you with the outcome? (Unhappy; neutral; happy)
5. How happy were you with your overall experience? (Unhappy; neutral; happy)
6. How likely would you be to recommend us to your friends and/ or family? (Not likely; likely; very likely)
7. Was there anything you would have liked to be done differently? (Please specify)
However, there’s no point tracking satisfaction unless you’re going to use the results. Here’s how we suggest you get maximum return of the data obtained:
1) Set KPIs against each question (i.e. that 80%+ of clients surveyed are happy)
2) Follow up with customers that state they’re “unhappy/ not likely” to recommend you
3) Convert rankings to statistics and use them to promote your company in your sales materials and through social media (i.e. “95% of our customers were happy with our service,” etc)
4) Track repeat business and referral rates based on responses
The upside of happy customers is clear. We encourage brokers to use customer satisfaction tracking as a means to grow their business and stay ahead of the game.
Royden D'Vaz is the national manager of sales, marketing and distribution at Bluestone Mortgages. Previously he worked at NAB, Challenger and GE Capital. Read more about Bluestone: https://www.bluestone.com.au/ 
