Best Practices
When completing a mortgage transaction in Canada, the client must renew their mortgage every five years, but some may choose to do that even earlier. As a broker, if a client renews elsewhere—with the bank or another broker, for example—you will lose the potential commission you would receive if you were to renew the client yourself.
Today, we’re going to look at six ways to build client relationships as a mortgage broker in order to retain customers, maximize income potential, and avoid losing business to another financial outlet.
When you’re busy building your business and serving customers, it’s easy to let things fall through the cracks. Ultimately, you want to make sure you stay connected to your customers to ensure their needs are met, and CRM automation helps you do that. CRM automation can automate Messenger and social media responses, ensuring that no lead falls through the cracks, even when you’re up to your eyeballs.
From sending timely reminders to marketing new products or sending high-value content, consistent messaging ensures you stay top-of-mind with your clientele without any extra effort on your part. With automation, you’ll have more time to focus on nurturing new clients, closing deals, and building strategies.
Your customers are homeowners—and homeowners appreciate tips and advice on ways to improve their quality of life and the value of their homes. This type of valuable information is always welcome, especially when the result is money saved, comfort optimized, or surroundings beautified.
Some examples of content you can create include seasonal checklists, tips on design trends, landscaping ideas, and ways to save money on energy bills. Your advice positions you as an expert and keeps customers coming back for more. Plus, the content you create gives you something to post on your social channels, helping to improve organic (unpaid) online engagement and widen your audience.
These days, there are so many ways to connect with businesses. Customers have an expectation that they ought to be able to communicate with their preferred brands from any platform they choose, whether that’s through social media, email, Messenger, WhatsApp, telephone, or live chat on your website. Don’t limit yourself to one or two methods—embrace them all!
Fortunately, your CRM helps you connect all the dots, so it’s no extra burden at all. All communications come to a central dashboard, so you can move between different contact modes without switching back and forth to different apps. All customer communication is consolidated in one place, so when you are speaking directly with the customer, you’ll be able to see every conversation, every request, and every concern they’ve had over their entire lifecycle with you.
Personalization improves your customer communication and helps you make more meaningful connections. Every email or text addresses them directly and by name, and even the messaging can be customized to reflect their status. For example, you would probably word a message a little differently for a new customer than you would for one who’s been with you for many years, and the content might be a little different too.
Personalized messages on their birthday, anniversary, or to celebrate a milestone are always a delight, and it’s these types of gestures that they’ll remember for a long time to come. For your best customers, you might even think about sending thoughtful gifts, like glassware, a bottle of wine, or a cookbook. As far as customer retention goes, this is a big one. People prefer to do business with companies and people that know them and understand their needs. Establishing new relationships takes time and energy. When your customers know you’re there for them, there’s no reason to jump ship.
Maintaining a consistent look and tone for all communications improves open rates for emails and other content. Most people are very busy, and the more recognizable your outgoing messages are, the better your engagement metrics will be.
Using templates is an excellent way to keep it simple on your end. Pre-defined templates save time and ensure a streamlined effort across the board, even if another employee authors the message. You can set up pre-defined templates for emails or SMS, and when you’re ready to send, simply fill them out, schedule, and go.
Everybody has an opinion, and there’s not a soul who doesn’t want to be asked if they have one. Reaching out to request their thoughts on your services and customer service factors helps you understand what you’re doing right and the correct course quickly if something isn’t quite right.
The trouble with our current “ratings and reviews” society is that people will more often take the time to offer negative feedback, but when they’re happy, it doesn’t cross their minds. Feedback, to a mortgage broker, is essential for many reasons. It shows the customer you’re paying attention and that you care about what they think. It alerts you to potential new services you might not have considered, and it sets the stage for innovation.
Lastly, feedback keeps the lines of communication open. When your customers know you are there for them, it builds loyalty, and there won’t be any question about who they will choose when it comes time to refinance.
So, now that you’re armed with our six top tips for customer retention, it’s time to put them into action. BluMortgage CRM is purpose-built for mortgage brokers and provides all the features you need to stay connected with your clientele, track and nurture leads efficiently, and, most importantly—boost retention.
Are you ready to put your retention strategy into action? BluMortgage combines CRM, advanced marketing features, deal flow, and lead follow-up into a single user-friendly solution you’ll love. We put customer retention on autopilot, so you can focus on what matters most. Reach out to learn more about BluMortgage or book your demo today.
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