2012 was the fifth year in a row for Pink Home Loans as a five-star provider. Chief executive David Copland said the company continued to do the “simple things” well, adding that it looked after its staff, who subsequently looked after its clients.
He said: “We manage the touchpoints, the moments of truth when we communicate with the customer, whether it is over the phone in a flyer or advertisement, or by email. Communication is so important, whether it is good or bad or even when we don’t have any news – there are still people out there who are concerned about their mortgages and need reassuring.
“We have demonstrated consistency over the years regarding service, and this is an award we covet.
“I’m hoping to see signs of recovery in the mortgage market over the next 12 months. We need higher loan-to-value products and more lenders who are willing to take more risks. Loosening of scorecards would be a good thing for the market, especially for young people.”
BM Solutions
BM Solutions has attributed its ninth year (out of ten) with a five-star accolade to its continued commitment to customer service and utilising the latest technology.
Phil Rickards, head of sales said the intermediary buy-to-let mortgage provider had seen a strong demand in the rental sector, leading to an increasingly competitive market.
He added: “Familiarity is an integral requirement for the brokers that we work with to provide an efficient service to their landlord clients. We have continued to stay ahead of the game by using broker feedback and innovation to improve our customer services proposition.
“With the current state of the market, speed and efficiency is integral. We have in place a call centre team who have a wealth of experience and are on hand to provide support and guidance to clients.
“While we have one of the best online application systems available in the market, we constantly gain feedback from our clients to ensure that the overall service proposition remains and our competitive suite of products and rates is straightforward and a simple proposition.
“We go out of our way to rectify any issues which occur, using innovative solutions as resolutions, most recently the launch of a BTL microsite, which supports our brokers to walk clients through all aspects of a BTL investment.”
The Mortgage Works
The Mortgage Works continues where it left off in 2011, with its reputation for delivering excellent levels of service untouched. Head of intermediary sales Ian Andrew hailed its ongoing development of processing and underwriting staff (who immersed themselves in the buy-to-let market), and a commitment to the intermediary community.
2012 saw the Nationwide subsidiary’s sixth consecutive five-star win in the mortgage category. Mr Andrew said this was the result of hard work and consistent service, and was a reflection of the company’s tagline - “a common sense approach”.
He added: “It is a tremendous achievement to be recognised once again by intermediaries, and we have seen another increase in volume over the past 12 months in a buy-to-let market which isn’t always straightforward and has struggled.
“The feedback we receive is that our service is highly regarded. For us, service is a key differentiation, and looking to the future we will be looking to improve further - we certainly won’t be resting on our laurels.”
Halifax
Ian Wilson, head of sales at Halifax Intermediaries, said a return to a five-star rating for the provider was down to its focus on making the process easier for brokers to do business.
The provider has acted on feedback from a number of broker forums to improve its overall service proposition, and made changes to its website, making it easier to provide their clients with a clear indication of what product would be best suited to them, in addition to improved speed and consistency in its decision making - allowing applications to progress much more easily.”
Mr Wilson said Halifax would continue to improve its product range and had introduced new customer propositions such as the valuation promise, and participation in the NewBuy scheme. Dedicated first time buyer products with lower fees and cashback were also launched over the past 12 months.
He added: “Alongside a highly knowledgeable team of national account managers and BDMs, we have implemented regional support teams supporting brokers with local knowledge on a day to day basis. We also have a number of dedicated teams focused solely on specialist areas such as premier mortgage lending and new build mortgage lending. These committed teams have high levels of expertise to support and guide brokers through the application process.”
Just Retirement
A fifth consecutive appearance as a five-star provider for Just Retirement has been attributed to continued attention to detail according to director of retirement needs Keith Haggart.
He said the provider had segmented their customer service teams to those dedicated to equity release and annuity business, adding: “We are always looking to improve and gain a better understanding of the business, including taking time to analyse data regarding offers and completions to see why some business doesn’t proceed, and continuously looking at whether we can change our lending criteria.
“We monitor on a day to day basis the response from intermediaries. Sometimes it is embarrassing when competitors have lower rates, but when we are judged purely on service levels we win, and this has been demonstrated by a 12 per cent growth in business for 2011/12.”
Mr Haggart added: “The equity release market is changing. The groups coming through now have more of a willingness to use the equity in their homes for their retirement. We are keen to further develop this market to meet the changing needs of customers, and have seen more than 350 advisers who may be new to the market take part in our educational webinars.
“Looking towards next year we will be analysing our whole customer proposition to see if there are things we can do better, including new technology to help intermediaries, and we plan to launch new, easier to use products.
“Just Retirement has also been at the forefront of influencing government and policy makers on how our market should develop and developed the biggest ever study into equity withdrawal to this end.”
Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide appears as a five-star winner for excellent service in the mortgage category for the fourth year in succession, the achievement follows last year’s launch of a new online mortgage application service – Nationwide for Intermediaries Online, which improved mortgage processing times for brokers.
Ian Andrew, head of intermediary sales said: “We have very high standards driven by consistent levels of service through our committed sales force, business development managers and mortgage operations staff.”
“We look for regular feedback from intermediaries to shape and develop our service proposition, and this has been reflected in both Nationwide and The Mortgage Works’s continued success in these awards. We are confident we deliver a great service, based on the huge amount of groundwork put in behind the scenes, and this has been reflected by a continued increase in our market share.
“We will continue to look for new improvements to our service levels in the future.”
LV=
This is LV=’s second year in a row with five stars for excellence, and a “wonderful achievement” based on continuous development of their product proposition, claimed head of equity release Vanessa Owen.
She said: “The equity release market is starting to show signs of picking up, and we have been been focusing on engaging with advisers who are looking at entering the market for the first time with a series of educational ‘boot camps’.
“We staged six nationwide events this year for more than 150 advisers and took them through our products and the practical side of the business. They were very well received, and clearly, equity release is here to stay. With ever decreasing pension incomes and more people retiring with debts it is now a viable option, with an increasing amount of choice for the consumer.
“This has also been demonstrated by an increase in sales for our products. They are very consumer focussed, with transparent terms and conditions and a very flexible lending policy which allows more people to access our equity release plans.
“We think being flexible and looking at each proposal on its merits is key. If a customer needs money fast, the adviser community looks to us because of the speed we can process applications at.”
She added: “We will continue to develop and listen to feedback from our customers.”
Aldermore
A second consecutive year with five stars for excellence means that Aldermore’s message has been clearly understood by the intermediary market, according to managing director of Aldermore Mortgages Charles Haresnape.
He said: “We have a very slick and interactive web-based processing system which means brokers can submit applications and get quick decisions. I think intermediaries are now grasping that Aldermore in many ways is just like a big bank, but in addition to this we can also offer a manual underwriting process.
“We encourage converstation between broker and underwriter about special cases. We are still very much a prime lender, but we also have the capability to offer manual intervention for people who may be very credit worthy, but have unusual circumstances, such as people who may not be on the electoral role, or contractors. These people would normally be refused by the automated systems.
“This enhanced service offering, we think, is quite unique, and gives us more flexibility”
He added the “challenger bank” was always looking to innovate and last year launched a 100 per cent LTV family guarantee loan for customers with no deposit but with a clean credit history.
Aldermore operates a completely paperless process, allowing brokers to scan and submit documents and track cases online. It is also a big player in the buy-to-let marketplace, having improved its offering and lending criteria in recognition of the changing BTL market.
Skipton Building Society
Skipton, which has risen from three stars in 2011 to five stars this year, says mortgage processing in the post credit-crunch market is less about volume and more about quality and service.
Paul Darwin, Skipton’s head of intermediary lending, said “every case counts” with the mutual focussing heavily on improving its mortgage application process, and claiming to be the first lender to offer a fully paperless application service - including decisions in principle within 30 minutes, a scan and upload facility for supporting documents, and case tracking by text.
It has also embarked on an extensive education process for brokers - encouraging thorough packaging of cases and the use of technological tools to improve service levels.
As a result, Skipton has improved service levels by 20 per cent, with July’s 2500 plus applications processed its highest since 2007.
Average processing times have also been reduced from 23 days to 18.
Mr Darwin added: “Service is now a key driver for many mortgage brokers. A number of larger lenders are not being so proactive in the market, which is putting more pressure on the others who sit behind them, and they are struggling to service the demand as a result.
“In some cases, service levels are resulting in brokers taking their business elsewhere. We believe service now has a very real commercial value and are therefore willing to rein in volume, where necessary, to ensure appropriate levels are maintained.”
