Our Managing Director, Dom Scott, explains how our updated website was created with the customer in mind.
We have recently updated our website and it was important to me that you, the customer, were at the forefront of the design process. Putting the customer first is a core part of our culture, supported by our willingness to build strong relationships with those who engage with us. Across the wider business there are three key areas where great relationships play an important role in the mortgage process:
1. The relationship my employees have with each other
Our people, like many, spend more of their waking hours at work than they do at home with their families. It’s important then, that work becomes a ‘home away from home’. This is best achieved by creating a friendly, productive environment where employees actively support each other’s development making them better able to service their customers.
2. The relationship my employees have with their friends and families
The people who do well at Alexander Hall are those looking to build good lives for themselves. Quite often this is complemented by (but not necessarily limited to) spending time with friends, settling down with partners, starting families and buying homes. I want them to have the time to enjoy these things. Finding the right work/life balance is not only the vital ingredient to being motivated, but also for being motivated in the right way.
3. The relationships my employees have with their customers
People with wholesome aspirations are more inclined to build their career as a mortgage adviser with longevity in mind. This directly benefits customers, who are more likely to deal with advisers who genuinely care, who invest more time into their transactions and go the extra mile when needed. One of the best parts of the job is seeing customers mature from being first-time buyers purchasing with friends to being home movers buying with their families. Great mortgage advisers develop sincere bonds with their customers and measure their success by how these relationships grow.
More about the website
Our new website now better reflects the importance of these three areas to our culture at Alexander Hall. The site promotes our strong belief that people continue to be at the heart of the mortgage process and people want to speak to qualified mortgage specialists during what continues to be an emotionally-driven experience. Kevin Roberts, director of Legal & General Mortgage Club, has done a lot of great work in promoting the ‘value of advice’ to support this message. Their research shows that 81% of homeowners thought the advice of an adviser was ‘quite valuable’ or ‘extremely valuable’ when securing a mortgage.
The user-friendly design of our new site makes it easier for customers to find the information they need. This is complemented by lots of guides, written to give our customers an easily-digestible insight into a broad range of topics.
Award-winning technology
We are thrilled to incorporate award-winning technology into the website which allows our customers to search thousands of live mortgage deals ahead of talking to one of our mortgage advisers. This upgrade is incredibly exciting as it means you as the customer can research at your own leisure, whether it’s on the sofa, on the bus or on holiday.
We are also pleased to include several new web pages covering topics our customers are showing an increasing appetite. These areas include, New Build, Help to Buy, Shared Ownership and Later Life Borrowing to name but a few.
Greg Cunnington, director of lender relationships and new homes at Alexander Hall, has a dedicated page to himself, showing off the 105+ lenders (and growing!) he has opened up to Alexander Hall’s customers. Over time we are planning to include an archive of the articles Greg has written for ‘What Mortgage’, so customers can refer back to those pearls of wisdom from previous months.
Diversity
The other strong theme of the website is diversity. When I watch our clients walk in and out of our branches, I see the rich mix of our wonderful multicultural society. I was keen for the website to reflect this, so that clients who may already feel a bit intimidated by mortgages not only feel the topic is accessible but that it’s accessible to ‘real’ people who look like them.
I sincerely hope the website provides ‘What Mortgages’ customers with all the tools they need to make their mortgage journeys simple and informed. The site is a bi-product of us listening to you and we are still listening. Watch this space for further improvements.
This article was originally posted in What Mortgage online. You can see the original article here. Please note this will launch a new web page.
