One of the senior executives working for a top mortgage lender in the UK has stated that over 50% of advisors have now switched from telephone to live chat when it comes to communicating about applications.
Gemma Atkin is employed by NatWest as its telephony head, and has gone on record with this claim. She went on to say that the lender was investing more in live chat facilities, ensuring that advisors had support before and after submission as well as technical help with queries.
According to Atkin, the business development team at NatWest handle its live chat. They all possess genuine policy and process skills and are able to deal with both live chat and telephone enquiries from mortgage advisors. Atkin pointed out that close to 55% of the advisors who deal with NatWest were choosing live chat as their preferred method of communication now:
“Since we made our structural changes last May, we’ve seen more brokers having trust in using our live chat facility. Our new business development team are brilliantly trained on both systems (live chat and taking telephone enquiries).”
The lender is certainly not neglecting its telephone lines. These remain staffed by roughly 100 people and there are a further 50 available to assist advisors both before an application is submitted and afterwards. Atkin went on to say that advisors want speedy responses and accountability from lenders.
It is possible that many of those who have CeMAP mortgage advisor training value the instant responsiveness that a live chat facility offers.
