Back not so long ago I can remember reading countless articles and opinion pieces in the press about who ‘owns’ the client. These pieces normally followed a well-worn pattern with brokers/advisers/intermediaries feeling ‘their’ client had been contacted and/or marketed to directly by a provider or lender in, what the adviser felt, was a blatant attempt to disconnect their relationship with that client.
The gist of the perceived injustice tended to be that it was rather rich of these companies to, on the one hand, be seemingly reaching out to the adviser community to grow relationships and secure business and yet, once they had the client details, be rather blatant in their attempts to sell product to the client direct.
This is not something you hear much of these days although I have no doubt that it is still going on throughout the industry. I can fully sympathise with advisers who lost clients and business when this practise was widespread however I do feel that those lenders and providers who are very much intermediary-focused today are not likely to jeopardise their use of this distribution channel by attempt to sell direct to clients.
The argument however about who ‘owns’ the client is still a very pertinent one particularly in the conveyancing advice arena where the perceived idea is that we are seeing a straight fight between proactive estate agents and proactive advisers. However, and it’s a point that’s often been raised, very often the client will be left to their own devices when it comes to choosing a conveyancer which seems a rather an odd decision to make if you’re an adviser who is able to offer a recommendation in this area, keep the client happy and pick up some not inconsiderable income at the same time.
While there are many advisers out there who do cover conveyancing in their recommendation, there are a sizeable number who do not, and this was made even more glaringly obvious to me when I read the results of a recent home moving trends survey. It asked nearly 5,000 people who had moved house in the last year a series of questions about the experience. One of those was regarding how they came to use their last conveyancing solicitor – nearly half (46%) said they found the recommendation through their estate agent, 31% had used the solicitor before, 14% were recommended by a friend, 7% found them online while 1% got in touch via a local newspaper advert.
You will note there is not one mention of an adviser although, to give the profession the benefit of the doubt, this might not have been an option and it may have been covered by the ‘recommendation of a friend’. However, let’s be brutally honest the figures tend to suggest that agents have the client’s ear when it comes to recommending a conveyancer and one wonders what a clued-up, proactive agent is earning from those recommendations every year.
The old argument of course is that agents will always have the lion’s share of conveyancing advice business because they get their hands on the client first. However, this isn’t necessarily the case is it? After all, many clients will certainly want to have an idea about their ability to secure a mortgage or to see how much they can borrow before they start looking at properties. Therefore, there is an opportunity available here but, if we are to believe the survey, then agents appear to be taking ownership of this particular advice process in a far more focused way than advisers.
Again, this need not be the case. If a client has come to you, the adviser, then how well informed are they about the services you offer? Before they move off to see the agent do they even know you can recommend a solicitor? Or are they simply taking it as read that you can provide the mortgage advice and they should seek the rest of their needs elsewhere? Because if this is their belief when they leave you then you are not communicating as well as you could be.
The fact is that clients come to you looking for advice on the biggest financial decision of their lives. They trust you to advise and recommend in this area so why wouldn’t they take your advice in terms of a conveyancer? Indeed I would argue that they’re much more likely to take your advice in this context than any other professional they will come across. Therefore you do have the opportunity to own the client, not just for the mortgage but every single other piece of financial and legal advice they need. This is an opportunity that should not be wasted and therefore you need to dedicate yourself to this before anyone else takes it away from you.
You would certainly not give up the client so easily to a lender or provider so why do it for an agent? Now is the time to make sure they know they can have all their needs met by you and the chances are you will not only have them as a client for a very long time but you will have the business of most of their friends and family as well. Don’t leave anything to chance and the client won’t leave you.
Harpal Singh is managing director of BrokerConveyancing.co.uk
