Experts from Mortgage Choice Newtown, Home Loan Experts, and Home Loan Experts share insights on offshoring parts of your business.
Experts from Mortgage Choice Newtown, Home Loan Experts, and Home Loan Experts share insights on offshoring parts of your business.
Owun Taylor
Owner/Partner
Mortgage Choice Newtown
The short answer is no, not at the moment, and nothing in the near future. With my business hat on I can see the cost reasons why the bigger lenders look at these options (sometimes good, sometimes not so).
Five years ago we did use a loans admin service based in Queensland (not quite off shore, until State of Origin time that is). They had a connection to the Mortgage Choice network so there was a good understanding of the systems. We do prefer for ease of management to keep it in-house.
We have designed the business for the personal touch and when every client walks through our door they meet the entire team so as to put a face to the name. We have one phone number and no one needs to “select 1 for sales or 2 for accounts”.
We find this important so that our clients can connect with us at any time and feel comfortable throughout the entire process – creating a sense of trust and discretion.
Otto Dargan
Managing director
Home Loan Experts
Since commissions were reduced during the GFC it just isn’t viable to have support for brokers in Australia unless the brokers are settling huge volumes. Technology has advanced to the point where off shoring is feasible for most businesses, and we had learned how to manage an off shore team. So from a strategic point of view we could offer an unprecedented level of support for a much lower cost.
We’ve been able to hire proactively ready to grow, so we don’t experience any delays for our brokers as our volumes increase.
We’ve also been able to get the brokers to focus just on working with customers. We’re not 100% there yet but our goal is to have brokers check the support team’s data entry, click submit, and forget about the fi le.
Lastly, we’ve been able to off er a higher level of service. We have a three-person team who help our customers after settlement. That means our brokers don’t have to worry about variations or construction progress payments.
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Joel Wyld
Director
Peasy – Property, Easy
I personally am not a fan of off shoring. I do understand the benefits, and why other brokers use it; however, my business model encourages brokers learning from the ground up. Having those admin roles within our office enables us to train new entrants into the industry from the beginning of the process – lodging and preparing applications – up to relationship management and being involved in the advice piece. I also think there are parts of Australia with low levels of employment which would make a better destination for processing, both through assisting the local economy and getting a better customer experience.
We recently advertised an administration role and had over 30 résumés sent in on the first day. However, a more experienced or upskilled role we advertised didn’t have this many in 30 days. If you read into this you could probably say that there are not enough entry-level positions available for people in Australia at the moment. I certainly wouldn’t want to be compounding this by sending any of our jobs overseas in the near future.
Owun TaylorOwner/Partner
Mortgage Choice Newtown
The short answer is no, not at the moment, and nothing in the near future. With my business hat on I can see the cost reasons why the bigger lenders look at these options (sometimes good, sometimes not so).
Five years ago we did use a loans admin service based in Queensland (not quite off shore, until State of Origin time that is). They had a connection to the Mortgage Choice network so there was a good understanding of the systems. We do prefer for ease of management to keep it in-house.
We have designed the business for the personal touch and when every client walks through our door they meet the entire team so as to put a face to the name. We have one phone number and no one needs to “select 1 for sales or 2 for accounts”.
We find this important so that our clients can connect with us at any time and feel comfortable throughout the entire process – creating a sense of trust and discretion.
Otto DarganManaging director
Home Loan Experts
Since commissions were reduced during the GFC it just isn’t viable to have support for brokers in Australia unless the brokers are settling huge volumes. Technology has advanced to the point where off shoring is feasible for most businesses, and we had learned how to manage an off shore team. So from a strategic point of view we could offer an unprecedented level of support for a much lower cost.
We’ve been able to hire proactively ready to grow, so we don’t experience any delays for our brokers as our volumes increase.
We’ve also been able to get the brokers to focus just on working with customers. We’re not 100% there yet but our goal is to have brokers check the support team’s data entry, click submit, and forget about the fi le.
Lastly, we’ve been able to off er a higher level of service. We have a three-person team who help our customers after settlement. That means our brokers don’t have to worry about variations or construction progress payments.
Joel WyldDirector
Peasy – Property, Easy
I personally am not a fan of off shoring. I do understand the benefits, and why other brokers use it; however, my business model encourages brokers learning from the ground up. Having those admin roles within our office enables us to train new entrants into the industry from the beginning of the process – lodging and preparing applications – up to relationship management and being involved in the advice piece. I also think there are parts of Australia with low levels of employment which would make a better destination for processing, both through assisting the local economy and getting a better customer experience.
We recently advertised an administration role and had over 30 résumés sent in on the first day. However, a more experienced or upskilled role we advertised didn’t have this many in 30 days. If you read into this you could probably say that there are not enough entry-level positions available for people in Australia at the moment. I certainly wouldn’t want to be compounding this by sending any of our jobs overseas in the near future.
