WHAT DRIVES BORROWER LOYALTY POST SETTLEMENT?
What do you need to STOP doing? What do you need to START doing?
Last year, ActivePipe Australia released it’s white paper on what drives borrower loyalty. They interviewed a mix of Broker and Direct to Bank Home Loan Customers. These were my KEY INSIGHTS.
POST-SETTLEMENT CONTACT
- 15% of Broker clients reported receiving regular phone calls
- 60% of Broker clients reported receiving regular emails
- 25% could not remember ever hearing from their Broker again
- 95% of Direct to Bank customers reported that their Bank did not stay in touch except for transactional emails
- 10% of Direct to Bank customers felt some sort of loyalty to their Bank
- 95% of Direct to Bank customers planned to visit a Rate Comparison Site
- 15% of Direct to Bank customers would ask their Bank directly to match or lower their rate
WHAT CLIENTS REALLY THINK OF YOUR EMAILS
- Overall, they DO NOT see the value in RBA Interest Rate updates, especially where there is NO CHANGE in rate
- Overall, they are wary of competition emails offering a Chance to Win a Holiday. They are sophisticated enough to know that this is a grab for names to add to a database
- They have mixed feelings about the offer of FREE Property Reports. Half report they can obtain these themselves today from any number of providers. The other half see value in the Offer
- They have mixed feelings about your Monthly Newsletters. If the content is relevant, they like your monthly emails. But if your newsletter is too long, too clunky, too many links, with content of a general nature, they don’t like them.
- They LOVE Interest Rate Comparison emails
- They dislike Home Loan Education emails, preferring to source this information for themselves when they have the need
FAMILIARITY INFLUENCES OPEN RATES
- Familiarity is the Number 1 factor that influences open rates
- The first thing the recipient will do is check the Sender’s Name
- If they don’t know you, they’re likely to suspect SPAM and will not open
- BUT they are more likely to trust an “unknown business” that an “unknown person”
THEY HATE
- Sales-like emails
- Emails that make ‘sensationalist’ claims
- Too many “Calls to Action”
- Stock Images
- Being re-directed to a website
THEY DON’T READ, THEY SCAN
- They OPEN then make a split-second decision – delete or keep?
- Then they SCAN
- Jumping from one headline to the next
- Reading ONLY paragraphs of interest
5 KILLER TIPS!
- Short Headlines
- Use Infographics
- BIG blocks of text are annoying
- No paragraphs more than 2 sentences
- Content ‘below the fold’ often gets ignored. SAY WHAT MATTERS most FIRST!!
LOW INTEREST RATES ARE HARD TO RESIST
- Loyal clients are most likely to take a Rival’s offer to their Broker
- Ignored clients will just leave
- MOST ENTICING to your clients are: low rates, refinance deals, tips on saving money
EARNING THEIR LOYALTY
- Phone them regularly (I recommend at least 2-3 times a year for no reason)
- Email them monthly
- Content on making money, saving money, saving time
My sincere thanks to Paul Smith, Head of Broker Channel for Activepipe Australia for commissioning the report from which I base my findings for this Blog. For a full copy of their Home Loan Study White Paper, download from their website https://info.activepipe.com/home-loan-study-whitepaper
