Regional lender
Bankwest has launched a new pricing tool to its digital broker platform which allows brokers to receive real-time responses when requesting personalised home loan rates for clients.
The tool, which is available on the bank’s Home Lending Portal, has been created through broker feedback and rolled out across Bankwest’s third party network.
The response from brokers who have trialled the tool has been very gratifying, said Bankwest general manager of broker sales Stewart Saunders.
“We were keen to get this tool right first time and deliver something which continues to evolve and improve brokers’ experience of Bankwest,” he said.
“We held focus groups and did broker site visits – everything we could do to try to understand what they wanted and how we could help.”
The pricing tool supplies brokers with real-time decisions on discretionary rates for prospective clients by using a structured approach to pricing approvals. While standard decisions will be automated, more complicated ones will be sent to a Bankwest business development manager instead.
“That was something the brokers told us they really appreciated – the fact that there’s also a human point of reference, so we made sure we took this into consideration,” Saunders said.
The pricing tool will be linked to the Home Loan Portal, which was
rolled out in July, and includes the following features:
- Pre-population of fields with relevant data
- A shortlist of applications to quickly link pricing requests
- Displays of associated client application statuses so brokers can identify when contracts have been issued and when adjustments are required
In combination, this has led to a reduction in manual data entry, improved response times, and increased transparency for brokers.
“Aside from the positive feedback we’ve received, we’re very pleased with the speed with which we have been able to roll this out to the broker community. It’s been about five months from first inception, through a couple of iterations to full deployment now,” Saunders said.
The pricing tool will make it “significantly easier and faster” for brokers by streamlining internal processes, giving brokers direct access to submit requests, and allowing brokers to more quickly advise customers about their potential home loan rates, he told
Australian Broker.
“Typical requests will receive an initial response within seconds of submission. More involved deals will generally be responded to within our service level agreement.”
The development of the Home Lending Portal reflects how Bankwest views its relationship with brokers, said general manager of customer transformation Jarod Avila.
“At Bankwest, our brokers are important to us so we’re continuing to invest in them. We’re on a journey to create a world class home loan experience; making it simpler and easier to support them in growing their business.
“The Home Lending Portal,
the Application Tracker and now this Pricing Tool have all been designed with their needs and goals in mind, as we continuously evolve and improve our broker offering.”
Bankwest has a pipeline of further developments to roll out with the next development being speed to response for pricing request for broker customers, Saunders said.
“In November we will be integrating the home lending portal with the Bankwest broker website which we have rebuilt from the ground up and will now be a one stop shop for our brokers to be able to access all information and systems in one place, from one login.
“The other exciting aspect to our home lending portal is that the changes we are making are based on broker feedback and we are continuing to refine the platforms we provide brokers based on what will make their lives easier.”
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