A Central Coast based brokerage has beat lawyers, accountants, financial planners and marketing professionals to take home a win from the Australian Small Business Champion Awards.
Astute Ability Group from Erina won the ‘Professional Services’ award at the ceremony held over the weekend at The Westin Sydney – beating 15 other finalists.
Mhairi Macleod, founder and principal of Astute says it is their commitment to building a lasting relationship with clients which won them the trophy.
“[The awards] are looking for people who have high standards of excellence in the way they communicate with their client base and keep their clients up to date. I think we are unique in the way that we are doing all those things on a regular basis and not just relying on a ‘fill in a form and we’ll do the business’ approach, but we are actually talking to clients,” she told
Australian Broker.
“We are actually building a rapport and having that communication open on all levels – not just at the first point of contact but throughout the whole course of the loan.”
Macleod says it also comes down to their use of technology to make the loan process quick, easy and personal for clients. The brokerage, which is based on the NSW Central Coast, still services clients nationwide.
“It is also the technology that we use. We deal with many clients remotely, so we have Skype available. This makes sure our clients still have got that interaction with a human being.
“At the end of the day, a lot of businesses are trying to go completely online and we can actually do that, but we don’t. We prefer for our clients to have the option of being face-to-face, even if they are remote.
“We don’t have to be in a major city for customers to come to us and deal with us.”
The Australian Small Business Champion Awards is the only national recognition program for Australian small businesses. The program is a way to recognise the efforts of small businesses to the prosperity and vitality of communities across Australia.
