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Brad: [00:00:18] Yeah. We're almost 12 months into the merge and already our brokers are seeing immediate benefit from the coming together of these two great businesses to create a sort of a, you know, an industry leading powerhouse, we believe. If you look at our brokers, all brokers are in some way benefiting. We've got the lending and domain brokers who are pound for pound, some of the most productive brokers in the industry, but they're also already benefiting from continued investment in technology. In fact, with the merger, it's given us a, you know, an unprecedented sort of amount of resource to be able to continue to invest in in the platform. And these are not big bang investments as far as just a one off. They're iterative investments, adding new product suites for those brokers. We've also got improved functionality, better customer scenarios that they're able to deal with, more complex scenarios, and they're all being deployed in readiness to roll on the Aussie brokers to the platform as well. And the Aussie brokers are not being left out. In fact they're getting some fantastic support from operational processes, some IP that's been existing on the lending side now being deployed across to the Aussie brokers, allowing them to be more efficient, better customer interaction and also ultimately a better business and a better scalable business and saving them time and adding value to their business as well. And ultimately the Aussie brokers will be rolled on to platform later this year and enjoy all of the seamless benefits of the interaction.

Brad: [00:01:48] Look at the end of the day for a customer. You know, the property process or financing for a property is one of the most complex, disjointed and, you know, and really hard processes. Of course, the brokers are there to help them on the way, but the brokers also have to go through that journey as well. I think it comes down to one as many challenges, but it comes down to one major challenge for all brokers. And it's about time. Time taken to collect customer information, understand their needs and objectives. Time to interface with lenders, with BDMs to find out product niches, etc. and appropriate products. And of course, time to just spend finding new customers and new opportunities all at the same time as running their business. And all of this time takes cost into brokers business. So that to me is, is the biggest challenge. And quite frankly, that's why we exist. And we are super sharply focused on removing those the time out of the brokers day so they can focus on value add activities and really adding value to that customer experience and making sure that that experience is seamless. Creating that seamless experience to us is about bringing together of all the stakeholders. If you think you've got customers, brokers, lenders, the product suites available and ultimately data, that's that brings all of that ecosystem together and allows brokers to be not only super efficient but have really rich engaging relationships with their customers. You know, at the heart of the strategy for us, we really refined and and redefined the broker value proposition around meeting the challenges that brokers face every day.

Brad: [00:03:31] Ultimately, if we're to create the best customer experience, we have to have the best broker experience in the best broker value proposition. And that is about allowing brokers ultimately to be most productive. And by being productive and efficient, they can also look to scale should they choose to do so by accessing new customer markets, etc. and ultimately for us to be profitable. You know, we all come into this beautiful industry with a view of growing businesses and being profitable is one part. Sure. But it's an important part of that journey. So by removing cost out of the business for brokers and allowing them to drive more revenue, they can ultimately be more profitable. And that is the heart of our value proposition to the brokers. We've as I said, we have rolled out already some new product suites available to our lending and domain brokers. They are getting new new customer scenarios available through their platform and an ongoing iteration of that. But on the Aussie side, we've deployed some really exciting new operational or operating model changes and two major changes now being introduced to the Aussie brokers before actually the technology platform that allows them to be ready for technology but also seeks and benefit immediately. The two major changes we're making is one in the Associates team and the other is in the Client Solutions team. And the Associates team are a team that are a sales team that is highly specialized in customer engagement.

Brad: [00:04:59] They help qualify the customer ensuring they're ready to meet the broker, collect documents that are required, but also for those customers that may not be ready to see a broker put them on a bespoke journey or nurture program that's highly contextual to that customer's personal situation. You know, whether they're a fixed rate customer, first home buyer investor prepares them to be ready to actually take that next step in the journey and when they are, presents them back to the broker. So this is a highly efficient process that takes time out of a broker's day doing that qualification and document collection and gives contextual data and also required data when they do have that initial engagement with the broker. So the broker can be highly efficient, have a great relationship building exercise and also start the customer into the journey immediately. The other key team that we've started to deploy across and offer to the Aussie Broker Network is the Client Solutions team. This team is a specialised team that is preparing the loan documentation and effectively loan packaging on behalf of the broker. The broker, the customer and the packaging team are in constant contact that ensures that the broker is first and foremost. Of course, the Client Solutions team is acting on behalf of the broker and from a customer's point of view they see that the team is all centred around ensuring they have a smooth process and a quicker time to delivery.

Brad: [00:06:27] We've been piloting both of these programs across the Aussie network and we've seen some remarkable improvements from an associates team point of view. We've seen a doubling effectively of the lodgement per month for those brokers that are on the pilot, also a half or a 50% reduction in their RMIs that are going through to the banks, which of course saves time for both the broker, the customer and of course the lenders as well. And ultimately they're being more productive in their time and time users, allowing them freeing their time in their in their diary to, of course, be more scalable. We're seeing similar results in the Client Solutions team and from those extensive pilots that we've done. We're excited to be able to launch those to the existing Aussie mobile team on an opt in basis. So brokers are being invited to opt in to these programs. Any new broker, of course coming to the to the Aussie channel now will benefit immediately from these changes as well. So it's a very exciting time and a sort of a new era for the Aussie Broker network. Tech is at the heart of our strategy. You know, obviously, the technology and the proprietary knowledge that's been built by the lending team over many years is now being deployed across all of our brokers and will be the heartbeat of their broker operations. But it's being supported importantly by an operating model that at is of course, a key part of delivering those benefits. But we never lose sight of the fact that, frankly, this industry and of course, the broker interaction is human led. You know, it's all about creating better enablement for brokers to have more time engaging with customers and giving them a great experience and that we never lose sight of. It's a very important part of the value proposition, and it's a very important part of the model that we are building for the brokers. We're saving them time in their day so they can spend more time meeting more customers and of course, giving them a great experience. Aussie retail channel is very important Channel four for Ozzy. Obviously it's quite a unique construct that we have. With Ozzy retail, it is the number one retail business in the country. From a mortgage broking business point of view. And we have a very compelling vision for that channel as well. First and foremost is our market representation. We are very focused on high priority sites now and making sure that we have representation in each of those high priority sites. Secondly, we're very focused on existing sites and probably most importantly, making them most productive that we can. You know, our vision is that our franchisees can be truly CEOs of their business. So we're creating scalable techniques for them to introduce brokers into their business, take advantage of the new processes and systems available through the merge now, and really build out scale in their business. They've invested a lot of time and energy into this brand and we're investing a lot of time and energy into them as we move to this next chapter at building our productivity personnel per broker across the country. That's going to be done through a series of initiatives, not least of which which is the enablement of those franchisees to onboard new brokers quicker and bring them to a speed of competency quicker as well, creating great opportunities for them to grow revenue in their teams and have highly sustainable brokers within their business. I mean, this is a fantastic industry. It's shown its, you know, an enormous amount of resilience over the last couple of years, especially, you know, the sector is growing at, you know, the lion's share of all loans being written. Now, coming through mortgage broking. We can only see that improving and increasing into the future. So great choice in moving to the industry and great choice and thinking about the lending group. We have a very unique model now and we think really unmatched in the industry as far as different pathways into becoming a broker, whether it be in the Associates team, learning the craft, learning the understandings of customers through the salary brokers, independent contractors and of course, those looking to scale their business and operate on a different model. Of course, we have the retail business as well, all end to end with a seamless journey between those established, between brand and between channel. Brokers have the opportunity to choose their journey and choose the way that they would like to scale their business as well.