1. THE MORTGAGE ADVISORY SURVEY
The journey taken by customers when using a mortgage intermediary

2. Mortgage Advisor Survey
Overview
The ask;
To understand;
How a customer decides which mortgage broker to use & how they discovered them
How they interacted during the process & what the customer thought of the experience
What our intermediary partners can do to improve their service & what we can do to help
Our approach;
A bespoke research survey was created (appendix 1)
1,317 invitations with a survey link were issued to a random representative sample of customers who had completed a mortgage with Virgin Money between 1st June & 31st August 2016
Customers who completed the survey were given the opportunity to win an iPad Mini
Output;
104 responses (7.9% response rate) to the survey; findings are therefore robust enough to share with our Intermediary Exchange community
What is the journey undertaken by our customers who have completed a mortgage using a mortgage intermediary?

3. Mortgage Advisor Survey
Headlines [1]
Which of the following, if any, did you consider before deciding to use a mortgage advisor?
How did you find your mortgage advisor?
53% of respondents considered obtaining information from a mortgage comparison site
30% found their mortgage advisor using the Find A Mortgage Broker web site
26% considered going direct to the mortgage lender
32% had used their mortgage advisor before
42% would still use a price comparison site if they knew about our offers
How many mortgage advisors did you approach before you decided to use this one?
How did your mortgage advisor update you during your application?
42% would still use a price comparison site if they knew about our offers
20% used the second mortgage advisor they approached
92%
via
82%
by telephone
33%
face to face
72% used the first mortgage advisor they approached
The use of price comparison sites is in line with our other products; more customers are using these as the first point of research
More first time buyers are using the Find A Mortgage Broker web site than taking recommendations from estate agents / builders (13%)
Customers do not tend to shop around, with over half only approaching one mortgage advisor
Keeping customers informed & up to date drove positive experience; customers preferred being updated on their terms

4. Mortgage Advisor Survey
Headlines [2]
Did you use your mortgage advisors website?
Have you used this mortgage advisor to discuss other financial service products?
63% did not use their mortgage advisors website
63% have not discussed additional products
21% have discussed additional products
42% would still use a price comparison site if they knew about our offers
Can you please tell us which products you have discussed?
How likely are you to use this mortgage advisor to discuss other products?
42% would still use a price comparison site if they knew about our offers
42% would still use a price comparison site if they knew about our offers
21%
Home Insurance
13%
BTL Mortgages
25% of respondents who had not discussed additional products, would consider this in the future
48%
Life insurance
42% would still use a price comparison site if they knew about our offers
The majority of customers did not use any online facilities; preferring to obtain information direct via / telephone
Customers did not see the process as an opportunity to discuss other financial service products
Life & home insurance were the most commonly discussed products
Customers who did not discuss additional products at the point of application are unlikely to return to discuss in the future

5. Mortgage Advisor Survey
Verbatim [1]
What made you choose your mortgage advisor over the others you approached?
If you would like to provide any additional comments or feedback about your mortgage advisor, you can use the comments box below.
Good relationship, very open with the deals he could find
Seemed the most genuine and knowledgeable
He was excellent, I have referred to both a colleague and my sister
I have had an excellent relationship with my advisor for many years and he is my 'go to' person for anything related to mortgages, life assurance and pensions.
Access to market and free advice plus no charges
Personality and helpfulness and knowledgeability
Would recommend to anyone. Incredibly supportive & helpful throughout the whole process and always kept me up to date and informed.
The adviser was very helpful and provided lots of information that made sense. No jargon just straight talk.
They were very informative and ensured that our requested were met. They found that Virgin offered the best deal for our needs.
He was free of charge and was able to search the whole market and had the relevant qualifications
An excellent and personal service where I felt totally involved and informed. Excellent customer service.
They responded quickly, their advice was clear and unambiguous,
My Mortgage advisor is really knowledgeable and she didn’t waste time talking about different mortgages which did not suite my requirements.
Trusted info received from Martin Lewis advice and the fees
Range of products and professionalism of the service
He was very good as he always got back to me promptly and helped to explain the process of buying a house (as we were first time buyers).

6. Mortgage Advisor Survey
Virgin Money Comments “
One of the main objectives of The Exchange is to provide our Intermediary partners with unique insight that they can utilise to improve their service offering.
Today, we’d like to share the results of our ‘Broker Pulse’ customer survey.
We asked over 100 customers:
How they decided which mortgage broker to use and how they discovered them.
How they interacted during the process and what they thought of the experience.
What our intermediary partners can do to improve their service and what we can do to help.
One of the key findings of the survey was that 25% of respondents who had not discussed additional products would consider this in the future. This highlights the importance of diversifying your portfolio, a topic that was recently discussed in an article published on The Exchange. You can read it here.
Personally, I was pleased to see that 30% of respondents had used to locate their broker. This is proof that our dedication to our Intermediary partners is working and we will continue to develop new and innovative propositions.
We hope that you find the survey results useful and please share your thoughts in our respective Exchange Forum post.
Look out for our next research piece coming soon.
Best Wishes
Peter Rogerson
Commercial Director Mortgages ”

7. Mortgage Advisor Survey
Appendix 1
Question Number
Question Ref
Survey Questions
Rating Scale Q1
Other Options
Which of the following, if any, did you consider before deciding to use a mortgage advisor? Please select all that apply Getting the information from a mortgage comparison site Going direct to a lender via telephone Going direct to a lender via face to face interaction Going direct to a lender online None of the above Other (Please specify)
Radio buttons - multiple answers can be selected Q2
Finding the Intermediary
How did you find your mortgage advisor? I used a search engine (e.g. Google) I have used this mortgage advisor before I saw an advert on television I saw an advert online I saw them on social media I used the Find a Mortgage Broker website They were recommended by a friend/family member They were recommended by my estate agent or builder Other (Please specify)
Radio buttons - one answer option to be selected
Q2a
How many Intermediaries
Question not presented if customer answers "I have used this mortgage advisor before" to Q2 How many mortgage advisors did you approach before you decided to use this one? I only approached this mortgage advisor More than 4
Q2b
Why this Intermediary
Question not presented if customer answers "I only approached this mortgage advisor" to Q2a What made you choose your mortgage advisor over the others you approached?
Free comments box Q3
Contact
How did your mortgage advisor update you during your application? Please select all that apply Telephone Letter SMS Face to face Other (please specify) Q4
Website
Did you use your mortgage advisors website? Yes No My mortgage advisor did not have a website

8. Mortgage Advisor Survey
Appendix 1
Question Number
Question Ref
Survey Questions
Rating Scale
Q4a
Website experience metrics
Only presented if customer selects "Yes" to question Q3 How would you rate the following aspects of your online experience with their website? Please use a star rating scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good) The information available online The design of the website The amount of information provided How easy it was to navigate the website
1-5 star rating scales Q5
Purchased Additional Products
Have you used this mortgage advisor to discuss other financial service products? Yes No Prefer not to say
Radio buttons - one answer option to be selected
Q5a
Products Discussed
If the customer answers "Yes" to Q5 Can you please tell us which products you have discussed? Please select all that apply Life insurance Home insurance Pension products Investment products Savings products Buy to Let mortgage products Other (Please specify) Prefer not to say
Radio buttons - multiple answers can be selected
Q5b
Likelihood to Purchase Additional Products
If the customer answers "No" to Q5 How likely are you to use this mortgage advisor to discuss other products? Please use a scale of 0 (extremely unlikely) to 10 (extremely likely)
0-10 slider scale Q6
Additional Comments
If you would like to provide any additional comments or feedback about your mortgage advisor, you can use the comments box below.
Free comments box