What is live chat for websites?
Live chat is a software that allows you to communicate directly with visitors on your website in real-time. It’s like having a digital front desk where you can greet customers, answer their questions, and guide them through your services.
It’s an incredibly useful tool that can transform your website from a static brochure into an engaging, personalized experience.
Live chat has become increasingly popular ‘cos it offers a convenient way for customers to get instant support without having to pick up the phone or send an email.
It’s perfect for today’s fast-paced world where people expect quick resolutions to their queries.
With live chat, you’re able to respond promptly, which can make all the difference in retaining a potential client.
How can live chat help your customers?
There are numerous ways live chat can benefit your customers and improve their overall experience with your mortgage broker business. Here are just a few:
1. Instant Gratification: Let’s be real, no one likes waiting anymore. Live chat allows you to address customer needs right away, boosting satisfaction levels and reducing frustration.
2. Convenient Communication: Not everyone wants to make a call, and emails can get buried. Live chat provides a hassle-free, text-based option for customers to reach out on their terms.
3. Real-Time Support: Sometimes customers need a little extra help, especially with complex topics like mortgages. Live chat lets you guide them step-by-step, answering questions as they arise.
4. Personal Connection: Chatting one-on-one helps build rapport and trust, crucial elements when dealing with substantial financial decisions like mortgages.
5. After-Hours Assistance: Even when your office is closed, live chat can offer 24/7 support via chatbots or ensure queries get routed correctly.
The bottom line? Live chat makes the customer experience smoother, more efficient, and dare we say, enjoyable!
How does live chat relate to mortgage brokers specifically?
For mortgage brokers, having a live chat option can be a game-changer. The home-buying process is often filled with uncertainty and questions from clients. By offering live chat, you’re able to:
1. Explain Complex Concepts: Mortgages involve a lot of jargon and financial terminology that can leave clients feeling confused. Live chat lets you break things down in easy-to-understand language.
2. Build Trust and Credibility: Buying a home is a massive investment. Live chat allows you to establish a transparent, trustworthy relationship from the get-go.
3. Gather Info Seamlessly: To properly advise clients, you need plenty of personal and financial details like income, debt, credit scores, employment history etc. Live chat offers a casual, conversational way to collect this vital information piece-by-piece.
4. Provide Guidance On Next Steps: Once clients understand their mortgage options, live chat enables you to clearly lay out the full application process, explain what documentation is needed, and advise on next steps to keep things moving.
5. Answer Time-Sensitive Questions: When clients have urgent mortgage-related queries about rates, fees, paperwork and more, live chat ensures they get a prompt response before missing any important deadlines.
6. Obtain & Clarify Documentation: During the mortgage process, there are often specific documents and statements required from the client. With live chat’s file-sharing capabilities, clients can easily submit paperwork and get instant clarification if anything is missing or incorrect.
7. Maintain Constant Contact: Even after pre-approval, clients continue to have questions as their mortgage application makes its way through underwriting and closing. Live chat provides a convenient channel to remain in constant communication, putting clients at ease.
8. Resolve Last-Minute Issues: Whether it’s an underwriting issue that needs documentation or a closing delay, mortgage snags always seem to pop up. Live chat allows you to quickly troubleshoot problems, explain the situation, and manage client expectations.
Ultimately, live chat empowers mortgage brokers to offer concierge-level service and be available for clients through every twist, turn, and question during the home buying journey.
For International Brokers
For mortgage brokers working with international clients, live chat can be especially invaluable. With clients potentially spread across different time zones, languages, and cultures, live chat allows you to:
1. Transcend Geographical Barriers: There’s no need for international clients to worry about calling during specific regional hours. Live chat is always available.
2. Bridge Language Gaps: Thanks to translation capabilities, live chat can facilitate communication despite language differences.
3. Explain Local Regulations: Each country has its own mortgage rules and requirements. Live chat is perfect for clarifying these region-specific details.
4. Demonstrate Cultural Awareness: By being available via live chat, you show an understanding of international clients’ unique needs and living situations.
5. Provide Round-the-Clock Service: With international clients, queries can come in at any hour. Live chat ensures you never miss an opportunity.
In essence, live chat allows international mortgage brokers to create a localized yet globally accessible experience for a diverse client base.
“Live chat is an essential part of our customer service strategy – it’s difficult to imagine how we’d operate without it.” – Luther Yeates, Head of Mortgages at UK Expat Mortgage.
Taking Customer Service to the Next Level
One of the biggest advantages of implementing live chat for your mortgage website is the ability to provide an unparalleled level of customer service. Let’s be honest, buying a home can be incredibly stressful and confusing, especially for first-time buyers. There are a million questions, forms to fill out, documents to provide, numbers to crunch…it’s a lot!
This is where live chat shines. It creates an open line of communication allowing you to hand-hold clients through every step of the mortgage process. You’re able to:
Address Concerns in Real-Time
As soon as a homebuyer has a question or hits a snag, they can instantly message you via live chat. There’s no more waiting on hold or leaving voicemails. You can put out fires immediately before they have a chance to escalate into major issues that derail the mortgage process.
Explain Everything Thoroughly
Mortgages involve a dizzying amount of jargon and complex financial concepts. Over chat, you have the ability to take as much time as needed to thoroughly explain terms, lay out all the options, and ensure buyers fully understand what they’re getting into before making such a huge commitment.
Collect Details Seamlessly From income information and proof of employment to bank statements and W2s, mortgage lenders require a laundry list of documentation from borrowers. Live chat simplifies collecting all these sensitive details and files by allowing buyers to securely upload everything directly to you over chat.
Maintain a Personal Connection Navigating something as major as a mortgage can often feel intimidating and impersonal. But by being just a chat message away, you’re able to foster a more personal relationship with buyers. You become their trusted guide through this complex journey rather than just another faceless lender.
Provide 24/7 Availability
Your clients don’t follow a traditional 9-5 schedule. With live chat, you can have support staff and/or chatbots available around the clock to triage questions and keep the mortgage process moving, regardless of holidays or weekends.
At the end of the day, delivering exceptional customer service is what separates exceptional mortgage brokers from the rest. Live chat empowers you to be hyper-responsive, consultative, organized, and available for clients in a way that creates a wonderful experience during an otherwise stressful time.
The Benefit of Constant Assistance
For many homebuyers, the mortgage process feels like an endless timeline of looping questions and requests for more documentation. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions filled with euphoric highs of finding your dream home and stressful lows of wondering if you’ll ever get approved.
Live chat provides a calming constant for your clients throughout this tumultuous journey. From origination all the way through closing, you’re able to use chat to:
Set Expectations from the Start
One reason the mortgage process causes so much anxiety is a lack of transparency into what’s happening and what comes next. Live chat allows you to get ahead of this by thoroughly outlining all the steps, requirements, and timeline upfront when clients first connect with your team.
Gather Outstanding Items Despite your best efforts, there are always going to be cases where borrowers are missing some documentation or additional information is needed to move their mortgage file along. Live chat provides a seamless way to quickly track down those outstanding items without things getting bogged down.
Provide Status Updates
Once a mortgage loan is submitted, there can be weeks of silence as it works its way through underwriting and approval processes. During this blackout period, live chat ensures you can still periodically check-in with clients to share status updates and offer reassurance when needed.
