‘The rate reminder doesn’t keep clients loyal – the second product would’ – Flavin

Most firms I sit with have never done it. When they do, the same picture comes back. A long column of mortgages, and a lot of white space to the right of it.

That white space is your retention rate.

The industry tells a different story. Clients drift back to their lender at renewal because the product transfer is easy, the lender has their details and the lender writes first. So, we fight it on timing. Diary note at month 18. Rate reminder six months out. Get in before the bank does.

I think we are fighting the wrong battle.

You will say it is just price and convenience. Some of it is. But the lender’s renewal email lands the same way in every inbox. What decides whether your client clicks it or picks up the phone to you is simple. Do they think of you as the person who looks after their money, or the firm that did their mortgage that one time?

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Client communication is key

The rate reminder is fine. Trouble is, it’s the only thing most clients ever hear from you. A client whose whole relationship with you is one mortgage is transactional, and transactional clients go wherever the next transaction is easiest.

In the firms I’ve looked at closely this year, remortgage retention runs anywhere from under a third to a half. Even at the top end, half of everyone you’ve ever arranged a mortgage for goes somewhere else the next time it matters.

And between completion and maturity, what did they get? Usually, a network-generated newsletter with somebody else’s market commentary in it, and a birthday message. 2-5 years of that, and then a rate reminder.

Picture one of those clients 18 months in. The boiler’s gone. There is a baby on the way. They want to borrow a bit more and they’ve got no idea who to ask. Nothing you have sent them in 18 months has given them a reason to ring you.

So they ring the bank. The bank is very happy to help.

It’s the same story with protection. In research published at the end of September, MetLife asked UK mortgage holders whether they had mortgage protection. More than a quarter didn’t know.

Didn’t know.

They have a mortgage, maybe a family, and no idea whether anything pays if the worst happens. Some of those people arranged their mortgage through a broker. Some of them arranged it through you.

Somebody stopped calling them at completion.

The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) published its full Protection Viewpoint report on 5 November and the early findings pointed the same way. Most of the people who did not buy cover said something could have changed their mind. The door was open. Nobody went back through it.

Case study

Here is what that looks like in one firm I work with.

Around 1,300 clients on the books who will need to remortgage. Four in five have no protection through the firm.

Take just the 200 whose fix ends this year. Get cover in place for four in 10 of them and that’s worth about £80,000.

One year. Clients who already know the firm’s name. Not a single new lead bought.

A client with a mortgage, a life policy and a home insurance renewal through you has three reasons to hear from you. The home insurance is the one people underrate. Small commission. Rarely moves when the mortgage does. And it gives you a reason to ring every single year. Those calls never stay on the buildings cover for long. The extension they are planning. The new job. Someone moving in. Each of those is a mortgage conversation and a protection conversation. By the time the fix ends, you’re the firm that looks after that stuff.

Their lender knows what they borrowed and when the fix ends. You sat at their kitchen table. Most firms never use that knowledge again after the offer comes through.

So, two things this week.

Build the matrix. One row per client, one column per product. Mark what they hold, then count the blank cells. If the whole book feels like too much, start with the clients whose fix ends next year. You’ll see the pattern long before you reach the bottom of the list.

If you can’t build it, because nobody ever recorded whether the client is employed or self-employed, or whether anyone depends on their income, that’s your first finding. Add those two fields to every new case from tomorrow. They decide which protection conversation you should be having.

Then pick one gap and one group. Parents of children under 12 with no critical illness cover. Limited company directors with no relevant life. Self-employed clients with no income protection. Write to that group about that gap and nothing else, then pick up the phone. Check your contact permissions first, and make sure whoever rings knows where their conversation stops and an adviser’s starts.

Build the matrix and sell to the spaces.

Most owners won’t. They will say the data is a mess, or they haven’t got the time. It’s a spreadsheet and an afternoon. Time was never the reason.

The matrix is an audit of your own advice. Some blanks are clients who said no, or have cover elsewhere. Plenty are conversations that never properly happened at the fact find. Nobody enjoys finding that out about their own firm.

You do not lose clients at renewal. You lose them at completion, and find out two years later. The rate reminder was never going to keep them. The second product would.