HSBC

Chris Pearson, head of intermediary mortgages at HSBC UK

What did your company do to earn the five-star award this year in your category?

• Remained accessible and ‘open for business’ throughout the pandemic. A work-from-home broker contact centre was up and running within one week of lockdown, for example.
• Enhanced our live chat proposition with more people and extra features such as case updates.
• Continued to invest in people by growing our telephone BDM team and telephone broker support team. Our mantra is that you can always talk to us face to face, over the phone, email or live chat.
• Enhanced our large loans team with more experts to talk to.
• Added to and upskilled our underwriting support teams across the globe.
• Leveraged technology, such as AVM and desktop valuations, as well as reduced paper-based packaging requirements.
• Ongoing investment in the HSBC broker platform to make it easier to submit cases and keep a track on progress.
• Ensured credit polices remained pragmatic but appropriate for the constantly evolving economic climate in the UK.
• Always kept an informative and communicative approach towards brokers to ensure they were always crystal clear on HSBC’s approach to the market.
• Constantly evolved our products and polices, backed by market leading value.

Why did you enhance service to advisers and what do you plan to do next year?

At HSBC UK, we recognise the important role that brokers occupy in the UK mortgage market and our job is to ensure that we listen carefully to the feedback we are given by our partners and act upon it. We know that being fast, clear and easy to do business with is a good starting point that resonates with brokers and customers, but being there to talk to when it’s not so straightforward is where we really differentiate what we do. Put simply, we’ll keep pushing those boundaries in 2022 and beyond.

What have you done to improve service over the past 12 months?

Remained accessible and open for business while ensuring our policies were pragmatic but appropriate. Leveraged technology and continued to invest in all the right areas to provide an outstanding service.

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Our colleagues across the UK and globally take all the credit. They have delivered a five-star service to our brokers, no excuses, despite the challenges faced by all of us over the past 12 months. I simply applaud their hard work and dedication, they are collectively and individually (five) stars!

What kind of investment does good service need?

Great people supported by smart technology – simple really.

What do you plan to do for 2021-22?

Continue to invest in our amazing people, bring in more amazing people and evolve and enhance our technology platform.

What does good service mean to you?

It’s so fast and simple you really don’t need to contact us, but just in case you do, we’re there for you with the answers you need, fast.