Just

Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group

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

Just Group responded to the many and varied challenges of the pandemic, and resulting lockdowns, by focusing on maintaining high standards of service and prioritising uninterrupted contact with businesses and their clients through our dedicated account managers and customer service colleagues.

We also pushed ahead with major enhancements to our lifetime mortgage (LTM) proposition. In January we introduced online KFI functionality through our new Just Adviser portal, and the major sourcing systems, enabling the majority of those active in the LTM market to obtain online quotes. The feedback on the portal capabilities and usability has been hugely positive and most quotes are now being sourced using digital services. We’ll soon extend this functionality by adding online LTM applications and role management, followed by case tracking.

In June, we introduced a choice of early repayment charge (fixed or variable) to give advisers more flexibility in solution design. And in September we launched medical underwriting across our Just For You Lifetime Mortgage range, a significant development that helps intermediaries design a uniquely personalised and tailored solution for each client’s needs and circumstances. We estimate six in 10 clients could get a better deal by either attaining a lower interest rate or, for those that need to, borrowing a higher amount.

Across the group we’ve made additional improvements to how we conduct business, for example updating, re-prioritising routine processes to create more time for completing applications and releasing funds. Together these add up to a significant improvement to the already high quality of our service.

We’ve continued to support our market-leading vulnerability training module, which has now been used by more than 9,000 advisers and paraplanners. And we launched the Just Group Customer Vulnerability Awards; the UK's first and only awards scheme dedicated to recognising excellence in supporting vulnerable customers.

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

Just Group is delighted to be named Company of the Year in recognition of delivering consistently excellent service, and proud to have been awarded five stars in the Pensions and Protection category for the 17^th consecutive year, and five stars in the Mortgages category, our 12th in the past 14 years.

The past year was far from business as usual and our focus has been on safeguarding our colleagues so we can continue to deliver the high standards of services expected by advisers and their clients. We see the awards as recognition of these efforts and our commitment to continuous innovation and improvement.

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

We’ve continued to prioritise having a dedicated named account manager for every firm, ensuring they’re easy to contact and on hand to provide support, business development ideas or help with transactional queries.

We’ve launched our new digital service and introduced online KFI functionality for lifetime mortgages (LTM) through our new Just Adviser portal and the major sourcing systems. This has received positive feedback on both functionality and usability. Intermediaries can now access online LTM quotes and more than two-thirds of quotes are produced in this way.

We’ve also introduced a choice of early repayment charge (fixed or variable) to help advisers design personalised solutions to match each client’s needs and circumstances.

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

We were determined to keep delivering high standards of service, consistency and reliably throughout the past 12 months and regularly reviewed how we conduct business for robustness and potential improvements as we moved through the phases of lockdown.

What kind of investment does good service need?

Delivering and maintaining good levels of service requires a significant and sustained investment. We place the customer at the heart of everything we do. We focus on the continuous development of our colleagues, both knowledge and skills, to ensure we all have the ability and desire to provide advisers and clients with the best possible service. We are totally committed to the continuous development of our systems and processes to ensure advisers and their clients receive the highest levels of service at all times.

What do you plan to do for 2021-22?

We plan to offer a healthy mix of improving the essentials and helping advisers develop their businesses, all served with a generous portion of innovation. 

In September, we launched medical underwriting across the Just For You Lifetime Mortgage range. This could revolutionise the industry by enabling advisers to design a uniquely personalised and tailored solution for each client’s unique circumstances. We estimate six in 10 clients could get a better deal by either attaining a lower interest rate or, for those that need to, borrowing a higher amount.

And we’re adding more digital functionality: first with online LTM applications and role management, with case tracking to follow shortly.

We’ll continue to promote Secure Lifetime Income – our groundbreaking decumulation proposition that enables advisers and paraplanners to offer clients the certainty of guaranteed income for life, in a self-invested personal pension – and demonstrate how it can help strengthen their retirement advice propositions.

What does good service mean to you?

Good service is a combination of improving the fundamentals of our business with a view to helping our customers – advisers and paraplanners – to keep on providing great service to their clients, and continually innovating so that the retirement income and lending solutions we offer better reflect the changing needs of clients.