Way back in January we received an email saying we have been nominated for the award of adviser of the year. This was a complete surprise as it was not something we had asked for or even thought about. The email came completely out of the blue…
The email does not confirm who nominated us. We were stumped as we help plenty of people over the course of the year. But eventually we found out it had been one of our customers from April last year! We actually wrote a Success Story on their application which you can read about.
The application process
The next stage to enter the shortlist was to write up about why we thought we deserved to win.
I wont lie, this does not come naturally to me. I do my job because I enjoy it and yes we do specialise so may get a few better outcomes on the adverse side of things than some other brokers. But I like to think all of the other brokers go out there and work hard. We all want to try and get the best outcome for our customers too. So to put something together to say why we deserve it I find quite difficult.
I started to put something together to explain about what we do. Specialising in adverse has its own quirks and is quite different to run of the mill applications. Some examples are below:
- We still have customers who are nervous. Generally though our customers with adverse are more nervous as they could have previously been declined or told no chance. Unlike standard applications there is a lot more “hand holding”. It is not uncommon to have people crying in our initial meetings… Thankfully more so than in out last meetings (although we do not mind happy tears at the end).
- Our research process generally needs to be a lot more thorough. We are not just checking affordability and the property. We are having to check adverse and the little quirks the smaller lenders have (they all have them).
- Initial conversation to offer usually takes longer. That can mean more stress and more liaising with agents to ensure nobody gets nervous during those extra few days and decides to pull out.
Putting this down in writing is not really my strong point. I wanted to get across how we buy in to our customers and what they have been through. That means we care a lot, not from a financial side, but because we want to see them move on from the tough period they have been through.
How did we get shortlisted?
I have no idea! As I mentioned earlier I feel like the brokers I speak to regularly all want the same outcome for their customers. We are no different. But in this case a panel of judges from within the industry went through the nominations and applications and came up with a shortlisted for the “Adviser of the year” nomination. Of which we were nominated and have been invited down to the London for the awards ceremony…
