Purple Circle is proud to share the exciting news of being named a finalist in three categories of the 2023 Australian Broking Awards.

We’re thrilled to share that Purple Circle has captured industry attention once again, earning finalist status in two categories of the 2023 MFAA National Excellence Awards.

Join an award-winning boutique aggregator and fuel up with the right team. 

Leading Boutique Aggregator, Purple Circle Financial Services today announced the addition of three award-winning mortgage brokerages to its growing member base.

I recently read Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, values obsessing over clients more than he worries what his competitors are doing. Both Bezos and Steve Jobs have previously quoted how they like to start with the customer experience and then work backwards when figuring out how to create the magical difference for their respective customers. No mention of competitors at all. 

Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh (credited with bringing online shoe-shopping to the masses) stated that 75% of their sales came from repeat customers. How? His whole philosophy was to take the money he would have spent on marketing and invest it into the customer experience. This then allowed word of mouth, delivered via repeat customers, to become their primary form of marketing. In doing so, Hsieh was also credited with single-handedly reshaping customer service.  

Pretty ballsy, huh?  

Actually, not really. 

Try to remember the last time you had an awesome experience or felt the sales-person went over and above your expectations. I’ll bet you went back again for more of the same, even if it was a little more expensive than you’re used to. When you genuinely value an experience, cost doesn’t come into play as much because you feel you were understood and received real value from the transaction. I’ll also bet you told your friends and family about it so they could enjoy the experience as well. And, they would’ve probably listened because there’s a relationship between you and they trust your judgement.  

Now, imagine you are your own customer. What transactional experience would blow your socks off? What would keep you coming back again and again? By our very nature, mortgage brokers are innovators and problem-solvers. So, it wouldn’t take much to charge up our innate super-powers and deliver a mind-blowing and memorable proposition to our customers. 

In this season of interest-rate increases and house-price uncertainty, you need to elevate yourself above the competition. But, if you follow Jeff’s example, you wouldn’t even waste time worrying about your competition. You’d obsess over your customer’s experience. 

No matter what, we can always do more. 

Until next time. 

Greg Pennells 
Purple Circle Financial Services Pty Ltd 

With many challenges ahead of you as a new mortgage broker, it’s important to choose the right partner to guide and support you on the broker journey.

Purple Circle have partnered with Brighten Home Loans to offer a new suite of white label loans.

The world has evolved into a place where the term “good service” has become an oxymoron. In almost every industry, we’ve seen previous service standards crash and burn. Life has become a frustrating maze of tail-chasing, only to end up right where you started.

Service as we used to know it has become non-existent.

That is, unless you’re arranging a loan through a mortgage broker, in which case, “good”, “great”, “amazing” and “phenomenal” are words used by consumers to precede the word “service”.

Why? We treat our customers as people — friends, even. When they call, we answer. If it’s after-hours, over the weekend, or while we’re on holiday overseas, we still answer. But… there has been a price to pay.

Recently, a rising phenomenon in our industry called “Broker Burnout” has come to light. More and more brokers are reporting themselves exhausted and burnt out on account of being unable to separate themselves from the constant demands of broking. Permanent connectivity means a broker has zero downtime, even when they’re trying to enjoy time with family or work on their physical and mental health. 

In the early days of mortgage broking, we would simply hand our pagers (for those of us who remember that far back) to a colleague when we went on holidays. When it was our colleague’s turn to take a holiday, we would gladly reciprocate the favour. It made sense and delivered a healthy quid pro quo. 

With the advancement of technology, you’d think we’d be in a better position to replicate this early “buddy up” system. In reality, we ditched this in favour of taking our phones, tablets and laptops everywhere we go, thinking how convenient and easy it will be to handle communications on the run. We absolutely love this wonderful industry called mortgage broking, but unless we pay attention to the warning signs, work can overwhelm and dominate every facet of our being. This is simply not healthy.

So, our challenge lies in finding a way to individually, or collectively, remain healthy and balanced, ensuring we enjoy long and rewarding careers as mortgage brokers. This will also deliver better results for our customers.

Purple Circle would like to establish a national forum whereby brokers and aggregators work together to create a paradigm shift in order to nail #brokermentalhealth. We’re spit-balling here as we try to start the ball rolling, but one solution could be for aggregators to create a “Broker Buddy” system within their organisations. The idea is to recreate a present-day version of what we used to do with our pagers. We have so many smart and creative people within our industry, surely it won’t take long to come up with viable solutions for everyone.

Of course, the “Broker Burnout” phenomenon doesn’t apply to everyone, but COVID and otherworldy-forces have left many feeling isolated and without support. Maybe we can fix this, one broker at a time…

Until next time, 

Greg Pennells

Managing Director, Purple Circle