My Mortgage Wizards
Tell us a bit about you and your business?
Caroline Brunt is owner of My Mortgage Wizards. My Mortgage Wizards is a small team of mortgage brokers based in Newcastle Under Lyme, Staffordshire. They work on making sure the client experience is absolutely second to none. They help people source mortgages, process mortgages, chase on paperwork, solicitors, estate agents, surveyors, and anybody else that needs to be worked with to get their client in their new home or to secure a re-mortgage.
What stands you out from the rest?
It’s a personal service. We work on the basis of there being processes in place from the very beginning right way through to the very end to ensure that clients are handheld all the way through. My team is there to make sure that happens and they navigate any quibbles along the way. Not only can we find people absolutely fantastic mortgage deals, we are also very innovative for people who find it difficult to get a mortgage. For us, it is the handhold through the process that sets us aside.
Caroline and I worked together in Summer 2023 to implement Capsule CRM into the business. Here is her experience.
Can you describe kind of the problems that you were trying to solve before we met?
I’ve always wanted a process driven, consistent approach in my business. I know my customers are all very individual, but I wanted a uniform approach to ensure that, from beginning to end, everybody experienced the same level of service.
What was happening prior to us working together on a CRM was very spreadsheet led and everybody had their own way of working. We had an overall process but as a team we were all individual islands.
The biggest issue was the amount of time and the lack of efficiency from the team not knowing where the other was up to. I found myself spending most of the time swimming between my island, Jane’s Island, Amanda’s Island and back to my island, and then back to Amanda’s and back to Jane’s and back to mine and that’s a lot of time and effort not really knowing where things are up to and having to talk everything through all the time. It just felt disjointed.
Did you try anything before reaching out to me?
Spreadsheets and more spreadsheets and as we got busier, I knew it wouldn’t be sustainable and important things would have been missed. We were on a OneDrive, so everything was accessible by everybody. We had recommendations for yourself from all the people that have used you. I have used Capsule before, but I had no clue where to start in setting it up.
Did you have any concerns about going ahead on our work together?
No, I don’t think I did. You explained it all from the very beginning. I already knew what the system looked like as I had used it when I was employed. You were very communicative as far as asking us what we did and working out all the processes in the business. There were no concerns whatsoever because it felt right straight away. I knew you could put it all together exactly as we wanted it to and tweak it along the way as we began to use the system.
Why did you choose to work with me?
It was the personal touch, you’re accessible and there was never such a thing as a stupid question. I’m not very technical and I know people who’ve done these things and implemented them themselves, but I couldn’t do that. In all honesty, it was the best money I’ve ever spent on my business.
Can you quantify the results you’ve had working together? And where you were then and where you are?
It’s hard to quantify, but what you can’t put a price on is the calmness that’s now in the office. My team are just so much more aware, not only on what they’re doing, but on what other people are doing. We have become more efficient. As far as the staff morale is concerned then its been amazing in comparison to where we were at before, as we were all just scraping by. It’s all definitely fallen into place since we’ve implemented the CRM.
Do you have any kind of final words for anybody who could be sitting on the fence when it comes to a CRM for their business?
Just think the investment of time up front in getting set up is nothing in comparison to the amount of time saved in the future. The calmness now in the team is notable. It’s just so much more organised, everything is in one place. Plus, when I am looking to employ more staff, they will just be able to come in and see where things are up to- it will be easy to train people. For me, it’s a no brainer.
If I could change one thing about doing this, it would be that I did it last year when we started and not waiting until this year, that’d be the only thing I would change. I wish I would have started it in the very beginning of my business. I would recommend having Veronica set up the system for you as it will be made very simple by somebody who’s got the time and the energy to just focus solely on that. It’s money well spent.
