Homeside or should I say Homeslide is the latest lender to fall into the trap of overpromising and underdelivering.

They're not the first lender to do it, and they won't be the last, but how they deal with it is very important to us as brokers.

The situation usually occurs when a lender goes to the market (or their broker partners) and talks up either a new product or great service. On this occasion, Homeside has done this on both counts. Back when the 100% loans were coming to an end and RAMs and St George had attrocious turnaround times, Homeside came out with some decent products AND some of their BDMs were contacting us regularly, talking up their great turnaround times and excellent service levels. This was also reinforced through their website advertising "Refinance in days, not weeks".

Unfortunately, as brokers we tend to move in a scrum. When a lender puts up their hand with a good offering, we flock to them.  The lenders know that this happens, but invariably they act surprised when their volumes increase and rather than ramp up to deal with the influx of new business, their service levels or turnaround times will blow out.

A few years ago Suncorp and Bankwest both did it, towards the end of last year ANZ did it, RAMs and St George certainly did it earlier this year and Homeside has definitely done it now.

The situation is exacerbated at the moment by the fact that most of the banks have cut their staffing levels following the GCC.  

So we know that it happens and that this is a factor in the industry.  What is then important to us is how the lender then manages this process.  Obviously putting on more staff, working longer hours or creating new processes assists.  BUT, for us as brokers, one of the most important factors is to have the ability to escalate a file that is in genuine need of assistance, particularly if a client is going to lose a contract on a house.

In this respect, Homeside really seems to have fallen over.  The BDMs have a very limited ability to escalate any files (for some BDMs only 1 file per day), the BDMs managers are uncontactable, the helpline staff are powerless and the complaints people don't acknowledge you.  Surely there must be someone within the organisation who can take accountability and actually make things happen.  Unfortunately not in this case.

For me personally as a broker, the most important attribute I seek from the lenders I deal with is for the BDM to be able to take charge and to be able to assist us.  Sure, their job is to bring in the business, but that isn't just by talking up the products, it's by acting as the mediator between us and the lender and by being able to be a voice in the organisation.