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By Melanie Spencer, sales and growth lead at Target Group

There are plenty of good reasons why Apple is one of the world’s most successful tech companies, whether it’s a large global footprint, a broad product range or a hugely desirable brand. I would argue though that the biggest factor by far is what has been described as an obsessive focus on the user experience. 

After being ousted in 1985, Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 and to a company on the brink of bankruptcy. In a now famous speech, Jobs set the tone not just for Apple’s revival but for its utter dominance in the world of consumer technology, and it all revolved around the user experience. 
He said: “You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try to sell it.”   

The reality is that this successful philosophy doesn’t just apply to Apple and their iPods and iPhones. It doesn’t just apply to consumer tech either. No business should be putting the cart before the horse and neglecting the user or customer experience. The problem is that the mortgage market has long been a prime example of this. 

We often talk about the homebuying experience, but in truth, it is far from an experience. If anything, applying for a mortgage is still a transactional and ambiguous process that has largely remained unchanged. With our Steve Jobs turtleneck on, we have to shift our perspective to transform the mortgage experience from transactional to emotional. After all, people are not just obtaining a mortgage, they are buying their dream home.

But how do we do this? Steve Jobs offered further wisdom. He said: “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you know what they need well before they realise it themselves.” 

This is where behavioural science can come into play – studying how and why customers interact and make decisions in certain ways. With the insight of both cognitive and emotional traits, technology developers in particular can better understand human behaviour and in turn develop products and customer journeys that are complementary rather than combative. 

There’s no question this has real applications in the mortgage market – particularly when it comes to applying for a mortgage itself. By understanding what the user needs, we can utilise behavioural science to transform what is notoriously a transactional and often painful experience into a hugely personal experience, and one that is effortless by design. 

This requires us to look beyond legacy systems or the existing mortgage application process. To have any hopes of transformation, we need to start from fresh and with the user. That’s not just the borrower either, or even the broker, but every user that is involved in the journey. We have to include different segments of buyers, from first-timers, to those remortgaging and to buy-to-let landlords. We must also consider underwriters, case managers, solicitors, surveyors and all other key roles that play a critical part in this journey. 

That’s certainly been the approach with Mortgage Hub, our originations platform, which has been specifically designed from the ground up to be user centric. We have combined ongoing consultation with all parties and behavioural science to help address the frustrations faced by these key groups. 

While consumers may buy iPhones because of the popularity of the brand and the fantastic marketing, we cannot overlook Apple’s ability to really nail the customer experience and understand what they want and actually need. We are seeing this approach take shape in the mortgage market, looking exactly at what the user needs, what they want to achieve and then, how best we can help achieve those goals.

The result is an intuitive and user-centric experience that reimagines the mortgage application journey.

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