Author: PriceHubble – pricehubble.com

On a financial level as well as an emotional one, no other investment occupies customers as intensely as owning real estate. No wonder, then, that in many advised clients’ portfolios real estate is the largest and most long-term asset class. 

Wealth management providers have recognised the advantages of integrating real estate data into customer interactions as a core element of the advisory process. This can bring benefits such as: 

• Improved customer engagement and customer satisfaction
• Stronger customer relationship, loyalty and retention
• Up- and cross-selling potentials

In this article, find out how this integration can succeed and how real estate data contributes to the long-term future of wealth managers.

Real estate emerges as one of the most relevant customer experience trends

In times of digital banking, FinTech, price wars in retail banking, high product comparability and rising customer expectations, the competitive pressure within the wealth sector is ever rising. Well thought-out products alone no longer guarantee customer loyalty. In order to stand out in this challenging market, it becomes increasingly important to optimise the customer experience. A decisive factor: Whether and to what extent financial advice providers are able to generate added value for their customers, both in terms of service and the quality of the advisory process.

This is confirmed by a PwC study, among others. It showed that an overwhelming majority, three quarters of those surveyed, see the customer experience as relevant to the purchase decision. Still, only 55% were satisfied with said customer experience. To improve this ratio, the most successful institutions are willing to take this customer feedback into account. 

This requires a change of perspective. Instead of the traditional approach of “Which products fit our customers?” they are ready to ask: “What motivates our customers? And how can we support them even better?”

As real estate turns out to be one of the key topics that truly “motivates” advised customers,  institutions can leverage it to win new clients, retain them and maximise revenues. For financial service providers, investing in this area means no less than investing in the future.

Reliable real estate data more important than ever

The UK real estate market is in a state of upheaval. Lender Halifax has just reported that the average house price dropped by 2.3% in November 2022, describing it as “the largest monthly drop on its index since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008”. 

Chris Hodgkinson, managing director of House Buyer Bureau, explains: “The UK property market now looks to be entering a period of decline, with sustained price drops for the last three months – and this will be further fueled by sustained economic uncertainty and inflation that just refuses to be controlled.”

In this challenging market climate, reliable data and precise forecasts for each individual case are required for wealth managers and their clients to make better-informed decisions.

Real-time data as the solid foundation to real estate decisions 

When it comes to their investment portfolios, clients have grown used to checking performance and current balance on their own device at any time. With real estate, whether their own home or an investment property, the digital customer experience is much less straight-forward. Property owners are dependent on third parties for a reliable valuation, either via an expensive appraisal, accommodating estate agents, or browsing on Zoopla or Rightmove, and the customer experience around letting, buying, owning and selling real estate is therefore all too often characterised by a lack of transparency. As real estate is often the largest component of wealth for the majority of UK households, having transparency on this asset class is vital for any key financial decisions. 

News and insights are constantly provided on investment or pension portfolios by wealth managers. Why can the same not be said for property?

Thanks to digital transformation, however, wealth managers are now able to automate this process. This means the opportunity to give themselves and their customers access to metrics and real estate data at any time. As part of a holistic customer experience, this can create customer-centric touchpoints, enabling financial advice providers to tailor their support to clients’ needs and stand out from the competition.

Customer experience and real estate: how to integrate successfully

When real estate is integrated holistically into the financial services ecosystem, real success stories emerge. Integrating PriceHubble solutions into the customer experience opens a range of opportunities. They can be featured in a mobile app or online banking, as part of customer onboarding or as trigger for regular customer communication. Here are a few examples:

VZ VermögensZentrum

Leading independent financial services provider for Switzerland, VZ VermögensZentrum, was able to take advantage of the digital transformation in the financial services industry. “With PriceHubble, real estate, in many cases the most important and most emotional asset, becomes as transparent as all other assets,” says Marc Weber, VZ executive board member.

Read the full case study on VZ Vermögenszentrum’s cooperation with PriceHubble here.

Finary

Another example is how French start-up Finary developed a platform on which users could track all of their investments in real time and in one place. Founders Mounir Laggoune and Julien Blancher turned to PriceHubble for the real estate component of it. “55% of Finary assets are tracked by PriceHubble,” Laggoune explains. Millions of data points feed into PriceHubble’s solutions, and with the use of artificial intelligence algorithms, these tools can then determine the value of any given residential property with high accuracy and in real time. 

For Finary, letting their users track their real estate investments on their platform has become a deciding factor for their competitive advantage, especially against traditional banks. “It allows us to set ourselves apart from competitors, offering our clients the potential to create a more accurate estimate of their properties,” says Laggoune. 

Read more about Finary’s success story here. 

As these success stories show, PriceHubble’s automated, on-demand real estate valuation is a true omnichannel multi-talent.

Would you like to learn more about how PriceHubble can benefit your customers and give you a competitive edge? Then get in touch now for a free consultation.