Chartwell Mortgage Services

The Background

Chartwell Mortgage Services has been operating in the UK for more than 13 years, offering independent mortgage and financial advice to customers across the country.

The Challenge

Chartwell used to have its office in Warrington with its staff all working off mobile phones. Director Ian Kelly said: “Our old office was in Warrington which wasn’t convenient for some of our people who sometimes had to travel for up to an hour and a half to get into the office every day. Our guys were all working off mobiles which wasn’t very professional when trying to offer a service to clients.”

Its office in Warrington was also part of a shared office complex, meaning Chartwell had a shared internet connection, resulting in a lot of downtime for the company. Sharing a connection also meant Chartwell wasn’t receiving the bandwidth it needed to function properly.

Internet connectivity was a high priority for Chartwell as its entire system is held in the cloud and, like most businesses, it simply couldn’t afford the amount of downtime it was experiencing in its previous contract.

The Solution

After identifying areas where Chartwell wanted to improve, one of our Account Managers, Ryan Black, set to work on the proposal.

It was clear that, as a start, Chartwell would benefit from a dedicated internet connection which we set out to install. The leased line product ensured that Chartwell had enough bandwidth for both its data connection and enough room left to grow its voice services.

Ian said: “With being in a large office complex, we were sharing with other businesses and, therefore, having a lot of downtime. The connection is vital for us to ensure the integrity of the phones and, with everything we have being in the cloud, a good connection is vital to our functionality.”

Thanks to a dedicated internet connection, it left enough bandwidth for us to suggest a hosted VoIP solution – Daisy Hosted Voice. Installing a VoIP phone system meant that Chartwell employees could choose between working from the office and on their landline phone or, working at home on their mobile phones.

On top of DHV, we also deployed a 40 strong mobile fleet to enable Chartwell employees to work remotely and have easy access to Daisy Hosted Voice from any location.

Ian added: “The biggest change for us was the VoIP system which allowed us to base people anywhere, but they could still have a direct dial number, some of which were specific to the local area which gave clients comfort. It’s more professional.

“We also chose Daisy for our mobiles because there’s still a requirement for when people are out on-site and need a hotspot to work from remotely and they can still answer the phone. It’s paid dividends for us. We still need a traditional mobile phone; it’s just not in the way other businesses would use it.”

The Result

Last year Chartwell completed on 1,275 mortgages and, this year, they expect to be at least 25% up on that figure.

Previously, Chartwell would wait up to eight weeks for an additional line to be installed for a new advisor whereas with DHV they wait a matter of days. Having a dedicated Ethernet connection has also eradicated previous problems as Chartwell now have a 99.9% uptime guarantee on its service meaning if they do ever experience downtime, they know they’ll be back up and running as soon as possible.

Having a business VoIP solution has also enabled the company to embrace remote working which has meant they’ve been able to expand their team, handpicking the very best from across the country.

Ian said: “VoIP has impacted us hugely. Previously, we’d been stuck to the right advisor being situated in the North West; now it doesn’t matter where they are. As an employer, it’s appealing to be able to offer employees flexibility and working from home capabilities.

“The staff love it. Some people were spending up to two hours a day travelling to the office but we’ve eradicated that now.

“Our competitors aren’t as advanced in terms of the technology we’ve introduced. Although VoIP is becoming more popular, with DHV, we’ve got add-ons which make it far superior. It just makes us much more professional than a lot of our competition in that respect and gives the clients some comfort too. It’s superb and makes managing the business so easy.

“It was key having a relationship with Daisy and having someone who understood our business. We have someone to go to when we need something. We’re too busy doing what we’re supposed to be doing to have to worry about being experts on phone systems. We deal with one person and they’ve pulled us through and looked after us. We couldn’t have expanded the business in the way we wanted to without having the systems that Daisy have implemented into our business.

“We survey our clients after each completion, and the feedback is excellent. A lot of that is about how easy it is to contact us. It’s made a massive difference to our company and it’s contributed to award wins and our success.”