We recently shared the exciting announcement that AFG has a new preferred partner, broker-fintech Sherlok.

In this article, we deep-dive into who Sherlok are, and how their automated client retention helps brokers to grow their trail book with a single click!

Who are Sherlok?

Sherlok is the first and only retention and refinance platform in Australia that uses artificial intelligence.

Sherlok’s mission statement is: “we believe in life-long retention through personalised automation”

The “leaky bucket”

According to the 2021 MFAA State of the Industry Report, the average trail book drop-off is currently sitting at 15% across the country. This is expected to increase over the next three years if brokers are not proactive in engaging their clients, due to an increase in refinancing activity and a growing number of mortgages that are written by a broker.

If we think about this statistic in practical terms, it means that there is a significant amount of new business that brokers need to write just to offset the 15% of clients that they lose year-on-year.

Sherlok refers to this problem as the “leaky bucket.”

Brokers tend to be very good at filling up the top of the bucket by attracting new customers. However, as a loan book gets bigger, those loans get older, and the business gains more customers. It then becomes very hard for brokers to service their customers at scale, and this leads to churn.

The big hole in the bucket is represented by every single client who leaves you. On average, each client equates to $7,500 in lost revenue, and this is a significant financial loss for a broker.

The leaky bucket needs to be patched up with a critical strategic focus on customer retention. Imagine what you could do in your business if you could retain more clients! You’d have a much larger trail with more money to invest in your business. This is where Sherlok’s powerful technology comes in!

Sherlok plugs the “leaky bucket” by automating retention

The number one reason for trail book drop-off is uncompetitive interest rates, which will result in you losing an existing client as they refinance their mortgage with another broker.

Sherlok uses artificial intelligence to predict when this scenario is likely to occur and uses the power of repricing to prevent customers from looking elsewhere. 

The machine learning that Sherlok uses is very intuitive, as it means our brokers will always be able to predict the possibility of clients leaving them based on all the data points available. It helps them to build larger loan books, and keep clients engaged and happy for longer.

In turn, because the task is automated, a mortgage broker will be more productive. They’ll have more time back in their day to focus on larger tasks that take priority.

How is Sherlok integrated with AFG’s current technology offering?

Sherlok has been integrated with Flex, as part of Suite360. It helps our brokers to onboard, transfer data, and start repricing their customers.

Join the Sherlok waitlist today

AFG brokers using Sherlok will be able to retain, reprice and refinance more clients than ever before, automatically.

Sign up to the AFG waitlist today or talk to your Partnership Manager if you have any questions.