A specialist commercial lender relied on a network of over 800 mortgage brokers for the majority of its new business. The broker portal - where brokers submitted and tracked applications - was the single most important digital touchpoint in the business.
The portal was 6 years old and showing its age. Brokers complained that the application process was slow, error-prone, and required too much manual data entry. The lender's operations team estimated that 40% of submitted applications contained errors that required follow-up, adding days to processing times and frustrating brokers who had alternatives to use.
The Head of Distribution was blunt: brokers were placing business with competitors because the portal was easier to use. Every percentage point of broker satisfaction was worth real money.
"Brokers have a choice. If your portal is difficult, they will go somewhere else. It is that simple. Since the rebuild, we are winning business we had lost. Three brokers came back to us without being asked. That tells you everything."
Our assessment confirmed what the business suspected: the portal's form structure was the root cause of most errors. Fields were ambiguous, validation was inconsistent, and the application flow did not match how brokers actually worked. We also identified that the portal had no save-and-return functionality, so a broker who was interrupted mid-application had to start again.
We redesigned the portal in two sprints. The first sprint rebuilt the application form with progressive disclosure - showing brokers only the fields relevant to their specific product and case type, with inline validation and clear guidance at every step. Save-and-return was added, along with a dashboard showing all active, submitted, and completed applications.
The second sprint focused on the operations side: an internal workflow that automatically flagged incomplete applications with specific guidance on what was missing, replacing the manual review process.
Broker application volume increased by 38% in the first quarter after launch - a direct result of brokers choosing to place more business through a portal that was now faster and less frustrating to use. Application errors dropped by 54%, which reduced processing time and freed up the operations team.
Broker NPS increased from 31 to 67. The Head of Distribution reported that three brokers who had stopped using the portal returned within two months of the relaunch.
