How to include older clients in your onboarding
Law and conveyancing are become increasingly digital, potentially posing problems for less tech-savvy property buyers.
But in spite of that, 91.32% of Checkboard app users aged 70+ complete their onboarding. So, what is Checkboard doing differently to prevent firms leaving their older clients behind?
The answer lies in identifying the sources of friction, and providing the customer support to help overcome them.
Property buyers are changing
The UK population is getting older. That means many more of our older citizens are remaining economically active far longer than in the past.
And as a generation of homeowners, they’ll still be selling and buying property – often to downsize – until very late in their lives, which in turn, creates lifelong demand for conveyancing.
Conveyancers need to conduct all the usual due diligence for older clients. But the profession is rapidly turning to tech platforms for onboarding, and these can create friction for older clients who didn’t grow up in a digital world, and are therefore less instinctively tech-savvy.
Identifying the friction
At Checkboard, we’ve identified where some of those sources of friction lie. Examining the support requests received by our customer service team, we found the most frequently flagged issues to include:
Unfamiliarity with source of funds
How to provide proof of address
Misgivings about linking bank accounts through open banking
Together, source of funds and linking bank accounts are perhaps the biggest pain point overall. Older users used to physical banking (and typically most susceptible to financial scams) are understandably wary about connecting their accounts online.
They’re also less likely to understand what counts as acceptable proof of funds, particularly as physical letters are replaced by digital PDFs.
For conveyancing to remain accessible to older clients, it needs to pair tech adoption with strong customer service and a malleable approach to onboarding.
Simplicity and patience
The Checkboard app is designed for intuitive and user-friendly onboarding. It’s based on simple, clear workflows:
You send a secure link to download the app
The client uploads everything they need to their phone
You receive a full compliance report ready to go
But where users have difficulty uploading or saving documents, or lack familiarity with the terminology, the app is underpinned by strong customer support.
The Trustpilot reviews speak for themselves: Checkboard’s team is dedicated, patient, and knowledgeable. One user told us “most apps just assume you know what to do. But with Checkboard, I had someone who walked me through it patiently.”
Find out how Checkboard can help your clients of all ages with fast, seamless onboarding.
A version of this article was originally published on Today’s Conveyancer. This version has been adapted for the Checkboard audience.
