2019-05-03
The Past 10 Years with Kevin Tunnicliffe
As we celebrate our 10 year anniversary, we asked Kev Tunnicliffe our CEO to reflect on the past ten years. Hear him explain how the business has developed and what is to come for the future.
Explain how the idea of SortRefer started?
As a mortgage broker at that time, I’d looked at ways in which I could protect myself from losing clients to other providers. Things like Supermarkets were offering pet insurance or travel insurance, and then life insurance products which then lead on to mortgages – it got my mind thinking of ways in which you could maximise your earnings by offering different products, whilst also protecting yourself from losing your clients to the competition.
With regards to conveyancing, I was already offering all of my clients a proposition that I had put together myself, as the service levels from other offerings at that time weren’t great.
This led me to the belief that if the above worked for me, it would work for lots of other advisers.
What was the business like ten years ago?
At the point of the formation of Sort Limited in April 2009, there was just the original 4 shareholders. Jim Boyles, Rich Evans & Andy Sadler worked with me to get the business off the ground. We were already heavily into having our first website built and Richard, having just left Bank of Ireland, was now targeting introducers with what we were hoping to deliver with our conveyancing proposition.
All quotes and instructions were being generated using Excel spreadsheets, but we were slowly starting to take cases in. We all chipped in where necessary, taking queries and strengthening the proposition as much as we possibly could, before launching our first website in July 2010.
What has the last ten years been like?
An incredible journey, with many ups, plus a few downs. Our instruction levels have grown in every single one of our years and the conveyancing panel is much larger than I had envisaged it would grow to – but the level of instructions has necessitated this. We have an ever growing list of products that are available and have a few more in development for this year that will continue to aid brokers. Our technology has evolved and we were delighted to be the first to market with an App for brokers to use.
Winning our first award was a very proud moment – especially coming just 10 days after completing a tough Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy treatment regime for Cancer.
Opening our own in house law firm has been a challenge – but now with the right people at the helm of this we are in a strong position to take the business to the next level – and we have a great team of technology developers which will help position us as one of the tech greats in the property legal sector.
What do you hope SortRefer achieves in the next ten years?
· Continually increasing market share
· Growing our own in house legal firm to a top 10 conveyancing firms
· Continually working with and supporting our other panel firms
· Bringing technology products to market that make a difference in the legal sector
What has changed in the industry over the years?
I would say the biggest change has to be our clients. The knowledge that they have now, far exceeds that of 10 years ago and they now have much higher expectations – both by way of customer service and more importantly customer journey.
What have you learnt over the past ten years?
Where do I start? We never stop learning, but I suppose a couple of things spring to the front of your mind:
Firstly, that service and communication isn’t just important – it’s EVERYTHING
Secondly, that you must never stop looking to the future and ensuring that your business is flexible enough to adjust to the changes coming.
What is your & the business most significant achievement to date?
On a business basis, winning our first award back in 2014 ranks highly. Subsequent Industry recognition is fantastic and being frequently asked to tender for networks and other integration pieces is a pretty significant difference to how we originally operated, as we are now recognised as one of the bigger businesses in the market.
On a personal level related to business, receiving a handmade congratulatory card off my now deceased father at a significant milestone point still makes me immensely proud of what we have built.
What do you think is at the heart of SortRefer?
Without question, it has to be the passion behind the business. A passion to provide excellent customer service, alongside excellent technology with products that make a difference for our introducer base is without doubt at the beating heart of SortRefer and the now wider group as a whole.
Is there anyone you would like to give a shout out to or thank for the past ten years?
Externally I would like to shout out to 2 sets of people:
I would like to thank all of the Introducers that have used us and continue to use us, and have provided us with feedback along the way - whether it be excellent, good, indifferent, poor or even dreadful! We will never get it 100% right, but the feedback helps us concentrate minds, make changes, correct processes where necessary and ensure that we learn from any errors that are made.
I would also like to thank all of the suppliers that we have worked with over the last 10 years, as without those, we wouldn’t have been able to continually build our proposition. Again, they don’t always get the service 100% right, but they have all demonstrated the right attitudes and done their very best to correct matters when things slip.
Internally, I would like to thank virtually everybody that has been involved in our journey over the last 10 years. The passion stated earlier has been incredible from you all and demonstrates what can be achieved when you care about the profession that we are in.
Sum up the past ten years in three words?
Educational, Eventful & Enjoyable
