As more clients seek the convenience of online property transactions, a seasoned conveyancer comes to embrace new technology.
Change can be hard for most of us. Lee Collett of Precise Conveyancing, who has worked as a conveyancer for more than 20 years’, says her firm’s digital transformation has made her business more efficient and her customers happier. Here’s her story about tackling the software learning curve.
Anyone who’s been in the industry for a while is very familiar with traditional conveyancing processes, and therefore may be reluctant to embrace change. Lee Collett of Precise Conveyancing felt this way for a while however since going digital, says she would never go back to the manual process.
Discovering better ways
It was getting her first smartphone that piqued Lee’s interest in technology and sparked her goal to transform the processes in her business.
“It has changed the way I do things for the better,” she says.
Lee appreciates the efficiency computers have brought to her business, and is now at the stage of using smartphone apps to improve the property settlement process for her clients.
One of her favourites, ZipID, enables her to verify client identities in minutes. Clients no longer need to go to the post office and gone are the days of photocopying and filing. Lee sits with a client and, using the app, completes identity verification in minutes then includes the verification service in her fees.
“It’s so easy. I encourage my colleagues to try it.”
A new way to transact
At a seminar at the Australian Institute of Conveyancers, Lee became interested in how online technology could give her practice a competitive advantage and simplify the property settlement process.
Lee signed up to PEXA, and says converting time-consuming manual processes to an online environment is better for everyone involved in a property settlement.
“When I realised how much time we could save, and how easy life becomes when it’s all at your fingertips, it was a case of finding ways to bring those benefits into as many parts of my business as possible.
“Before, we’d easily be on hold with the bank for 45 minutes. But now I can book in my preferred settlement day and time online, and it’s in my calendar in 30 seconds. I can prepare settlement at 10pm or 6am – whatever suits me.”
Lee loves the fact that working electronically gives her less room for error, and she saves money on printing and postage costs. She now has more time to focus on her customers and guide them, so they’re more confident in buying and selling property. “It’s better for business and for clients.”
Evolving into the future
For Lee, the move to digital is about more than running an efficient practice. “In ten years, the 15-year-olds using iPhones and iPads today will be buying and selling property. They won’t know or care what a bank cheque is. And as more of us are embracing digital every day, it’s no longer a matter of whether to join in – it’s about how to remain relevant.”
Author: Niesha Sahu-Kahn
