Apart from the election, (yawn), the last few weeks has also been dominated by much talk around technology and its application in today’s world. As I sat and watched an inspiring Dimbleby lecture from the wonderful Martha Lane Fox, setting out her view of Britain’s digital future and rightly promoting the role of women in technology, she emphasised the importance of everyone understanding the internet at all levels of society.
It was her following comment that struck a particular chord, especially when related to our industry, “It is not OK not to understand the internet anymore”.
I have long gone on about the importance of Social Media and being online, but we are now reaching a critical point as more people than ever instinctively find what they are looking for online rather than through any other method.
All of us in the intermediary sector need to become more immersed in this, rather than letting it pass us by. We need to be more vocal in order to educate consumers about what we do and get the message out that independent advice from a qualified broker is the only sensible route when looking at taking out the biggest loan you will ever have.
Those that choose to sit on the sidelines and poo poo the whole idea have a shelf life and the clock is ticking.
The next generation, our future clients, will expect this as a minimum and you can bet that behind the scenes lenders are looking at ways to use this to get round their declining branch footfall.
It is essential that our industries digital footprint is as visible as possible, so I urge everyone to get connected and spread the word. In the words of Martha “The beginning is always today”.