Every year, tens of thousands of UK homeowners take out a mortgage with Barclays. More than 60 percent of these mortgages are arranged via external brokers. A pioneering community platform, built on Salesforce Communities, helps Barclays forge deeper relationships with these brokers — all 16,000 of them. “Our community platform will fundamentally transform how we engage with mortgage brokers and our customers,” comments Steve Weston, CEO of Barclays Mortgages. “We are not turning the dial slightly, we are turning it right up.” From interest rate calculators and knowledge articles to mortgage application updates and online chats, the community platform will provide brokers with everything they need for doing business with Barclays. “Our broker community is the first of its kind in the market,” comments Jackie Uhi, UK Managing Director for Barclays Mortgages. “Brokers will no longer have to search in different places for information; there will just be one platform — and it will be accessible from any device.”

As well as helping brokers, the hub will enable Barclays to better understand its mortgage business and develop competitive products that meet the needs of its customers. “The dialogue between our relationship managers and brokers is going to change dramatically; instead of talking about obstacles, they will be able to talk about opportunities, for example how to optimise lead generation sources,” reveals Weston. The platform, which will also be used by members of the bank’s staff, will be rolled out across Barclays’ broker community over the coming months. “We need to keep our business fresh to survive: we celebrate our 325th anniversary in 2015, which makes us older than the Bank of England and even the United States of America,” says Weston. “With Salesforce, we will be able to evolve faster and smarter, and lead the way in changing how banks engage with their customers.”