The search Google is not interested in anymore. Mortgages.

The search giant exits Mortgage comparison. When it launched and its capture of beatthatquote for £37M had commentators reaching for hyperbole and back in 2007 this seemed yet another nail in the coffin of the local mortgage broker looking sit down and chat over customer’s needs.

Yet here we sit on 2012 and the information behemoth has just announced the exit from this venture, perhaps this is yet again proof person to person advice and service is not scalable – see here for comment from an IFA perspective on the same subject.

Search tables are great. I use them to have a look at prices, and have them on my website to help people get a mind’s eye of costs – window shopping if you like. There is also no doubt my recommendations are much stronger because of the use of these, however they are the start not the end of the recommendation piece. I have next to delve into criteria, match overall fees payable against initial rate, penalties, overpayment flexibility, revert to rates and portability to name just half a dozen common needs that customers ask about – then to balance adn prioritise these and make a recommendation that fits with the customers overall needs. Try putting that in a table.

Google also makes a fair bit of money from all the financial businesses that are online and if Google started getting in the way how would these people and their ad budgets feel about that? I reckon we should applaud Google for giving it a go, after all if there is anything Financial Services needs right now it is innovation

So over to us, what can we try next to look at communicating better and looking to explain what we do in a better, clearer way? Answers on the back of a table….