Going the Extra Mile – Jigsaw Lending on the importance of face-to-face meetings

by The Group Hug August 16, 2021, 2:15 pm 1.7k Views

I thought I would highlight a recent experience in terms of building trust with a client and, – in respect to delicate and often complex matters- it’s so important to remind ourselves of the true importance of taking time with the client and doing this using the medium of face-to-face relationships. Social media has it uses but there is no substitute to real relationship building through face-to-face meetings – Douglas Noble – Director – Jigsaw Lending

Our story

Jigsaw Lending was set up to provide Unsecured Lending for the purposes of Divorce Litigation Fees. We promote ourselves to be personally available at all times when engaging with our clients. We genuinely believe that providing this personal service would be a differentiator when supporting a client in respect to taking that often difficult first step in respect to instituting divorce proceedings.

We wanted to show family law firms that by taking this approach we would be complementing their services at a high level and making sure their reputation for fast and efficient service was upheld.

This approach is very much a core value of our offering and one which shows that Jigsaw Lending goes the extra mile in assisting clients introduced by Family Law Firms.

I would like to take this opportunity to genuinely thank all the legal firms who since our launch have introduced clients to us and partnered with us. Your support has been hugely appreciated and has helped us to further build our business.

With the increase of social media/digital platforms and a growing desire to conduct meetings by way of Zoom & Microsoft Teams, we recently had a phenomenally successful outcome from a case introduced to us, which reminded us that at times there simply is no substitute for the old fashion value of personally meeting the client and their legal advisor.

A number of months ago we were approached by a well-known legal firm to assist one of their clients with regards to raising finance for divorce litigation. It’s fair to say that the legal firm in question rightly highlighted to us that the client (on this occasion female) was extremely anxious in taking that first step and was nervous about raising finance to commence divorce proceedings.

The atmosphere around this was not helped by her husband controlling all the finances in the marriage and in fact stating to her that she would not have the “wherewithal nor the courage” to institute divorce proceedings.

On receipt of the introduction from the Family law Firm, we took the following steps –

Followed up immediately with a personal call to the client
Noted her feelings of anxiety, and for that reason we arranged to meet at a place of the clients choosing. This was at a location not far from where she lived

Jenny and I both met our client. We immediately made clear to the client that the purpose of the first meeting was purely to listen and then outline what we could provide in terms of financial support to help.

We outlined the steps within our process –

How finance is raised
Happy to answer all questions (no matter if our client felt they were silly)
How we would complement her legal team in supporting her requirements
That we would be available 24 /7 to answer any questions throughout the divorce

Jenny and I were happy with how the meeting had panned out, sensing that we had helped allay any fears around what options were on the table.

The important thing in this case was that by meeting personally we immediately struck a rapport and made our client aware that we would be there for her. I genuinely believe that if we had not made ourselves available in this way and had not had the benefit of that personal meeting the client would not have overcome their own anxiety as to all the issues and stress she was having to deal with.

24 hours after the meeting the client phoned to say thank you, and as a result of meeting her in person she wanted to proceed. The legal firm were also very pleased that we had made the effort to meet her on the question of finance. This culminated in us accompanying her to a meeting with her legal team – again in person. At that meeting the legal team outlined the strategy and provided a good indication of what amount would be required to be raised to allow us to approach our bank contacts. We agreed all the dealings/communications between parties would be transparent to make sure everyone is on the same page.

I am incredibly pleased to say that the divorce went exactly as predicted by the legal firm and the client received a substantial financial pay-out which met all their needs. This allowed the Bank to be repaid in terms of the Undertaking provided.

It was wonderful (and gratifying) to see the clients confidence grow throughout the divorce proceedings and for her to realise that she should be taking seriously.

A small reminder I guess that the good old-fashioned values of GTEM really does work, particularly when it shows how much you care about supporting your clients and working with our family law partners.