Digitally transforming mortgage advice delivery

Background

John Charcol is one of the UK’s most established independent mortgage advisors, with offices in London, Southampton, Birmingham and Newcastle. With over 45 years’ experience, they help thousands of people each year secure the right mortgage.

Rareloop first partnered with John Charcol to address specific challenges within their onboarding journey, beginning with:

• ID verification and document collection via a mobile app, replacing slow Post Office checks
• SMS automation, enabling advisers to communicate faster and more reliably with clients

Both projects delivered immediate value, faster turnaround, high conversion and less manual admin. Proving the impact of digital change paved the way for a larger vision: modernising the entire mortgage case journey.

The challenge

Advisors were working across many third-party systems and tools throughout the mortgage process. None of these platforms were connected, meaning advisors had to manually re-enter and transfer data between systems.

This created several issues:

• Information being gathered and re-entered multiple times
• Inconsistent processes between advisers
• Limited visibility of case progress
• Slow turnaround for document requests
• Risk of missed steps in compliance or suitability checks down to human error.

The outcome was lost time, higher operational costs and an inconsistent customer experience, all driven by tools that weren’t designed to work together.

John Charcol needed a scalable way to unify and automate their mortgage workflow without disrupting the tools that already worked.

The Solution

Working closely with the John Charcol leadership and adviser teams, Rareloop designed and delivered a custom digital back-office system that now sits at the heart of the mortgage journey.

A connected, centralised workflow

Built in Laravel and deeply integrated with the Pipedrive (CRM platform), the platform:

• Creates cases automatically from a single trigger in CRM
• Provides real time progress updates and a clear view of the current status of a case
• Ensures every required input is captured
• Centralises data with zero duplication 

Smart, structured data capture

A dynamic, logic-driven fact find replaces manual calls and unstructured documents.

• Questions adapt based on customer profile
• Completed data feeds subsequent steps automatically

Automated document generation 

The platform generates and delivers:

• Mortgage illustrations
• Combined Initial Disclosure Documents (CIDD)
• Suitability letters
• Branded client communications

All handled automatically, stored centrally and sent via email.

Plug in, don’t rebuild 

Rather than replacing the tools John Charcol already relied on, Rareloop focused on connecting and strengthening them. The new system integrates with:

• Pipedrive (CRM)
• Sourcing platforms such as Morgage Brain
• Twilio for SMS
• A call-recording provider
• Onfido for ID verification

By integrating with the platforms advisors already used, Rareloop reduced disruption and avoided unnecessary retraining. In cases where existing tools couldn’t support the required functionality, we introduced purpose-built solutions, such as programmable SMS via Twilio, to deliver meaningful improvements quickly, minimising change for users while maximising impact.

A partnership-driven evolution

Crucially, the system wasn’t delivered in one big release. Over more than 4 years, Rareloop has created the digital backbone of John Charcol’s entire advice journey. Together we had:

• Held weekly prioritisation sessions aligned to business goals
• Delivered interactive improvements shaped by adviser feedback
• Adapted the system for different user groups to ensure it worked for their specific needs

The Outcome

With the back-office platform, combined with our earlier projects, we’ve redefined how mortgage advice is delivered inside John Charcol. The result is helping John Charcol serve more customers, more efficiently and stay ahead in a heavily regulated market.

By connecting systems and automating key steps in the mortgage journey, advisers now save around 30 minutes per case. At scale, that equates to approximately 400 hours every month, the equivalent of around 2.5 full-time advisers’ capacity. This significantly reduces administrative workload and enables the team to handle more cases without increasing headcount.

Operational Efficiency

• Reduction in manual data entry
• Faster progression through cases
• Hours saved per adviser per week
• Less reliance on individuals “knowing the process”

Regulatory Confidence

• Every adviser follows the same workflow
• Full audit trail across every step
• Rapid adaptation to FCA requirements
• Reduced compliance risk

Customer Experience

• Faster case movement
• Clearer communication through SMS and automated email
• Fewer delays and unnecessary paperwork
• Earlier visibility of required documentation

Scalability 

• Advisers can serve more customers without increasing admin
• Enables organisational growth without growing headcount
• New features can be layered into an established foundation

Competitive Advantage

Where many brokers rely on manual workarounds and systems that dictate how teams operate, John Charcol now runs on a connected, digital-first workflow designed around how its brokers actually work. The result is a platform tailored to their processes, compliance obligations and growth ambitions, and one that can evolve as technology, regulation and customer expectations change.