Coventry for Intermediaries has reported that it now receives an equal amount of new business enquiries via its CFI Chat tool as phone calls, a year after the tool was first launched.

The lender’s CFI Chat tool is run by its telephone team and provides an alternative option for brokers to get answers to more straightforward lending questions.

In the year since CFI Chat went live, it has received over 65,000 unique enquiries from mortgage brokers and averaged a wait time of 33 seconds.

Keith Williams, intermediary operations manager at Coventry for Intermediaries, said: “CFI Chat was launched at the request of our intermediary partners, to give them more choice and flexibility when getting in touch with us.

“We think that the human touch has been a huge part of the web chat tool’s success – our highly regarded telephone advisors answer all queries, there are no bots involved and no responses are automated or scripted.

“We’re committed to providing the best service we can to brokers, in whatever way suits them and their business. We’ll continue to listen to brokers’ feedback and look for ways to enhance the service we provide.”