Consumers will increasingly seek out intermediaries online and on social media in the next two to three years, Peter Brodnicki, chief executive of Mortgage Advice Bureau, has predicted.

Brodnicki’s speech, entitled ‘the challenges of running a business’, ran through a number of strategies broker firms should keep in mind – such as utilising technology.

He said: “What people will start to do in the next two to three years is more and more actively try and find an intermediary.

“They could find very different intermediaries from the ones they are currently dealing with because of their way of searching.

“They will go online; they will look on social media. You might find that who actually gets the business will change.

“New companies coming into the market will have a very significant edge when spending money in those areas customers are going to respond to.”

In the next few years Brodnicki predicted the mortgage market will increasingly specialise with the help of partnership agreements. He added: “In a changing market there will be new partnerships forming, maybe some unlikely partnerships in future, because we are moving towards specialisation.

“[Currently] The challenger bank is specialist compared to the mainstream.”

He also suggested the owners of broker firms make sure advisers give consumers a consistent experience. He said: “Is the business model a collective of advisers who do their own thing or controlled distribution?

“Be very clear at the outset when you start your business what’s expected. I see so many people not checking what their advisers do.

“If you are bringing in a new adviser then the whole process starts. When you first interview an adviser do you tell them ‘this is how we do business. This is our customer experience. This is our expectation. That’s where it starts’?

“Make it clear right at the very beginning.”