Opinion

Originators Need to Improve Their Communication Skills

It was with great interest that I read Garth Graham's recent posts about his wife's visit to the emergency room. This was because I just had a visit to the emergency room of my own that ended up in a combined stay of six-plus weeks in the hospital/rehabilitation facility.

And like Garth, my experience led me to make comparisons to customer service in the mortgage industry. And for the most part they were not good.

I think the most important points of customer service involve listening to your clients and communication. Communication is not only between the client and your staff, but among the different departments in your office as well.

The lack of proper communication, processes and procedures is why loans fail to close on time.

In my own experience, I was talking to the person responsible for discharge planning; in mortgage terms she would be the closing coordinator.

Without getting into the details, the discharge planning person had information about me that was at least two weeks out of date. After a little bit of running around, things got cleared up and my release date was set for 48 hours later.

As part of my release, I was supposed to receive medical equipment from two vendors (in mortgage terms, ancillary service providers). Neither delivered the equipment, which fortunately was not medically necessary.

With one of them, I had to give the same piece of information three times. Does that sound familiar to your customers? After being told they would call me to schedule a delivery, I never heard from them again; that is something your customers might hear from one of your service providers as well.

Nobody holds medical facilities accountable for the actions of the suppliers they use. However, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does hold mortgage industry participants responsible for the acts of their third-party providers.

Be sure to have your processes and procedures in place to ensure smooth customer service not only at your company, but for your vendors as well.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Originations
MORE FROM NATIONAL MORTGAGE NEWS