There have been countless articles published over the years regarding the important role that ever-improving technology plays in so many facets of our lives, including the positive impact that advanced technology is playing in the mortgage default servicing industry.
While there is no denying the efficiencies that new technology has provided with respect to data processing and storage, task tracking, inventory and supply-chain tracking, real-time performance reporting, and so forth, all too often equally important business-related functions have gotten somewhat overshadowed, such as (oh, my) human contact and personal judgment.
Without delving into the potentially more sinister downside of technology that has given rise to so many energized media reports these past weeks, let’s suffice it to say that technological advances in communication are a double-edged sword in the “wrong“ hands. Also, while I do not want to dwell too much on the darker side of this issue, there are emerging opinions by noted psychologists that these new fangled communications tools are potentially going to rob us of our autonomy and individuality of thought. That’s a bit too heavy for this default-servicing-related piece.
To be clear, most of us would no doubt agree that personal, face-to-face interaction is the most preferred method of communication. Of course, that is hardly possible in most cases. An example of the seeming diminution of human contact is the incessant preference by field services professionals, REO asset managers, loan modification specialists, their staffs and others in our industry to rely so heavily on e-mail communications rather than the telephone—a not- so-advanced type of technology to be sure, but still a very valuable tool. It is no wonder, of course, that technology today has overtaken human contact. After all, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, texting and other methods of communication have blown by the unsophisticated (dare I say antiquated), email communications tool to give us all instant access to everyone with whom we want to stay in touch, and so many more that we probably do not/should not.
When I was first married blah, blah years ago (OK, 43), I for some reason dreaded talking on the telephone. I didn’t want to talk to other family members by phone, nor especially bill collectors or the like (and back then they were quite numerous, indeed). I could never see myself having to speak over the phone for any job, since I had only been a bus boy, construction laborer, liquor store clerk, hotel night auditor and such up to that point and rarely had to use a telephone. When I was 21 years old, however, I was hired by a very large contractor lumber company in Southern California to serve as an order-desk clerk. Oops. Now my job was to field calls and make calls all day long.
Well, like anything you must do over and over again I became much more comfortable doing so. In fact, I got to where I actually enjoyed talking to clients over the phone, even if they had complaints to make about one thing or another. Of course, there was no email or other methods of communication to utilize (except, perhaps, “snail-mail”), but the point is that speaking to someone in real time could and did then, and can still now, mitigate misunderstandings and more quickly resolve issues or find solutions to problems. What a concept! And how refreshing that would be today.
And, to be blunt, more managers in our industry and others today, probably even more so, senior managers, should make more of an effort to actually speak to their staff members individually, on a regular basis rather than trying to electronically communicate with them, especially if there could be misunderstandings that could undermine efficiencies, important relationships, loyalty and trust.
At Assurant Property Advantage we greatly value human contact and make every effort to build and maintain solid working relationships internally and externally by actually speaking to our associates and vendor partners as often as possible. Yes, we have state-of-the-art technology, including real-time, in-field quality control, unmatched predictive analytics on over 30 million loans across America, and more. But we believe there is no substitute for verbal communications to boost customer service and increase client satisfaction.
As the old telephone company TV commercial used to pronounce, “Reach out, reach out and touch someone.” You should try it in your daily routine. You might find out just what a powerful, efficient communication tool the telephone can be and without digital “face time” being involved. While talking on the telephone can take time out of your busy day, the positive results from real-time conversations greatly outweigh the time spent spitting out voluminous electronic communications, or ignoring so many of the incoming variety.
Lynn Effinger is a veteran of more than two decades in the default servicing industry and serves today as business development manager for Assurant Property Advantage, the field services business unit of Assurant Inc., a Fortune 500 company.
