WE’RE HEARING there is a discipline that is completely lacking in the mortgage industry—we have no test to answer the most critical question that any service business can ask—“
I came to this realization because I have a 17-year-old daughter who is going through the painful process of picking possible colleges, complete with standardized testing, college visits and much angst for parents as we try to guide her to make a good investment in her future.
Before I go any further, I should let you know that my kid is perfect, and the greatest kid in the history of the world. I am sure you think the same thing about your kid, but I really mean it. Sorry, just figured I would mention that before going any further so you can have the background on how important this process is to me. After all, we have done a perfect job raising her, and I don’t want some college to mess it up!
As any parent knows, a huge part of this process is the standardized tests—the dreaded SAT—that provides insight into her capabilities and ability to succeed at the next level. The odd thing is that her score on the SAT was not perfect (which is contradictory to my previous comment about her being perfect) and actually has some room for improvement.
She takes these practice tests and is working on the areas where she has gaps. She works on it, hoping to increase her scores and get into a good college and thus have a productive future.
The mortgage business could learn from my daughter.
It’s a total blind spot, and not having the data means we often make decisions in the dark, relying on unscientific data about satisfaction, or worse, taking the word of the loan officer about what the customer needs.
Does it make sense to listen to the loan officer who closes four loans per month to figure out what is wrong with the process, or listen to the consumers (every one of them) and analyze the data in a more meaningful way?
Over the next few weeks I will share examples of why making the consumer central to your process is critical to the success of your business—and give you some tips on how it can be done. After all, we are hearing a lot about how the regulators are listening to the customer, analyzing data and making decisions about lenders that could impact their future. That can lead to the same level of anxiety as applying to colleges, and is surely not a test that you want to fail.
Garth Graham is a partner with Stratmor Group, and has over 25 years of mortgage experience, from Fortune 500 companies to startups, including management of two of the most successful mortgage e-commerce platforms. He was formerly with Chase Manhattan Mortgage and ABN Amro, where he was a senior executive during the sale of its mortgage group to Citigroup.
