WE’RE HEARING from a lot of mortgage originators that read my blog
It was nice to get some passionate comments, and to know that I had readers who actually cared about what I said.
(Of course, I also heard from my daughter who was embarrassed about being mentioned in my blog and told me to use some other family member as a metaphor. I told her I had already used the dog in a previous column and had him drinking from a toilet so she should be happy I only had her studying for the SATs. She rolled her eyes and left the room.)
So, the mortgage originators that read my blog seemed to think that I was advocating that mortgage companies should not listen to the originator’s opinion of the process. That is not at all what I was saying.
My point was that mortgage companies needed to listen directly to the consumer and their perception of the process, and needed to measure the satisfaction in a methodical way that provides actionable insights into this process.
In fact, the approach I recommend provides insights that include how the processor, underwriter and closer impact customer satisfaction. I used to originate loans, have managed retail production and have worked with many clients on their retail production efforts. In fact, it’s still one of my favorite parts of the business, when I can get that sales buzz of seeing how changing marketing and sales processes can directly impact the origination efforts of a company.
I also remember that I used to groan when certain underwriters or processors received my files, because I knew there would be more conditions, more last-minute issues and more trouble. Well, if you measure borrower satisfaction in an analytical way, those realities show up in the numbers.
So, I heard you—the litany of issues that come from the field—too much documentation, too many conditions on the loans, systems don’t work well, too much paper work, paper work too confusing, price too high, closing costs too much, appraisal too low, appraiser unprofessional, operations not calling customers, operations calling customers too much, not closing fast enough, closing is confusing, closing takes too long.
Of course, operations managers often provide plenty of feedback about the originator—incomplete application, improper borrower expectations, not enough documentation. Meanwhile, there is another set of feedback coming into the executive suite, and that feedback comes from the regulators and the compliance side of the business, including a critical question: “How does the process impact the consumer?” After all, the CFPB did not choose their name by accident.
As a senior executive it’s hard to know what to do with all of this feedback—you can only invest so much in improving the process, you can only change so many things at one time, you can only spend so much money on making a process better before you will demand a return on the investment. So, what’s an executive to do to balance all these conflicting priorities?
For those readers that still don’t think I ever originated a mortgage loan, I want to point out that I have just employed the “make them sick, make them well” sales process. In fact, writing this column has nearly made me sick, but the toilet is tied up with my dog taking a drink. (Now I can tell my daughter I just got the dog into his second column!)
But I am confident there is a way to accurately get feedback from consumers, to quantify the results, to use these results to predict the customer’s behavior, and to thus give senior executives a way to know where to invest and how to improve the process for the borrower’s benefit. In fact, the next few columns will be about how to do that.
By the way, I love the feedback from the columns, and welcome this feedback. I would love to hear from anyone who has tried to measure borrower satisfaction and some of the success and challenges with their approach.
I will include in the future columns, while I begin to spell out options to measure borrower satisfaction and take action on the results. I promise to reply, so find me on
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.
