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This AT&T commercial says it all: “America, after the past year(ish), everyone deserves something new!” Our business and personal lives have dramatically changed. Some of us continue to work remotely, some have a hybrid model of home and office, and some are back in the office full time. It’s still tough to decide whether to attend conferences in person or continue to attend online. Our industry’s journey has certainly seen its share of obstacles and detours these last 12 months, and for most of us this journey changed significantly.
How would your customers rate their journey over the last year(ish)? Would they say the journey was smooth, or are they more likely to note the potholes in their experience? In our InFocus article this month, two of our industry’s noted customer experience experts, Mike Seminari and Sue Woodard, discuss a critical step in the strategy toward creating a superior customer experience (CX): journey mapping. In a purchase market with rising mortgage interest rates and increasing regulatory compliance oversight, it has never been more important to have dedicated resources and designated staff for your CX initiatives. Lenders who are intentional about providing a delightful customer experience will be the ones that grow the fastest, protect their margins and gain market share.
Mike picks up the CX discussion with an important question in his Borrower Experience article: “How can lenders tap into their ‘Grinch energy’ and set up a spectacular 2022?” Since a decline of even a few percentage points on the satisfaction scales can translate into tangible losses — according to our data, three in five loans experience at least one critical error in the loan process that jeopardizes the likelihood for a referral. Knowing what tips the satisfaction scales in a positive direction is essential. Mike suggests steps lenders can take to channel their inner, transformational Grinch to find CX success in the upcoming year.
Thank you for joining us this month. Please feel free to email me if you are interested in discussing your customer experience strategies or would like STRATMOR to assist you with your customer journey mapping. We’d be happy to help.
From all of us at STRATMOR Group, we wish you and yours a very Happy Holiday season and a bright and prosperous New Year 2022.
By Mike Seminari and Sue Woodard December 2021
By all accounts, the buzzword for mortgage lenders headed into 2022 is growth. In our meetings at the most recent Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Convention, virtually every lender we spoke to said that their number one priority for 2022 was to achieve growth. Lenders in our virtual workshops have been saying much the same thing. It seems that everyone is hoping to grab more market share in the year ahead.
But not everyone will.
As the refinance tsunami with its sky-high wave of profits fades and the purchase market rises, price wars will ensue. But successful lenders in a purchase climate won’t win on price. Multiple studies have shown that when it comes to gaining business, the customer’s experience outranks price and fees. In fact, a customer is four times more likely to leave and go to a competitor if a problem in the process is service-related versus price-or-product related.
And that is why a Customer Experience (CX) strategy is crucial for mortgage lenders, especially now.
As the mortgage industry moves away from a prolonged refinance boom, lenders and loan officers alike should tap into their “Grinch energy” to reach for purchase business in 2022.
STRATMOR Group offers a suite of data products and mortgage advisory services to power your performance–including industry-specific studies. Get the data driven advantage!
If you pay attention to the industry news, you likely have a sense that mortgage merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is hot right now. But is that factual or just a fiction told by buyers trying to attract sellers?
STRATMOR Principal Tom Finnegan analyzes data indicating lenders would do better to worry less about missing out on the newest technology and concentrate more on giving technology context through process and adoption.
The Customer Experience (CX) is the hot topic du jour for mortgage lenders. Sue Woodard unpacks the importance of CX, how to measure and track it and how mortgage lenders can level up their approach.
