As we’ve experienced throughout our lives, the best lessons are learned from navigating hard times. A Chinese proverb states, “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.” I believe this is also true in business. In our current market, there is plenty of friction and constant trials. So how do our mortgage bankers, and the vendors who serve our industry, make the most out of these trials and the lessons that come with them so that our companies come out on the other side as valuable as polished gems?
We asked our STRATMOR advisors to reflect on the most important lessons they’ve learned during this unprecedented year of friction in the mortgage industry in this month’s InFocus article: “Lessons Learned in a Down Mortgage Market.” Each client engagement from 2023 has taught us something about how lenders can survive this latest downturn and position themselves for success when the inevitable up cycle arrives. We hope our insights on people, strategy and technology can help lenders weather the trials of this cycle and emerge polished and poised for success.
Why is continued growth so vital to success? Customer Experience Director Mike Seminari explains that lenders need to be learners and doers, not just survivors. This downturn presents the opportunity to be active — building relationships, gaining product knowledge, reading books and listening to podcasts — always in pursuit of self-betterment and excellence in customer care. Mike explores the lessons he’s learned specific to the customer experience and offers suggestions for how to parlay these CX lessons into success in 2024 in his article, “Top Three CX Lessons That Will Drive Success in 2024.”
Thank you for joining us for the November Insights Report. If you would like to discuss your strategies for weathering the downturn, please reach out to your STRATMOR partner or principal. STRATMOR provides a range of services to facilitate, optimize and address the lessons learned and challenges lenders are facing including, operational audits, implementation strategies for people, process and technology, and M&A strategic options advisory services.
The mortgage industry goes through cycles. If you’ve been in the business for more than a minute you know this up-down-skyrocket-scrambling-to-make-ends-meet thing is to be expected. It’s normal, right?
Not exactly. In an article he wrote just one year ago, STRATMOR Senior Partner Jim Cameron noted that this downturn feels different — because it is.
What have we learned so far through this “different” downturn? In this article, we asked STRATMOR’s advisors, based on our recent engagements with our mortgage clients, to share their insights on the people, strategy and technology trends of the last 18 months and to identify the most important lessons we learned in this down market.
What are the biggest customer experience lessons we’re learning in 2023 and how can we parlay them into success in 2024?
STRATMOR Group offers data products and mortgage advisory services to power your performance, including industry-specific studies. Get the data driven advantage!
Origination costs are at an all-time high. Given that sales costs will continue to be the largest component of retail origination costs, what can be done to manage this beast?
Understanding the key characteristics of the Expense Management Branch (EMB) and comparing the key performance metrics between it and the corporate branch model is essential to identifying which is best for your organization.
Secret shopping is the best way for lenders to remove the disconnection between perception and reality and pave the way for meaningful improvements in customer experience.
In today’s market, mortgage lenders are facing a challenge: they are not making enough money on originations to sustain their organizations. When your company is losing money on each loan you originate and the only revenue comes from the servicing rights, developing an effective servicing strategy becomes a mission critical priority.
Inertia affects us all, in work and in life, at some point. Right now, in the mortgage industry, inertia or the resistance to change, is a challenge many companies face and need to overcome. And that’s a problem because too many lenders are avoiding this crucial decision. And they’re running out of time.
Experts say that a company’s customer experience can never rise above its employee experience. For mortgage lenders, this means that the quality of the customer experience, which drives revenues, is capped by the quality of the employee experience.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or needs we might be able to help with.
