by David Depman
You’ve probably heard a quote from Steve Jobs, “… good artists copy great artists steal.”* That quote’s an appropriate starting point when discussing how well you and your service rate when compared to the competition. Not everything you may do is better or worse than the loan officer across the street, and not everything they do is better or worse than what you’re doing. In fact, you each may be doing some of the same things, but one or the other is executing better. The key is to understand what the competition is doing, and incorporate what you consider the best practices into your routine. Call it copying or stealing, but either way, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel improve your service.
In 2010, the top 10 originators held 80% of the primary mortgage market, this year it’s down to 60%.
Consider this: In 2010, the top 10 originators held 80% of the primary mortgage market, this year it’s down to 60%. That means that more people are doing more shopping and your chance at catching more business is increasing. And to capture more opportunities, you need to understand your image, your practices, and what your clients are looking for, so that they choose you over someone else. One way to understand the customer experience is to become a customer. Mystery-shopping may be the insight you need. Mystery-shopping is a long-established method used to measure the quality of service provided. In the mortgage industry, the use of mystery-shoppers has been primarily to monitor the compliance and practices of mortgage originators. Today, individuals and leading edge companies are using mystery-shopping to go beyond simple regulatory compliance practices, and to encourage excellent customer experience services. In addition to the benefits mystery shopping yourself, you might consider mystery shopping your competition. Doing so can shed light on your customers’ experience before they make their first call to you and give you insight into their mindset. By mystery-shopping the competition, you can understand more about them, and ultimately, more about the customer experience, more about you and more about your approach.
Preparing to Mystery-Shop
So how do you prepare to mystery shop your competition?
Like a scientist studying behavior in the wild, you need to observe the experience of a potential client without being observed.
First, ask yourself some questions and write down your answers to create a profile. This profile should be a normative description of your client base. You should try and make it typical of as broad a swath of the clients with whom you work as possible. Typical questions you might want to understand:
- Who are your typical customers? First time borrowers, refi, jumbo? Do they have kids, single, demographic, income level? Answering this helps you to understand who you are when you call shop the competition.
- What, in your opinion, is important to your clients? Are other institutions matching your service strengths? Do you pride yourself on a personal touch, do other firms or individuals match your efforts, do they fall short? This will help you understand what you are looking for, and helps you to recognize inspiring excellence and opportunities.
- Where are your clients also shopping? It’s a mix: online lending firms like Quicken, Lending tree, Shoprate and Money Rates. They may also look to similar sized financial institutions, Credit Unions, Big Mortgage firms like Wells or BofA among others. These are the companies you want to shop.
Answering these simple questions can help you understand what your clients look for, and where you want to call to shop the competition.
Time to Shop
Ok, so now you know what your profile is. Time to shop! Try to standardize the mystery shop process to get to the heart of the matter in an efficient and consistent manner. Here are some suggestions for your Mystery Shopping Checklist:
- Response time: How many rings do they take to answer, how long to answer an email or online enquiry?
- Quality of Representative: Is the person friendly and easy to talk with? Do they offer advice, do they make any demands that might turn off prospective clients? What do they do well?
- Qualifications: Is the person you talk with qualified? Do they have the appropriate Mortgage Loan Originator License for your state? Are they Nationally licensed?
- Payments: Do they ask for any upfront payments? Do they clearly explain any charges when asking for a pre-approval?
- Quality of Guidance: How did they do, did they answer questions clearly? Did they answer correctly, did they offer any alternatives, suggestions, solutions? Did they discuss GFEs or TILs that could be emailed to you? What did they do well, poorly?
- Knowledge: Is the person very knowledgeable, Did they display a good understanding of buyer concerns and the overall mortgage market.
- Web Presence: What kind of information could you locate about them before you called? Was it informative, helpful, easy to find, interesting, did you submit your contact info (and why)?
Running with the Knowledge
By mystery-shopping your competition, you get a personal and up-close understanding of your local industry. By understanding your competition and the experience of navigating the initial contact stages, you get a deeper understanding of what you can do to improve your positioning in these crucial early stages. The next challenge is to mystery shop yourself. Walk through each of the steps, and complete any that you can, like calling your own office. How is the experience? What is the first impression? Would you choose you as a Loan Officer? If you have any hesitation, consider every aspect of the experience, and make sure you implement steps to ensure you are doing it better than the competition. So, how did you do? What insights did you gain, what roadblocks did you encounter? Share your experiences here!