- With the ease at which information flows back and forth, why limit yourself to delivering only milestone updates?
- Updates on Monday and Thursday tend to be effective; if you wait until Friday, customers might have questions that are left unanswered until Monday.
- Andrew Soss has seen significant agent retention since he instituted updates in a systematic way.
I recently asked two top mortgage producers how they keep their clients and agents updated — and what that has done for their business. (Disclosure: I am the founder and CEO of Floify, a mortgage borrower portal and dashboard.)
What would happen if you updated your clients weekly, regardless of milestones? Or even multiple times per week?
The drawback of instituting multiple weekly updates is that someone in your office must be responsible for initiating the flow of communication. This typically takes an hour or two each time updates are sent. A tool can reduce this time.
Is it worth it? From the feedback I got from Soss and Krnjetin, it seems clear that the time they invested into instituting a systematic approach for multiple weekly updates has increased their business, as their referral partners are now more sticky and sending them more loan volume.
Here’s what Andrew Soss of The Andrew Soss Lending Team and Jasmine Krnjetin of The Jasmine Team with Waterstone Mortgage had to say:
In addition to milestone updates, are you updating your borrowers more than once per week?
Soss: We do milestone updates as well as twice-weekly updates (Monday and Thursday mornings). I have slowly ramped up the number of email updates that I provide in the transaction and haven’t yet hit a point where someone says that it’s too much. The twice-weeklies plus milestones seem to be a sweet spot.
Krnjetin: Multi-updates are good. We do one to start the week — one on Monday — and then one on Thursday.
We found that sending updates on Fridays sometimes led to questions or concerns for the borrower that we may not be able to address until Monday. In which case, the borrower may worry all weekend about the status.
Do you see any difference in simply providing milestone or infrequent updates as opposed to doing a weekly update?
Soss: It’s been a huge differentiator with clients and agents. We have seen significant agent retention since we instituted updates in a systematic way.
Krnjetin: Yes, we see a huge difference. There are dozens of things that happen in the loan process that the borrower doesn’t see. Our updates move the line of visibility toward the customer, so he or she understands why the process requires so much time and effort.
Do customers and clients actively view the updates?
Soss: Clients and agents are definitely viewing and replying to the status updates.
Krnjetin: We don’t have a good metric on usage. However, it is one of the most common positive comments on post-close surveys. In fact, 53 percent of positive comments on customer surveys relate to update emails and calls.
What other channels (if any) do you use to keep your customers up-to-date?
Soss: Outside of one-off emails, we use Floify for updates.
Krnjetin: We also do Tuesday update calls to all borrowers and agents on active loans, and Wednesday update emails and calls for prequalified borrowers.
What are some general tips you’d give for increasing mortgage workplace productivity?
Soss: Less is more. The simpler the system, the more buy-in you will have with staff, the more productive it is. If a system is too robust, you will have difficulty with adoption rates, and it is a waste of time and money.
Use these tips from top mortgage producers to create a huge differentiator for yourself, just like Soss and Krnjetin do.
Dave Sims is founder and CEO of Floify.com, a mortgage borrower portal and dashboard. Sims is also a licensed mortgage loan originator, NMLS 1235071.
