Customer Service: Is it extinct?

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Customer service has waned in the last decade

Actress Andie MacDowell became embroiled in a minor brouhaha. She was on a flight instead of the first class seat she’d paid for, and gosh, it was disheartening to hobnob with the unwashed masses.

 

At least, that’s how the media spun it. Actually, MacDowell insists, she just wanted to receive the level of customer service she’d purchased.>Customer service seems to be going the way of the landline phone, which is unfortunate — especially in a service business. Yet providing stellar service doesn’t need to be a big deal. Consider these contrasting scenarios: 


Heartbreak Hotel?

 

True service is subtle and sincere. Many years ago, I took a colleague who was in town for a conference to lunch at Campton Place, a five-star San Francisco hotel. Lunch for the two of us was $30 before tip (about $55 today). My colleague murmured, “I don’t mind paying $30 for a meal like this; it was worth it.” And while the lunch was scrumptious, she wasn’t referring to the food so much as the five-star service: waitstaff who magically refilled water glasses and bread baskets before we even thought to ask, and presented each course with a flourish. The message was clear: there is nothing we would rather be doing than serving you.

 

Shelley related what had transpired at her own hotel. Her complicated surname was misspelled on her name badge. She asked for a new one. The staff told her, “We’re busy now; come back later.” She did, and the extra badges couldn’t be located. Finally, she took a felt tip pen from her purse and redid the badge herself.

I described a similar experience at the library. (This was before Google and smartphones solved our research requests instantaneously.) I needed a single page of information from a reference book at a different location. My librarian verified its availability. When I drove across town to the other branch, the book was in use upstairs. I asked whether the librarian could fax me the page I needed when it was available if I paid for it now, reasoning that it would just take her a minute and would save me another trip across town. “Oh, no,” she replied with a tinge of amazement, “We don’t have time for special requests like that here.

 

Service With A Smile

 

The loan officer who called my attention to the dearth of service in service businesses said, “The lack of good customer service can be a real detriment to future incoming business, and I have always prided myself on doing things the right way. I also taught this as a topic as an adjunct professor at our local college.

“There is a motto that sums it up: ‘Treat People Right’. It is packed with what should be done to preserve your client relationships and grow new ones.”How do you do this in your reverse mortgage business? It’s easier than you may think. Kissmetrics suggests eight (here are four) fresh customer service ideas that can work for the reverse mortgage industry, such as:


1. Make a video. For senior prospects, seeing a friendly face answer basic HECM questions creates a connection before you or they even pick up the phone. This HECMWorld blog post describes how to create a compelling, service-oriented reverse mortgage video.  

 

2. Publish reports. Take one of our weekly blog posts that focuses on senior topics, such as this piece on eight ways to transition into retirement, or this one on the value of embracing change, create a brief “report”, and email or snail mail it with a personal note, suggesting your prospect may find the material of interest. This builds credibility, with a warm fuzzy: everyone loves getting personal mail, especially seniors — and especially in the form of a letter they can hold in their hands.


3. Send a personal thank-you note. Like the above, hand-written thank-you notes are so rare you’ll immediately catapult to the head of the class. It takes almost no time to dash off a line of appreciation to the senior prospect or client by name, on your good stationery or on a greeting card.


4. Showcase customer support. Just as people have confidence in 5-star reviews, it pays to show off your customer kudos. If you have a Reverse Focus website, let prospects (and clients) see those client satisfaction ratings and testimonials. As the Kissmetrics blog states, “not only does it help potential customers make a decision, it also helps reaffirm the faith existing customers have in them.”

You have the potential to be a Campton Place in every transaction. All it takes is a firm commitment to client care.

 

 

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5 Ways to Beat the Sales Doldroms

 

Are you familiar with the word doldrums? In our modern lexicon it describes a slump, loss of motion, lack of productivity, or listlessness. For sailors the doldrums were no laughing matter before the advent of steamships and diesel powered vessels. Mariners used the term to describe a windless and potentially deadly zone near the equator where ships could get stuck or days, weeks, or longer as the sails hung slack. 

 

Today many mortgage and real estate professionals are in this windless limbo and consequently may find themselves with empty sails feeling uneasy, bored, or fearful.

 

So how do we start paddling back to where the wind can fill our sails? Here are five strategies for your consideration.

 

1. Be Consistent

 

Habits and routines may seem boring but they can serve us well. Practice consistent routines for outbound sales calls, mining your client and prospect data in a CRM, and meeting with area professionals who interact with potential borrowers. To ensure you don’t fall off the wagon schedule each of these as recurring events on your calendar. 

 

2. Use the Stockdale Paradox

 

The Stockdale Paradox embodies two elements: confronting the brutal truth of your current situation while maintaining an unwavering faith or belief that you will prevail in the end. This principle is named after Vietnam prisoner of war James Stockdale who was imprisoned in the infamous Hanoi Hilton where he developed several psychological tools of survival. Take stock of where your business stands today and boost your perseverence by envisioning where you want to be.

 

3. Adjust your message

 

Is your typical sales approach effective with homeowners? Is your marketing producing results? If not, take the time to dive deep into what motivated your past clients and take the pulse of your local market. Have conditions changed? Is the standard pitch of eliminating required mortgage payments working? If not, work to develop a relevant message.

 

4. Keep the essentials

 

There are some expenses that should be eliminated and others that shouldn’t. If you find yourself with fewer closings and less income resist the temptation to fold the tent. Folding the tent is eliminating those key services and tools that are essential to you continuing to market, engage, and followup with potential borrowers.

 

5. Stay in touch

 

When business slows take advantage of your time by getting on the phone. Professionals across all industries find that the more personal contacts they make the more likely they are to find a deal. Call your past borrowers and check in on how they’re doing. Ask for a referral. Meet a local advisor or realtor for coffee. No matter what- keep building relationships.

What do you do during a slow business season? Share your experience in the comment section below. 

Do These 5 Things for a Happier 2024



I usually blather on about New Year’s resolutions. That’s okay and we should set some goals for the new year. Why not? But how about something new? A happier state of mind in 2024? Here are five things each of us can do right now for a happier new year. 

First- stop worrying about what other people think about you. Most are engrossed in their world and are not paying much attention. Over-worrying about others’ perception of us is called the ‘Spotlight Effect’ where we imagine people are noticing us more than they really are.

Do you want to be satisfied and avoid unnecessary angst? Then wish for things to be as they turn out to be. Epictetus said, “Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.”

Focus on what you control. Weigh every situation and circumstance and ask yourself, “is this something I can control?”. If not, then discard it and with it the anxiety that comes with attempting to control the uncontrollable.

Find happiness outside of other’s approval. If we depend on others to feel good about ourselves then we’ve handed them over the reigns to our happiness. Instead, resolve to do your best work, focus on what you can do in a given moment, and remember that more often than not happiness is a state of mind- not a set of circumstances.

Use adversity to practice building the character traits you want to strengthen. For it’s outside our comfort zone that we find growth. Adversity is unavoidable and often reveals our present character strengths and weaknesses so we might as well use adversity as an opportunity to improve, grow stronger, and prepare ourselves for an uncertain future. 

Being our last episode of 2023 I want to wish every one of you a happy, prosperous, and productive 2024. Happy New Year!