Mortgage servicers today rely on an ecosystem of third-party service providers to keep their servicing shops running efficiently and, with a stroke of luck, profitably. But that means they are on the hook for monitoring those third parties for regulatory compliance, as well as adherence to business rules and investor guidelines.
As such, today’s third parties are expected to deliver an extremely high level of customer service to their servicer clients. It is imperative that there be open lines of communication, providing for rapid exchange of information.
But what else does it take for a provider of third-party services to deliver top-notch customer service? To find out, MortgageOrb pinged Jonnine Eras, first vice president and client relations executive for LERETA, a provider of property tax tracking and flood determination services.
Q: Exceptional customer service is becoming more of a rule rather than an exception in customer loyalty. How would you describe extraordinary service?
Eras: Extraordinary customer service is delivering high-quality services and support in a way that allows your customers to access them in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. To achieve this goal, a company should infuse customer service principles into every customer touch point, from implementation, escrow and delinquency reporting, research and help desk calls to IT involvements with projects, to Web systems and self-service tools. Understanding, managing and delivering on customer goals and expectations are key to creating successful outcomes and satisfied customers.
Q: What are some differentiators in extraordinary service?
Eras: Service should not be one-size-fits-all; never take a cookie-cutter approach. It must be a great fit for the specific needs of the customer. Sometimes a solution requires a bit more customization, and that’s okay. Companies should be flexible and routinely modify existing services or create new forms to serve customers’ ever-changing needs. Whether it’s performing additional services or developing new technology solutions, companies should respond quickly. This will allow companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Q: Describe the importance of “operational excellence” in the mortgage industry.
Eras: As an example, at LERETA, our goal is to be a model for outstanding customer service, understanding our customers’ goals and challenges, and delivering innovative solutions to support and accommodate them, as well as establishing customer service standards and sharing best practices within the company.
Operational excellence should be a primary element in an organization that focuses on continuous improvement to exceed customer expectations. Companies should routinely review their processes enterprise-wide to further enhance the quality and controls of the services they provide.
Efficiency in operations is an important factor, too. Efficient service is respecting the time and attention needed to provide service. It means being diligent when setting time frames and, therefore, ensuring that solutions are delivered on time. It means keeping constant, honest, open communication with customers.
Q: How does operational excellence drive your business now and in the future?
Eras: We respect the time and effort required to work with tax service providers and, therefore, we continuously look for ways to minimize our client’s involvement with additional technologies and services.
We feel so confident in our operational excellence that our workflow and service-level performance is fully transparent to our outsourcing customers. According to an internal audit that measures performance goals against service-level agreements (SLAs), since the beginning of 2016, we met 7,475 of 7,520 total unique weekly and monthly SLAs related to escrow reporting, non-escrow reporting, customer service requests, etc. The combined overall performance was 99.4%, according to the audit.
We strongly believe the investment in training for all staff members is another building block in delivering extraordinary customer service.
Q: Your company recently launched LERETA University. Describe how that will affect the industry.
Eras: Training is particularly critical for staff in tax roles due to the function’s inherent risk. Tax servicing is an intricate and specialized function that requires a company’s employees to have thorough and specific knowledge.
LERETA University contains virtually led courses to help our customers with both general real estate tax knowledge, as well as system training for LERETANet, our customer information portal. Knowing what to do with the escrow and delinquency data LERETA provides is critical to their business. Lenders and servicers need to get the escrow payments made before taxes go delinquent in order to protect their mortgaged collateral. They also need to make sure that any delinquent taxes reported are paid/redeemed before they go to tax sale.
We are excited to be able to share resources to better equip our customers and their staff with knowledge, understanding and skills that can protect them against possible risk.