A report from mortgage advisory firm STRATMOR Group shows that the mortgage lenders which saw the strongest results in 2023 – one of the worst years on record for mortgage lending – were those that were not afraid to think outside the box.
The firm’s advisors revisited past InFocus articles published in 2023 and pulled together the most relevant advice for mortgage industry leaders heading into the new year.
“This past year came with its fair share of challenges, but it’s the successes experienced by the lenders who were not afraid to try and fail that offer the most hope,” says Lisa Springer, senior partner and CEO for STRATMOR Group, in a release. “Throughout the year, our advisors shared strategies to help lenders think outside the box, evaluate new strategies, take risks and survive the downturn.”
STRATMOR recapped key takeaways from the past 11 months of InFocus articles and provided an index to a year’s worth of business recommendations specifically written for mortgage lenders. The firm’s advisors then identified four overarching themes for the year and categorized the morals under each theme.
What follows are among their findings:
- Servicing holds the key to unlocking additional revenue, but any decision will involve servicing transfers, which are intricate processes. Each step must be executed with precision to ensure a seamless transition and maintain trust in the mortgage ecosystem.
- Secret shopping is the most impactful way for lenders to remove the disconnection between perception and reality and pave the way for meaningful improvements in customer experience.
- Lenders and vendors both share responsibility for technology ROI. This partnership will play a larger role in the final ROI outcomes than the technology on its own.
- Lenders will be more successful when the cycle turns if they work on their sales compensation structures now.
In a second article, STRATMOR Customer Experience Director Mike Seminari poses the question: “What Are Top-Tier Originators Doing to ‘Wow’ Their Borrowers?” He explains that there is often a disconnect between leadership and loan officers about how to approach customer experience improvements.
“LOs perceive that they’re already delivering a nice experience and have nothing to ‘fix,’” Seminari writes. “But in today’s market they need to produce ‘wow’-inducing experiences for their borrowers if they want to continue to grow their influence and reach.”
Seminari’s article offers three ways to impress and amaze your borrowers this holiday season.
Photo: Ricardo Gomez Angel