Customer Service? Prove it…
We hear the term Customer Service every day. It pops up when watching T.V commercials while drinking our morning coffee. You see it at the fast food place where we grab our breakfast that will sit in our stomachs like a brick for the rest of the day. Don’t forget about the almost daily phone call from someone trying to sell us on buying more time-shares for our family’s wellbeing. It is said so often that it has become an experience that we don’t often pay attention to unless it’s really terrible or exceptional. This does not in any way diminish the importance of Customer Service. When someone actually performs excellent Customer Service, it’s almost like you’ve just met a unicorn. Well as a Top Rated Mortgage Lender, I do provide excellent Customer Service and I would love to be given the opportunity to prove it.
When you are in the process of buying the most expensive item you will ever purchase (a house), you will end up having a team of people helping you walk through to the end. Of course the Mortgage Lender (Me!), Realtor, Appraiser, Home Inspection Guy, Title Rep, the Seller and the Sellers Realtor. All of us are working to get you your new home. The Realtor and Mortgage Lender you use is completely up to you. So, how do you choose these two people?
We all know a friend or family member who knows someone who is in this industry. Referrals from people we know are the best compliment we can get. However, just because Uncle Bill knows a woman down at the local pub whose husband is a Realtor or Mortgage Lender doesn’t mean that they are good at providing customer service. You call, leave a message and wait. Next day you call again and wait some more. It is sad and frustrating that your first step into this process is trying to plead with someone to help you. Your first step should be grabbing that laptop, turning off Netflix (temporarily of course) and head over to your favorite search engine.
Finding a name of a Realtor or Lender is easy but how to tell if they provide GREAT customer service? Dig just a bit and you will find ratings on Google, Yelp, or a specialized website that tracks customer reviews and reports on them. SocialSurvey.com is one such website. Since this site tracks over 20,000 Mortgage Lenders Nationwide, it is a great resource! With every Loan I close, they email out a survey shortly after closing day to the client. The client answers a few questions and ranks roughly five sections of customer service. There’s an option to leave a testimonial as well. I do not have the ability to hide negative reviews or have them deleted. This is how I prove my ability to provide Customer Service. If I am mediocre at helping people, fail to return calls or emails, then this will be a reflection of my overall performance rating.
Now SocialSurvey.com does not just rank their people on how many loans they close. Lots of sites do and it can skew your perspective just a bit. Just because someone closes a lot of transaction does not mean they provided GREAT customer service, it means they close a lot of deals. Impressive no doubt! But it can lead to a client becoming just another number on the transaction board. Customer Service is what is ultimately important to the client who is only focused on their family, not how many closings you have done. 200 closed loans is fantastic but if 80 of those people were lost and unhappy, well, you get the picture. You need to look for that history of HAPPY clients.
For the record, I carry a perfect 5.0 Rating in Customer Service on Social Survey. I received an award for Top 25 in Customer Service in the entire Nation in 2016. This is my proof that every client I have is held close to my heart. I work very hard to make sure their dreams come true. 5.0 Ratings are fairly rare so I can tout that here in Austin, I am pretty much your top choice. So, a little bit of homework can make a huge difference in how your homebuying experience will be. I’m hoping it will be beautiful. Choose wisely!
CHECK OUT MY CUSTOMER SERVICE RATING