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Credit unions have long prided themselves on their outstanding member service. Their mortgage business is no exception. However, as the cost, complexity and risk involved with originating mortgages continue to climb, many credit unions are struggling to keep up with larger institutions.
The good news is that much can be done to build up a mortgage staff to help make a credit union’s mortgage operation successful. The following four steps are ones leveraged by Embrace Home Loans and the team at Affinity, our outsourced mortgage solution. You can apply them at your credit union, too.
1. Recruit the right talent. First and foremost, your credit union must ensure it is recruiting the right loan officers and mortgage staff. With national banks continuing to lay off their mortgage teams, there is a growing talent pool of professionals with extensive experience. For instance, Wells Fargo is cutting more than 1,000 lending jobs this year, presenting credit unions with an opportunity to scoop up top talent.
Location-agnostic talent can also be a benefit by virtually supporting your credit union’s goal to provide members with mortgage loans. As an example, Embrace Home Loans is recruiting work-at-home underwriters.
In addition, credit unions must build mortgage teams with people who are not only keenly knowledgeable of mortgage products and regulatory issues, but also have a proven track record for outstanding service delivery.
2. Train and retrain. Your staff must have a solid understanding of lending and the mortgage products you offer, but their training should not be limited to your internal process of making mortgages. Make sure your team members are trained regularly about changes in technology and regulations.
In addition, make sure they are trained in the fine art of cross selling. By taking a mortgage application, your mortgage loan officers gain insight into that member’s entire financial situation, putting them in an ideal position to talk with the member about another credit union product or service. For example, if the agent sees the member has a non-interest-bearing account with $10,000 in it, the agent could recommend a high-interest savings account or CD.
3. Measure your efforts. Good service is hard to measure through hard numbers; therefore, you should look to your members to ensure complete satisfaction. At Embrace, we regularly measure satisfaction rates by polling customers after their experience, then make adjustments where necessary. Currently, we consistently achieve a 98 percent satisfaction rating based on borrower surveys.
4. Recognize your mortgage team’s successes. Recognizing employees for a job well done is especially important in a volatile industry where many lending professionals have lost jobs or been scaled back. Additionally, the mortgage business is an increasingly difficult one, forcing loan officers and staff to balance their knowledge of the industry, products and regulations with providing outstanding service. This is no easy job and those who excel should be recognized, whether it’s for bringing in high loan volumes, receiving superior borrower satisfaction ratings, or cross-selling members on other products. Consistent – but sincere – recognition of your mortgage team is critical to retaining employees and keeping employee morale high, which will also translate into excellent member service.
To continue offering home financing while maintaining exceptional member service and adhering to regulatory guidelines, credit unions must recruit the right mortgage professionals and provide superior training that extends beyond lending knowledge and mortgage products to facilitate cross-selling of other offerings. Credit unions should also regularly measure and review their efforts, and make adjustments where necessary. Finally, mortgage teams should be recognized for their work when appropriate. Those who fail to so do will likely suffer from inadequate mortgage service delivery and ultimately risk losing members to their competitors.
Dennis F. Hardiman is founder and CEO of Embrace Home Loans, an approved lender for FHA and VA, and an approved seller servicer for FNMA, FHLMC and GNMA. Having provided hundreds of thousands of individuals and their families with mortgage loans, Embrace Home Loans is now helping financial institutions provide home financing through its Affinity assisted outsourced mortgage solutions. For more information, contact Jacqueline Weed.
