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We have all heard the old adage...the customer is always right.
However, after years of working with customers and referral partners, I seriously began questioning:
Is the customer always right...no matter what?
My first years in the mortgage business, I believed the answer was emphatically yes. After all, that's what my business professors taught me in college. However, after a few years of dealing with more than a few difficult customers, I seriously began re-thinking the customer service mantra "the customer is always right."
Have you ever had a customer who was impossible to please? No matter what you did, nothing made them happy? I have and below are a few other facts I realized:
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They were typically my lowest profit loans (if they closed at all)
- Allocated three to five times more time/effort/stress on them (at the detriment of my loyal clients)
- Never referred me future business
- I didn't like them
- Shopped you to the very end
- No customer loyalty
No matter how you sliced it, those customers DID NOT excite me. Nor, could I see the likelyhood of building a strong business model by allocating my limited resources towards them.
We are fortunate the mortgage business is an industry that helps people. One of my greatest satisfactions is knowing I make a difference in my clients lives. However, I also believe our business transactions should be a win-win-win situation. It should be a win for our client(s), a win for the company we work for and a win for the loan originator.
It boils down to one simple question: As a loan originator, would you rather work with people you like, who are loyal, profitable and refer you future business or with those that are not and make your life difficult?
Duh, that's even easy for me to figure out!
Does this mean we ignore the customer and treat them badly? NO WAY...they are after all, the reason we are in business. However, it does mean we place limits on what we will tolerate and whom we work with.
When I fully understood and embraced this concept, my career took off and so did my earnings. I remember the first time I released an extremely difficult client. I simply stood up, stuck out my hand for a handshake and graciously explained; "When we first met, I promised I would be honest with you. It's very evident you are not happy with the services and rates I can provide. Based upon that, I believe it would be in your best interest if you worked with another mortgage professional that can better meet your needs."
What is nice is many people will actually apologize after you tell them this and others will leave, both which are fine.
Remember, you do not have to work with everyone, nor should you. Create a target customer profile. Then target those customers that fit your profile. You don't have to please everyone. If you do, no one is happy and and both parties will lose out in the end...it should be a win-win-win transaction. This goes for customers, Realtors, title reps, lenders, and every other vendor in your life. If the relationship is not pleasant, find a way to fix it quick or end it. Life is too short and blood pressure rises too easily to deal with unpleasant people.
As an exercise, start going through your past loan files and identify the individuals whom were the most difficult to work with. I bet you will find you:
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Earned the lowest amount per hour.
- Spent more time on their files, on average, for less money.
Note: The time spent with difficult clients, is time you could have been better serving your good clients (turning them into loyal clients), marketing, networking, being with your family or doing something you enjoy.
