Written By: Shawna Greene
This week I would like to talk about our customer service to our managers. There are several layers of management that we have to answer to. In many companies we have our supervisors, ops managers, branch managers, sales managers, and we have our executives in upper management. Of course it’s a given if we want to keep our jobs we must do what they ask of us and perform our job responsibilities as expected.
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There are some managers that just delegate tasks to you, micro-manage your work, make you feel there’s no room for growth within the dept. Some make you feel as if your opinion does not count and never see there is much more to you than the work you do for them. Then there are some that you won’t hear from at all as long as you get your work done. They know you are a responsible worker and you feel satisfied with that. What if you want to seek other opportunities to enhance the potential for growth and promotions?
Just as we have learned we need to pursue building relationships with our borrowers, loan officers, underwriters, and the other several parties to our loan transactions, we should spend more time building relationships with our managers. Not saying you have to become their best friends although there is nothing wrong with building a personal friendship with a manager. My past experience with a manager was such a positive and uplifting one and we are now the best of friends. But we can’t always have that.
A strong company will have leadership that will always be looking for fresh and innovative ideas. They will also have it in their plan to promote from within and will need people in their organization that possess the skills they need. In my recent experiences I have learned it is easy for people with those skills to get looked over because they aren’t bold and don’t stand out against someone that is putting in strong production numbers and is always on the radar.
So it’s easy to feel that you may not have much of an opportunity to shine and show what you can do. But that isn’t true. It may not happen at the exact time and place that you want it but you can always be building yourself up for that and there are managers out there that are happy to help you along.
All you have to do is put yourself out there and demonstrate your interest in developing into more. Building relationships with management can include a few different things:
1. When you see things in current loan processes you think could be better then tell them. I don’t mean just to tell them what you think is wrong and doesn’t work but to go to them with a solution, facts, and a plan for what you would do to implement and make it work.
2. Let them know you would like to take the lead on your plan and take initiative to put it in effect.
3. Be direct and just come out and tell them what you are looking for in terms of your professional growth. I’m sure if your management is interested in developing people they would want someone who took the initiative to tell them and show them they had what it takes.
4. Take an interest in learning what they have to deal with on a daily basis. From my own personal experience I know how easy it is to think what you do or don’t do may not matter on a large scale. But when you start to learn what they have to do, why they have to do it, and why it’s important for you to produce and do the small tasks they ask you to do, it will make you much better at your job, it will make you want to be better, and you will understand how much you can make a difference in the sustainability of the company.
5. If you do anything large or small that promotes positivity whether it be you got a loan approved in record time, you had a customer that took the time to write a good review about you, share it with your managers and show them there is something good going on under their watch to balance all the negativity they have to deal with.
6. Be confident in yourself, your abilities, and never be afraid to speak up and show what you can do!
Once you have taken the time to learn what the leadership in your company has to do from day to day you may find yourself shocked and amazed at what they are able to accomplish and have a greater respect for them. You will also see why they may even feel relieved you are offering to help identify things even on a small scale that can be adjusted to make things better. Remember they may not have performed your job for several years and do not always remember or know what you and your team have to deal with and wouldn’t know what is needed to fix it unless people speak up.
They are busy preparing reports, answering to the executive level management, answering to other partners depending on the production of their team, dealing with how to handle situations that arise with employees, trying to figure out what they need to do in general to keep the business sustained and profitable. When employees step in to offer help they will then find their workplace environment becoming a better one even with the stressful workload that has to be dealt with no matter what. You will learn that they will genuinely appreciate your efforts and they will recognize you for it. For many of us that feeling of being appreciated goes a long way. Those are the type of results you can get when you view your managers as your customers and work to build your relationships with them.
In conclusion, every effort we make to ensure positive customer service results for our homebuyers is a step in the right direction. When you are satisfied with how your manager views you and they are happy with your performance, that ultimately goes a long way in keeping you motivated in enhancing the customer service experience with each borrower you work with from day to day.
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The customer is what makes a company strong so just remember the better relationships you have with internal customers such as your managers as discussed, loan officers, underwriters, etc., the better relationships you can create with each of your borrowers!
About The Author
Shawna Greene - As an active NAMP® member, Ms. Shawna Greene is a Senior Loan Specialist working full-time with a major U.S. Homebuilder (NVR, Inc). Her work includes processing, training, and assisting loan closers. She has been in the mortgage industry for 12 years working in several aspects of the business including being a mortgage broker, loan officer, loan processor, servicing settlements, loan modifications, special loans, investor reporting, and mortgage defaults. Shawna enjoys this business and looks forward to helping many others learn about it as well. Shawna is also a mortgage instructor for Loan Processor University (www.LoanProcessorTraining.org). If you're interested in becoming a writer for NAMP®, please email us at: contact@mortgageprocessor.org.
