We talked a little bit recently about the importance of “the little things” when it comes to delivering service for a mortgage transaction—namely, the closing.  (check out our last blog here) It’s just common sense that a closing professional arrive on time, right?

It may be common sense or instinct.  But try presenting that argument to a Board of Directors. Or a stockholder meeting.  Let us know how you do. 

So here are the numbers.  We at Equity National Title are also able to cross index the data we have collected from thousands of post-closing interviews with the borrower.  In future “Deeper Dives,” we’ll go even…er, deeper.   But for now, see the two imbedded graphs:

It’s pretty clear that there’s a direct correlation between those borrowers who found the the title professionals with whom they interacted to be    “very responsive” and the rate of likelihood of a referral of that same l.o.  (86%)  Only 65% of those deeming their title companies to have been merely  “responsive” claimed they’d likely recommend the l.o. to others.

In the second graph, we see a similar correlation. Except here, it seems the consumer is holding the lender (not the title agency) responsible when the closer is late to the settlement. For those polled who had  a punctual closing professional ("early" or "on time"), it was 80% (or more) likely they'd  recommend their loan officer again- even if the loan officer had nothing to do with the closing! Of those unfortunate few who had tardy closing  professionals, the chance of referral dropped into the 70% range ("a few minutes late") or even 60% range ("very late").

The moral of the story should be obvious for lenders: You may not choose (directly) your closing processionals. But you do choose the people who  choose them (usually the title agency). If you think that's good enough, keep in mind that you're being held accountable for their actions by the  consumer. That's probably reason enough to make sure you know how your title partner selects and manages its closing professionals!