Over twenty years ago, when we were still starting out, I made a point of visiting our customers to sit down and talk about what Equity could do to make the experience better for them. “Just don’t mess it up,” they said. I had to take a moment to be sure that I heard right, that there was no more to be said. But that was it. The customer was coming into the closing with an almost premeditated sense of defeat. As much of a surprise as this was for me to hear, it also presented an impossible to resist opportunity.

If the lenders were coming in with such low expectations, that gave us the opportunity to not only ‘not mess it up,’ but to truly blow them away with our exceptional way of handling business & customer satisfaction. This begs the question: How poor must their average experience have been to set such a clear, shared emotion towards the entire closing process?

I would repeat this question over and over, trying to find not only an answer but a solution. What would the next step be to right that wrong? I knew Borrower Satisfaction (BSAT) was a key piece, but it was not the only one.

Don’t mess it up. Ok. So we went to work guaranteeing that nothing could be messed up. As I mentioned last time, technology plays a large role. By being able to better reach out to our borrowers with the ease of a mouse-click or touch of a finger on a phone, we hear back from them as well as our lenders in an instant. Not only are we working to see the closing through to the end efficiently, but we take it even further. By asking for their opinion and implementing it into our process, we make them a part of the process.

There are aspects of the process that most survey-takers all agree on. At the top of that list of what borrowers wish could be whittled down (if not eliminated altogether) was paperwork. Surprising, right? We’d love to accommodate with this, and with our continued expansion into the realm of e-closings, it’s becoming that much closer to reality. Along with that, we work after 5:00pm, with 80% of our closings taking place then, in-home. We’ve also expanded our hours to be open on Saturday as well, to meet the requests of being better able to service those who are otherwise occupied with work, family life, etc, during the week.

So what’s the next step? The goal needs to be to erase the line “Just don’t mess it up” from any potential customer’s mind. When all is done right—as we aim to do with every closing—then our partners—the lenders, loan officers, and realtors – will see an increase in referrals. As those new borrowers reach out to and benefit our partners, expectations are not only met, but exceeded, leading them to choose to remain with us. Their trust and confidence in us has grown, with tangible evidence reinforcing their decision. The expectation has been reestablished, and all for the better. It’s the first step towards a new wave. The wave of BSAT. Of ‘Closings Done Right.’

“Just don’t mess it up,” they said.

We listened, and we’ve built so much more.