Are your closings a non-event for your customers?

Written By: Tom Ninness, Regional Production Manager for Cherry Creek Mortgage. He has been in the mortgage business since 1980 and is regularly quoted in the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News. More info about Tom can be found at www.MortgageSpeakersBureau.com or email Tom at tninness@ccmc-net.com.

There is truly a difference between creating loyalty and just having satisfied clients. After reading and pondering what I learned from the book by Jeffrey Gitomer entitled, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless…, it has changed how I look at my clients.

Tupper Briggs, one of the most dynamic real estate agents in the country, has had up to 73% of the listings in the town of Evergreen, Colorado at any given time. So, I want you to pretend that you’re a Realtor® and your client has just purchased one of Tupper’s listings. You, as the selling agent, did a wonderful job. At the closing, you hand over the keys to your clients, congratulate them and then you passively mention for them to send you some referrals. Well, Tupper knows an interesting fact: 80% of his competition does not stay in touch with their past clients. So here is what Tupper does after closing.

1. A few days after closing when Tupper knows that your clients have moved into the neighborhood, his wife delivers a wonderful basket of baked goods to their home and welcomes them to their new home.



2. A week later, Tupper will be calling your clients and re-introducing himself to them. He’ll ask questions on how the move went, have they had a chance to meet the neighbors, etc. Then comes the big question and here’s how it goes. “Let me ask you a question...is there anything wrong with the home, or is something not working that you thought was during the inspection?” Tupper will get something out of the client that could be as small as a sprinkler head to a major repair. So let’s pretend that two zones are not working on the sprinkler system. Tupper’s response is, “Your problem is now my problem. I’ll have my handy man contact you to get it fixed at my expense.” So what happens next?



3. Tupper will now put your client on his mailing list, he will call them and check up on them about four times a year, he will invite them to his summer picnic and holiday party, and guess who’s going to get the listing when the client gets ready to move? Tupper!!

Protecting Your Turf

As a mortgage banker, we fund the loan, but we don’t service the loan. Every month, the servicing company tries to entice our client to refinance with them, to take out a HELOC with them; it’s so simple and easy.

Can we be assured that our client will come back to us, or at least give us a chance to do business with them again? I believe you can by taking the following steps.

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