Offering Help and Advice to Mortgage Loan Customers

by | Nov 4, 2011 | Sales Effectiveness

Introduction

A key finding of our research in a large mortgage loan client (Nick Anderson and Linda Marsh) was that 40-50% of mortgage loan customers surveyed had concerns about their house buying process. Unfortunately, Mortgage Loan Officers recognized only half of these people had such concerns. Also, Mortgage Loan Officers thought that half the people who didn’t have concerns did.

So, one key factor on offering help and advice is correctly identifying people
who have concerns they need help with.

How can we identify when people have concerns?

Here’s some basic cues to look for:

  1. Is the customer showing signs of stress?
  2. Do they keep going back to an issue you thought you’d sorted out?
  3. Are they unrealistically worried about some aspect of the price or financing?
  4. Do they want to postpone a decision for no particular reason?
  5. Are they withholding information from you that most people would freely volunteer?

 If you notice any of the above, it’s worth checking whether or not they have a concern. They may not, but the above usually make you feel that something is not quite right – so check it out.
Another factor is uncovering the areas where people need help and advice – a lot of time all people need is help sorting out and understanding the loan process, what happens with inspections, dealing with lawyers, and so on. Most of these concerns will have been resolved during earlier stages of the meeting(s) – particularly whilst offering other services or products but a clear and simple explanation is all people usually need.
Sometimes, however, people have concerns that you might not be able to deal with by offering or explaining another product or service. It’s dealing with these concerns that the following covers – because helping people in these areas is an important aspect of providing a professional customer service and getting referrals.
It’s helpful if you can divide people’s concerns into two groups.

  1. What areas people need help and advice in, where you don’t have a specific product that can help. You may find it helpful to think of the different types of customers you see, and group concerns by customer types.
  2. What areas of concerns can you help with directly and where else people can get help and advice from these areas.

Use the results of your thinking to remind yourself how typical concerns you hear can be grouped.

What do you do when you’ve identified a concern?

Once you’ve identified a concern and know what you can do about it, you need to talk the customer about it.
 So, a key question is:

“What behaviours should you use to provide help and advice?”

 The following are very useful.

Showing Understanding

This makes it easier for people to admit they have concerns and talk to about them freely. It’s then much easier to sort out:

  • How likely their concern will actually happen
  • Why are they concerned?
  • What will help reduce the concern? 
Clarifying It’s very important to make sure you and the customer understand:

  • The basis for the concern
  • Its extent
  • How probable it is.

Testing your understanding of what the customer has said or implied helps clarify the concern for both of you as many customers that they have not fully thought through. It also helps to sort the remaining issues out that you can decide how to deal with them.
Problem Questions Sometimes, after clarifying a concern, it can help to explore the problem in more detail to find out what the negative impact would actually be on the customer. It’s also worth exploring whether the customer will have more problems if they don’t go ahead with the loan, than if they do and something goes wrong. 
Want Questions It’s important that before you start giving advice and telling people how they can reduce their concerns, you find out what they want in terms of help advice. You can link these questions to comments you made when showing understanding 

 For example:

 “You remember I said I’d been worried about that as well? Would it help if I told you how we handle it?” 

Or where there are several things you can do, ask questions such as:

 “Well this seems to be your most important concern from what you’re saying and there are several options we could talk about it?”

 Answers to such questions like these will tell you what advice the customers would find most useful, so they will see what you say as a Benefit.

 Is there anything to avoid?

Consider how you feel if someone tells you “What you should do is” or “If I were you, I’d tell your manager to…”
 Most people would not follow the advice. People who are worried behave in the same way. For example:

Not “You should talk to the vendor about that”
But “Would talking to the vendor direct help sort it out”

 This encourages the customer to take a more positive approach to solving the concern.

 Model

Step 1
  • Get the atmosphere right
  • Show understanding

Step 2
  • Check the concern is clear
  • Use Clarifying

Step 3
  • See how serious the concern really is
  • Use Problem Questions

Step 4

  • Find out what they’d ideally like as a solution
  • Use Want Questions

Step 5
  • Help with the solution and give appropriate advice
  • Make Benefits

 
If your way of helping is referring the customer to another person or organization, Do you do all of the following?
 Six Steps for Effective Helpful Referrals
Make sure you tell them:

  1. The organization’s full name
  2. The specific department and person to talk to
  3. The address and telephone number (web address where appropriate)
  4. Opening times (very important for, those with children, others getting time off from work or those with travel difficulties)
  5. Help with what to say or ask (with some places asking for the wrong form means they get no help)
  6. A fall back (e.g. phone number, contact etc.)

If you are interested in having Nick speak to your organization fill out this form.