AMERICAN BANKER: Viewpoints - Feb. 27, 2004
Don't Let Lawyers Kill Your PR Efforts
by A. Edward Major, Jr.
Banks spend a fortune on marketing: advertising, promotions, public service.
Recognizing that the mortgage market is a brand-switching one driven by price and service quality, they seek to improve service and client relations. Some hire high-powered ad agencies to created big-splash print or television campaigns. Others build relationships with clients by stressing the role of customer relations departments.
The preparation for and completion of the mortgage closing is a prime opportunity for the lender to put its best foot forward and build good will. It is here that customers actually receive the product.
The lender's counsel, whether in-house or outside, is a service provider just like a mortgage officer. Customers perceive him or her as an extension of the bank. Yet banks view the counsel as external to their marketing efforts, often because the attorney ignores the role or the bank fails to see professionals as part of the marketing package.
Lenders' counsel are pitifully poor at providing service commensurate with the trauma experienced by borrowers, especially first-time homebuyers. Because the allowable fees (paid by borrowers)
Courtesy at the closing can help you retain customers.
are often low and the work repetitive, attorneys often treat mortgage transactions as bulk-rate, low-priority matters. The growing use of paraprofessionals (who are cheaper) encourages an impersonal, cut-and-dried approach.
When they do get involved, too many closing attorneys see their function as intimidating the borrower and overawing the borrower's attorney. Building good will is the last thing on the closing attorney's mind.
But the bank's attorney can sell the bank while still fulfilling the primary mission of protecting the bank's interest. The more courteous and careful the bank's attorney is, the more the customer perceives that the bank cares about its client. And the single most convincing proof that the bank cares is that it puts a caring professional in charge of the deal.
A good closing experience leads to future business: the refinancing, the home equity line of credit, the home improvement load, the college tuition loans, and the IRA. A nightmarish experience will undo all the publicity money can buy.
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