Mike Matthews
Senior Vice President, Customer Acquisition
Mike Matthews joined PrimeLending in September 2013 and was hired to focus on developing and implementing various initiatives to drive production.
Mike began his career as a top-producing loan officer. After several years, he began starting, staffing and managing large-scale mortgage operations for companies such as Countrywide, Bank of America and MetLife.
With a career spanning 20+ years, his record of achievement includes positions in retail sales, call center management, online mortgage operations, joint ventures and relocation partners operations.
Mike was born and raised in the Dallas area and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Texas Tech University.
Buying a home is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make. Right up there with whether to get married or have kids, it encompasses a whirlwind of different emotions. If done at the right time and with the right support, owning a home can end up being one of the most fulfilling decisions of your life.
For mortgage lenders, maintaining a relationship with buyers and homeowners that is based in trust is the cornerstone of providing an outstanding customer experience. After all, when you are purchasing a home, you not only share sensitive financial information, you are making a big commitment, often for years to come.
Henry Ford – one the greatest American industrialists of all time – has a lot to teach us about outstanding service. I want to share with you three lessons that I find particularly fitting for the home loan industry. We challenge our team to keep these concepts in mind when working with both business partners and homeowners.
1) “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.” — Henry Ford.
The mortgage business is constantly changing. Rates may fluctuate wildly with any given day, changing as quickly as the speed of commerce. Regulations tend to change too, and just like a moving target, you can never get complacent or take compliance for granted. Technology has changed the way we communicate, and changed our customers’ expectations for accessibility and transparency. Frankly, if you aren’t moving ahead, you are already behind.
As a mortgage professional, you simply can’t be caught flat footed. You must seek out the resources to stay on top of the market, the regulations and your customers’ expectations. At PrimeLending, we have a dedicated in-house secondary marketing team made up of top-tier financial advisors who provide real-time market updates and analysis. We are proactive in training our entire organization on the latest requirements, best practices and emerging product offerings so that we can confidently say we are setting the bar high as a knowledgeable home lender. And we use the latest technologies to create communication tools that make it easier for our customers to do business with us, like our mobile applications.
When you work hard to stay on top of the industry and keep customers informed, you prove you are an expert that can be counted on.
2) “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” – Henry Ford
Integrity is key to building trust. It’s tempting sometimes to just say what the customer wants to hear so you can get off the phone, or to a take a shortcut today that may create a bigger issue in the long run. These are short-sighted solutions that erode your customer’s confidence, and will ultimately affect whether you can grow your business.
Years of impeccable service can crumble under a single failed promise – that’s why you have to keep yours. We make honesty and integrity the priority in everything we do at PrimeLending. These are more than just words – it’s a promise to treat customers like a neighbor, not a number. We meet our deadlines. We return phone calls and emails promptly. We listen and offer honest, straightforward advice. And, if we happen to stumble, even slightly, we are accountable. Our customers are our purpose – our reason to get up and come to work every day. We do the right thing, and our customers trust us because of it.
3) “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted they’d have said a faster horse.” – Henry Ford
You have to anticipate a customer’s needs – read between the lines and deliver a product and service they don’t know to ask for. Sometimes, that means changing the conversation. For instance when the customer’s focus keeps getting stuck on rates, that’s the time to highlight a unique service option that creates long-term value. In my experience, a customer remembers being satisfied much longer than they remember getting a specific rate.
At PrimeLending, what we offer better than anyone else is peace of mind. We offer a float-down option, a way for borrowers to float down the current locked rate to a lower rate if the rates do improve. We give our customers something more valuable than the flashiest rate, we give them the confidence that they will be treated fairly and have a positive experience throughout our relationship. They may not know to ask for it, but they certainly grow to trust and expect it. That is our goal – that is our value; something we strive to maintain with every customer we serve.
Of course, building cars is vastly different than selling home loans. But when it comes to delivering a stellar customer experience, they share a critical similarity – it all starts with building trust.
Mike Matthews
Senior Vice President, Customer Acquisition
PrimeLending
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