The Best Ways to Handle Your Mortgage Contact Management

A few of the most important words that come to mind when thinking of what’s critical to success in the mortgage contact management world are communication and accessibility. Loan originators can neither win business nor service their clients without the ability to communicate relevant information in a timely manner.

In the mortgage industry, responses are expected almost immediately, and that’s where accessibility comes into play too. We’re all wired, or, wireless, all the time, and so are our contacts. If you can’t respond when duty calls or reach out proactively to all of your mortgage contacts when the moment is right, you could lose that business to your competitors.

Mortgage contact management has never been a mystery, but it has changed.

If you’re old enough, you’ll remember a Rolodex, a Daytimer, or some of the first portable hand-held computer contact management systems. And if you have been in the business for some time, you’ve likely grown and adapted to these technology changes. Some mortgage loan officers struggle with change, but at least these days, systems have become more intuitive and less complex, at least as far as maintaining a simple contact list, such as the one you have on your phone. For others, they’ll swear that their phone is all they need.

Good mortgage contact management requires more than maintaining a simple contact list.

That’s not to say that having a contact list stored and available isn’t a good thing. It is a strong start, but the key to excellent mortgage contact management is what mortgage loan officers do with that list.

Segmentation

The first, if not the best, thing you can do to win at mortgage contact management is divide and conquer. You must know who your prospects, past clients and referral partners or service providers are within what could be a very long list of contacts.

Even then, further segmentation is critical amongst your past clients. For instance, which of your past borrowers were first-time buyers? Which have refinanced their original loan? Which already own a second home or might like to? As well, which of your homeowners might like to branch out and purchase an investment property or already have? Which started with a jumbo loan vs. conventional? Which financed with an FHA, VA, or USDA loan?

Additionally, suppose you want your marketing to be laser-focused or to really nail down specific opportunities. In that case, you will need to categorize your contacts by investor, property type, location, loan amount, interest rate, etc. There’s almost no end to the specifics that can be used to individually identify and classify your contacts.

Have fun with your clients! It doesn’t always have to be only about business. Client birthdays should always be part of your mortgage contact management records. Everyone likes attention on their birthday, and sending a personalized greeting automatically, year after year as a part of your email marketing strategy is just one of the more personal ways to maintain good client relationships.

Holidays are another great way to use Surefire CRM’s seasonal marketing campaigns to stay top of mind while keeping it light and even fun.

Keeping extra info like personal preferences for sports teams or any other affiliation you can think of is another way to segment. You can add value to relationships by sending content to your contacts that rings close to the heart for them.

You can see now why a simple contact list will seldom provide the kind of information you can maintain for the purpose of not only knowing your contacts but knowing when an opportunity that will benefit them may be at hand.

So, where do I keep this kind of detail?

You’ve probably heard of mortgage CRM software before. If not, CRM stands for Client Relationship Management. The whole idea is exactly that: To efficiently facilitate managing relationships in a system that stores all of the little details that matter, from conversation histories to all the facts about a client, their loan and their home.

Better still is that mortgage CRMs like Surefire by Black Knight offers the ability to set triggers and initiate marketing automation campaigns for your mortgage contacts.

Imagine knowing that when rates drop a bit and thresholds are hit, you’re notified of the past clients who may be eligible for payment savings based on their loan data stored in your system.

Or imagine having mortgage landing pages out on social media with form functions that trigger instantaneous text responses and automated marketing campaigns any time a form is submitted. The best mortgage landing pages will incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) keywords that are commonly used by consumers researching loan options to maximize high-intent borrower impressions and generate new leads. Then, by leveraging Surefire’s powerful marketing automation, lenders can instantly distribute personalized outreach based on the specifics of each incoming inquiry.

Add in things like marketing campaigns that contain dynamically generated content based on loan-level data in your system, making your content customized to the recipient and their loan info. This elevates mortgage marketing from what is so often an obviously generic form to highly customized and sounding like you just fired it off yourself after reviewing your client’s past loan info.

From weekly market update videos to interactive mortgage calculators that allow recipients to interpret the value of specific loan products, Surefire offers lenders a wide array of customized content that can be automatically generated and distributed with just a few clicks.

Relationships shouldn’t fizzle out at the closing table.

At times, mortgage professionals are extremely busy; at other times, they wish they were. Investing in your future business today is an activity that will pay off, and perhaps when you need it the most. Marketing is a long game. It’s not always something you can just pull the trigger on today and expect results tomorrow.

Real estate agents and referral partners are great resources, but lead management does not stop there. Treat your borrowers like they’re your clients for life and prepare to welcome a regular stream of referrals from your clients’ friends and family.

Staying in touch, staying relevant and being, personal and specific about the things that matter most to your clients will keep you fresh in their minds and always in favor. Don’t fall victim to generic outreach strategies, — or worse, let your competition market to your clients. You know your clients’ details, and you have the benefit of having worked with them, so use that to your advantage.

A little bit of good mortgage contact management when you first add prospects to your system, and of course, when you close that business, can go a long way towards setting yourself up for a healthy and durable business, now and long into the future.

Warm referrals from your past clients mean you spend less time selling and more time writing mortgage loans. Maintaining a substantial database in your mortgage CRM is the single best way to properly engage in mortgage contact management.

If you’ve not yet seen what a world-class mortgage CRM can do for your mortgage business, why not schedule a demo to see the Surefire system in action today?