Like so many of you, I’ve become accustomed to making promises and goals for myself in the new year. You call them resolutions, though I don’t understand why you only do this once during Earth’s complete trip around the sun. That wouldn’t work on my home planet of Amicitia—it takes nearly three times longer to orbit our nearest star. Maybe the longer time equates to keeping a resolution longer? Oh, who am I kidding?!
Nevertheless, a popular resolution for the new year is eating healthier. For me, I can attest that indulging on Moon Pies and everything that was pumpkin spice over the past few months has resulted in some extra kets (i.e., pounds) and fattening eye stalks.
As I was watching a recent Twilight Zone marathon on the SyFy Network (I love that channel and love that show—Rod Serling was very close in his overall portrayal of my interstellar colleagues), I saw an advertisement for a healthy meal program where they deliver the meal “kit” to your spaceship. How simple and convenient! I immediately signed up and just received my first kit along with easy-to-follow preparation instructions.
It also indicated what cooking tools and utensils I’d need, extra ingredients I needed to gather from my galley pantry and estimated preparation and cooking times.
While the credit union mortgage industry may never get to this level of “ease of use,” we can all learn a lot from these meal delivery companies. Their goal is to make it as easy as possible for someone who is not a kitchen aficionado to prepare their perfect meal that they personally selected. Let’s put that in mortgage terminology.
A member decides they want to explore home ownership or refinancing their current home with your credit union. They have resolved that they want to attain and live the American dream through home ownership. Now, it’s up to you to make it as easy (or as close to easy) as possible with your step-by-step instructions and service.
When providing this guidance, always keep in mind that while you are a mortgage gourmet chef, the member is only versed in microwave-ready meals. After all, you do this every day while the member most likely doesn’t go through the process but a few times in their lifetime.
Be sure to inform them of some of the additional items they will need after completing their application—the extra ingredients from your pantry, if you will. This typically includes personal and employment documentation, credit information and their electronic signatures so that the credit union can attain more of the necessary ingredients. To provide even greater assistance and service, you can provide them with the tools they need to make all of this happen more efficiently, including online systems and portals that contain a wealth of practical information, calculators, estimators, guides, reference materials, etc.
As each step in the mortgage preparation process is completed, guide your member through each additional step, including the closing table and servicing though the lifetime of the loan. The result will be a healthy, complete mortgage meal (although I highly suggest you don’t ingest any of the above-mentioned ingredients).
Does your credit union offer a wide variety of mortgage meals with different levels of customization? If so, remember that each member is different and every meal has unique preparation steps, so always keep your chef’s hat on and your wire whisk handy!
Here’s to exiting the Twilight Zone in 2022 and cooking up some mortgages for your members—bon appétit!
Good article on making the process easy for members. Member engagement is the key to their success and to the Credit Union