The importance of consumer feedback

If you want to know you're doing right by your customers, you've got to ask them

The importance of consumer feedback
As leaders in the mortgage industry, we can sometimes put our blinders on. We believe in our companies. We think we're best for our customers. We think our employees treat our customers right. There's no question in our minds--our competitors are bad for our customers and we're good for them. It's all fine and good to believe this about ourselves, but how do we know it's really true?

If we want to actually know we're doing right by our customers, rather than simply blindly believing it, we've got to have solid customer feedback. On the June 20 episode of my Lykken on Lending podcast, I had the opportunity to interview Scott Harris--a mortgage industry innovator that's developing solutions for just that purpose. Scott's upcoming product, Social Survey, prompts borrowers to give feedback immediately upon closing. With a 30% response rate, Scott's users get a great understanding of how their borrower's feel about the experience.

Getting immediate, gut-level reactions is no small thing. While the experience is fresh in their minds, consumers will be equipped to provide the most accurate picture of how they felt about their experiences. As for the lender, having this feedback provides an accurate picture of how people really feel. As leaders in the industry, we do want to have confidence that we're good for our customers--but we want that confidence to be built on a firm foundation. With solid customer feedback, we can fix problems that we may not be aware of. If we don't have a clear picture of what our customers really think about us, we can still be confident--but we may be confidently wrong. And that's not a place we want to be.