How One Lender Used Social Media to "WOW" a Client Today
We've all experienced delays on closings for one reason or another and they're never fun. But when they happen at the last minute it can cause a lot of stress for all parties involved in the transaction. Well that scenario happened to us this morning.
We had a closing scheduled for 1:00 today with our Buyer who arrived by train at 1:00 a.m. this morning from the East Coast to close on her new home. Her furniture is also scheduled to arrive today.
The sellers of the house she's buying are packed and ready to be out of the house today and are also closing on their new home at the same time.
So needless to say, everyone is counting on the closing to happen as scheduled today.
At 8:15 a.m. this morning we get "The Call" from the Title Company stating that they talked to Quicken Loans (the lender) and it looks like we won't be able to close for a week at least.
As you can imagine, a moment of panic set in along with a lot of other strong emotions and a few *#*#*@@ expletives. We called the Buyer and the Seller's agent to let them know and were met with more strong emotions. The Buyer called the lender immediately.
We use Twitter on a daily basis and have found it to be an invaluable marketing and communications tool in our business. I Tweet about many events so mentioned that
"I'm not impressed with Quicken Loans this Morning" on Twitter.
In less than a minute, I had a response from Kelly @QuickenLoans asking what she could do to help.
She also followed me so I was able to send her a Direct Message and an email about the issue so everything wasn't broadcast publicly. (This is a good strategy by the way - if you have a client issue, try to take it offline).
I sent Kelly at Quicken Loans my client's name by email. Of course my comment generated some discussion on Twitter and I received several responses, including one from my friend Justin McHood who is a loan officer in Arizona.
Within minutes of this tweet, we had an email from a Client Service Specialist and the Loan Officer explaining what she needed. Our client also called and was able to speak to the Loan Officer and was able to request the form Quicken needed from her attorney.
The Loan Officer told us if they received the form they could close today and she would do everything she could to help us close on time. Our client was able to get the document to them but unfortunately, the title company is booked for today. So, we're scheduled to close tomorrow - a slight delay but certainly one we can all live with, and much better than a week's delay.
So of course, I had to update my Twitter status:
In real estate transactions, occasional delays are bound to happen - especially with all of the new guidelines that lenders have to comply with. I have more than one horror story about working with out-of-state lenders who were unresponsive and difficult to work with. Fortunately, QuickenLoans isn't one of those companies and I have to say I'm impressed with their service on the overall transaction, and how quickly they responded when there was an issue.
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