As a community lender, you believe that your service and product are by far an overall better value for your customers than larger regional or national lenders you compete with. Why do you believe that and why is it actually true?
The answers are simple. Small to mid-size community lenders:
- Highly depend on and are deeply connected to the communities they serve
- Provide clients with access to their owners and executives
- Deliver long term service and relationships that cannot be matched
- Offer very efficient decision-making processes
There are other reasons of course, but the bottom line is larger lenders cannot deliver the same overall value to the community as you can. So a question to consider: If you believe your customers should choose you over larger national lenders then shouldn't that same philosophy apply to the vendors that you choose? Small to mid-size vendors that are independently owned will provide you with the same advantages that you provide to your clients.
Customers often say they feel like a number when dealing with the large lenders. Why is that? Large lenders' service and decision-making processes are dominated by short-term quarterly numbers. Many times they care more about Wall Street than the communities they do business in. The larger lenders want to out-price you and offer as many “bells and whistles” as they can. Community lenders regularly win those battles because of all the reasons mentioned. The same principles and logic apply to vendors. It makes sense to use vendors that will be there for you because their business depends on your success, where owners and senior management don’t hesitate to become personally involved in making sure that a product or service meets your expectations. Deal with companies where you have access to independent and generational owners. No one cares about a business and its customers more than the executives and direct owners of that business.
Large vendors might have nicer suits and better surface presentations (because they have entire marketing departments dedicated to making things look good upfront to get your business), but all of those marketing efforts and suits come with a cost to you over the long run in dollars and service. Small to midsize vendors will almost always outperform larger vendors. Keep that in mind when you make vendor decisions or decide to renew a contract with one of the larger companies. Just as you provide far greater value for your local communities than the national lenders, the same is true about the vendors that provide you with products and services.
Read our blog post: Customer Service, Are you Making the Grade
Unitas Financial Services and its employees take pride in their service and are deeply connected to our customer’s experience. We help community lenders improve and streamline internal processes, reduce administrative workloads, and create efficiencies by eliminating collateral insurance tracking with our blanket protection programs thereby insulating your borrowers from the frustrations of collateral insurance tracking.
