The residential mortgage industry has evolved more than many realize, and the pace of change is only increasing. One of the most exciting developments in the field of recent times has been an intensified focus on finding new ways of serving borrowers at a higher level.
When one mortgage industry leader founded Intercontinental Capital Group, for instance, he did so with a mission of helping consumers make better use of this important type of borrowing. A report linked from his account at twitter.com/dustindimisa details how that company has since made its way into the Inc. 5000 rankings of the country’s fastest-growing private businesses.
Looking for Better Ways to Lend
A cornerstone of Intercontinental Capital Group’s success has been its proprietary Consumer Connect program. That initiative saw the firm’s founder and CEO reaching out to thousands of borrowers within the space of a single year.
This undeniably involved approach to learning about what consumers need and want produced plenty of impressive dividends. A look at some of the findings produced by Consumer Connect will show that there are plenty of reasons to hope for an even more responsive mortgage industry in the future.
Shaking Up a Traditionally Standoffish Industry
Mortgage lenders serve people and families all over the country, but not often in particularly personal, thoughtful ways. Many brokers and loan originators view the business as one where generating large amounts of volume is the most obvious way to succeed.
That tends to make borrowers feel, not without justification that they are not being served very effectively. In many cases, borrowers end up with loans that do not suit their needs well or that are not especially competitive.
One of the reasons for this is a lack of commitment on the part of many lenders to actually figuring out what borrowers are looking for. In many cases, brokers and loan officers become accustomed to steering applicants toward particular products regardless of the specific details.
International Capital Group’s Consumer Connect program was launched to present a new alternative. The company’s CEO asked thousands of mortgage holders to contact him so they could talk about their goals, situations, and experiences with borrowing.
Direct Contact with Consumers Yields Valuable, Actionable Information
Many CEOs would not even consider becoming so involved in the process of gathering information. Plenty of mortgage lenders send out surveys or use other means of collecting data about borrowing in bulk.
Unfortunately, such tactics rarely yield all that much of interest. The large-scale, impersonal nature of mass data collection tends to contribute to the sterility and excessive generality of the information that gets gathered.
Consumer Connect was designed from the ground up to avoid this common problem by making Intercontinental Capital Group’s CEO an integral part of the process. In talking directly with each borrower who responded, he became well-equipped to ask questions that produced truly revealing answers.
That allowed Intercontinental Capital Group to develop a new approach to mortgage lending. Instead of viewing consumers as products to be sold to sources of financing, the company makes catering to their needs and desires its top priority at all times. This approach has helped Intercontinental Capital Group make an unprecedented impression on the mortgage industry.
