When you value and build a million-dollar service culture, you set your portfolio on a path to growth.

All roads lead to Rome, but the path you choose will determine how quickly you get there and how much you enjoy the trip. When it comes to growing and servicing your portfolio, you can follow a variety of paths. At Precision Capital, we followed a path that has allowed our company to evolve from selling two or three mortgage loans to individual investors each year to doubling our assets under management in just more than two years. This path has allowed us to attain the prosperity that comes with managing a portfolio in excess of $100 million for the last three years, one that has resulted in selling nearly 1,900 loans totaling more half a billion dollars to our investors and fund offerings.

What path did we follow?

It’s a simple, straightforward one that you can follow too. We value a culture that strives for million-dollar customer service and a holistic definition of success. When Precision Capital decided our customers included not only our borrowers and investors but also every employee and every third-party partner, we began to truly revamp our customer service and create an actual “culture” of customer service.

Further, we invested in the idea that success is not just closing the loan or getting an investment in the door; it is achieving the final product of a healthy loan portfolio and a healthy company. That’s when we truly united our entire team behind one goal and eliminated a lot of the “adversarial” relationships that can impede growth and healthy servicing practices.

How We Did It

To build a culture of service, you need to start with the basics. We aspired to respond to emails, phone calls, loan inquiries and questions within two hours. Although that goal sounds like an easy one, it can be achieved only if leadership sets the example and you have a staff that shares the same work ethic.

Next, we embraced the larger goal of including employees and business partners as customers and delivering million-dollar service to them as well. Your aim at this stage is to listen first, understand one another, and then set common goals.

For example, we began to have our servicing specialists and underwriters join our loan originators and processors in their biweekly pipeline meetings. We called this “connecting the dots.” These joint meetings allowed us to learn how each job affects the common goal of a healthy loan portfolio. We had the investment side of our business treat our lending side like customers and vice versa.

As a result, our loan officers became concerned with more than closing a loan. They knew the success of a borrower and the ease of the servicer’s job or investment sales job was dependent on their own customer service and job performance. They began to care about healthy loans from day one. They began to pre-underwrite loans as they came in and to write narratives and details in their loan files, all with the investors and the investment sales team in mind.

As you are expanding on creating a million-dollar service mindset, change your focus. Precision Capital moved from a focus on loss mitigation to instead laser focus on asset management. We stopped chasing problems and learned to be proactive with loans that are not paying on time. We went beyond chasing late payments until some remedy needed to be pursued or reacting to requests for modifications and forbearances.

As we engaged the entire team in the process of proactively managing our assets, we involved our underwriters with construction loan monitoring. Our loan partners, who are already familiar with our borrowers through the origination process, continue to assist throughout the life of the loan, checking in with borrowers to monitor progress on their projects or strides toward their exit strategy, for example. The monitoring includes looking for red flags and offering solutions before the borrower reaches dire circumstances—and we’re looking at foreclosure.

Putting Partners on the Team

Redefine your definition of “team.” We began to expand how we defined our team to include our partners who exist beyond our four walls: our various vendors, software providers, construction fund control partners, and our legal and compliance professionals (whom we rely on heavily).

As we began to align our goals for a customer service culture, we examined who would make the best partners to fulfill for our needs. We asked ourselves:

• Who can help us streamline our processes?
• Who provides the most user-friendly interfaces for a borrower making a construction draw?
• Is there an all-in-one origination and servicing software that also includes fund control and an investment software solution?

We moved away from origination software that was designed for conforming lending to one that caters to private money lenders. We invested in the development of custom applications, borrower portals, and investor portals. We found partners who sped up our application, constructions draw, and other internal processes. We found amazing legal partners to help us build a network of broker and referral partners, who see us as part of their team and vice versa.

All of this gave us the ability to build compliant funds in order to power our loan production and protect our investors through a diverse portfolio.

Taking Care of Internal Customers

The foundation for ensuring customers are taken care of is to take care of your internal customers—your employees. We strive for a workforce that is invested and satisfied, because we know an invested workforce that feels cared for and has ownership in the process will be the most successful one.

Fostering a culture that empowers people to make decisions, take ownership, and innovate often enhances company profits and keeps your team and clients happy. Each are a necessary ingredient in the recipe for success. When we reached over half a billion in funded loans, the growth was seamless because each person on our team is valued and cared for and, in turn, values and cares for their role. We wouldn’t be successful without each one.

Building your culture starts with the people you hire. They reflect you and your company and are often the first and last impression your investors and clients have of your company. They can create or alter your brand, so getting it right is the top priority.

Once you have the right people in the right seats, you need to take care of them. Beyond the standard benefits, we looked for “special treats” to offer, for example, a bonus day we call “Good Life Friday,” which is an extra day off each quarter. We cater “hump day” breakfast every Wednesday and seek reasons to have special meetings and “out-of-the-box” perks.

Leadership strives to set the example of fostering a culture that naturally promotes growth and million-dollar service. These invested employees have now taken the reigns in their own positions and suggested changes, sought out partners, improved processes, brought in referrals, and taken the kind of ownership that has made the company theirs and made them leaders in their own right, not just followers, or cogs in a wheel.

Creating a culture of million-dollar customer service takes a holistic approach to company success by investing in each and every employee, partner, and leader. It’s not just about answering phone calls and questions quickly or finding the best partners. That’s a lot of it, but it’s also a lot of little “touches” that no one thinks about. Here are some that you might consider:

• Send handwritten notes. These go a long way. Send thank you notes not just to the investor but also to the borrower—that amazing partner who smoothed out your process. Make them part of your team.
• Share the wealth by giving back. We have a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called the The Integrity Foundation that supports small local community organizations that benefit from cash donations. A portion of the company profit goes in each month, and employees are also able to contribute through payroll deductions. The board members are volunteer staff who vote on where the funds are distributed. The Integrity Foundation has donated more than $80,000 to over 15 charities within the past few years. It has had an amazing impact on attracting more than just investors. It has also attracted quality employees and third-party partners and brokers who want to be part of something bigger.
• Be flexible and never stop learning. It is imperative to attend AAPL’s annual conferences to enhance your knowledge and better your skills. These events allow you to meet other like-minded people who share your attitude and eagerness to be part of something bigger. For example, partner with another company if you need capital. Be open to brokering or referring loans that you can’t do.

Your clients will remember your company was the one that was a resource for their goals. Be the solution, the problem solver. It’s not all about the money. It is the relationships that you build, both inside and outside your organization that will take you to the next level.