The Plumbers And The Loan Officer Story

My advocacy of Bruce Pluming is explained in this story. They are the good guys. They don't have a website. Their phone number is 801-466-4426. I will update this article with loan officers and others I decide to advocate. Let me know how it goes with those you select as advocacy must be continually earned.

My experience has taught me that service providers such as loan officers or plumbers place a higher value on a referral that has been provided by someone who brings them a steady flow of repeat business than a random referral, a walk in, or a response to an advertisement.

I illustrate with two examples: a loan officer and a plumber. The principle applies to a lot more than these two fields. Customers or clients deserve the best service and competitive or fair pricing. When they are referred to a provider they should expect this, as well they should expect delivery on time and receive what was promised as it was promised.

Let’s assume a loan officer earns $1500 on a closed loan. Let us also assume this loan officer has a real estate agent that provides him or her access to clients every month on a steady basis, perhaps 10 loans a year come from those referrals. Doing a good job for a client in this business can be time consuming; there is much to do to assure things go well and that the loan closes on time.

The loan officer also has to do a lot of communication with the various parties involved. The $15,000 a year earned in this example is well earned. Next, suppose that you hear about this loan officer from a radio advertisement or from a neighbor. Of course your loan is important, after all $1500 will buy a lot of bread. But let’s say things get stressful. Rates start rising and people start panicking for example. The loan officer is doing his or her best, but who has the priority if things get real difficult? You, who were referred by a neighbor or an advertisement, or the real estate agents client who is the source of many loans. In working with and employing hundreds of loan officers I understand that no matter how serious the effort, how genuine the intention, how stalwart that loan officer may be, the repeat business has priority.

This illustrates what really can happen. It can happen in any field. 

I occasionally have people from out of my market ask me to find them a good lender. I always make sure I contact a high producing real estate agent, ask them for a lender referral, and ask them to let the loan officer know I would be connecting them with my contact. This type of connection was to cement to the lender that this real estate agent would be aware of how well the transaction went. This may take a little extra time on my part, but I truly believe that the best experience possible is in this process.

The plumber example is first hand and recent. I should have practiced what I am preaching. We had water coming out from underneath our washing machine. We asked a neighbor for a referral. (We live in a condominium high rise) The plumber turned out to be actually two plumbers. I had no idea why two plumbers had to come. 

The fix was a quick one; they used a rooter type tool so I asked them to see if they could use the tool to speed up the draining in a bathtub. This took another few minutes, not many. They were here at our home for less than an hour. How much should the bill be? We live in downtown Salt Lake City, not in the middle of nowhere. The bill was a staggering $750.00. It gets worse. 

The job they did on the bathtub drain was a bad job. The next morning we had a knock on our door, the building maintenance supervisor was the bearer of bad news. Our draining tub was filling the hallway with water. Yes, the rooter tool ruined something in the drain. Who were we? We were just one client out of the blue. They had only our small world of business to lose. So did they honor their mess? No, nor did they think their bill excessive.We had to hire another plumber. This time we found one the condo association and management company could refer us to, Bruce Plumbing. I made sure I got their name from the onsite manager. I spoke with the maintenance supervisor. When we called  I used them as the referral. Messing with us now could cost them future business. This next plumbing experience was a good one. They fixed the damage. We had them fix a sink that had a little leak too. This visit was longer than the first one. The bill was $175.00. The sink still leaked, actually leaked more. We called the next day and instantly they were out to fix the leak, at no additional cost. We were happy.

The lesson, always be referred to someone in a way where they have future business at risk. 

Put yourself in a position as a sales person or vendor to be trusted like this. Put yourself in a system that promotes this. If you have a website, invite your favorite vendors on there. Recommend them. It is the foundation of a happy customer. It’s a part of implementing the full definition of guru.If I place you on my website as someone I ADVOCATE I expect you to deliver a fair price, on time, delivering the product or service as promised. You should expect that of me too. We would be expecting each other to be a guru to our referrals and we should value being continually listed as ADVOCATES of each other.