I wrote this blog in 2022, after every lender rode the COVID wave and got too lazy on the customer service front – after business just gushed in no matter what for two years.
We liked the message so much in fact that we inserted it into our training program.
I am repeating it now though for two reasons: (1) it’s a great story and reminder; and (2) AI makes it more applicable than ever.
I had experiences at two different businesses that were so contrasting and so telling that I had to write about them.
And yes, this applies directly to mortgages and real estate.
The Good Business
I took my mountain bike to a bike shop that I had not been to for almost 9 months, and I had only been there a few times over the years prior to that.
The shop itself takes the phrase “low overhead” to a new level, as it is only about 500 square feet in a 70-year-old cinder block building that has never seen an update.
The entire shop is stuffed full of bikes and snowboards – with an attic that is equally stuffed full of parts. They have to empty all of the inventory out onto the sidewalk every day just to do business.
When I got to the shop on a Saturday morning, there was a line out the door and people were milling around everywhere – and I quickly figured out why.
When I squeezed my way into the shop, the “dude” (and I do mean “dude”) who worked the register greeted me and remembered me by name – even though I had not seen him for 9 months and maybe once prior to that.
He then offered to turn my bike around in an hour even though they were so busy – and, needless to say, I was both delighted and impressed.
And that is when it became obvious why the shop was so busy – despite its ridiculously low overhead.
The “dude,” despite having no college education (and probably minimal high school education – actually, grade school is doubtful, too 😊) definitely understood the most basic tenets of business: make your customers feel good and go the extra mile – no matter how busy you are.
The “dude” with his long hair, tattoos, and myriad scars from all of his biking and snowboarding accidents was a near-perfect ambassador for the business – with simple friendliness, hard work, and a bit of extra effort to make customers feel special.
The Bad Business
My wife Heejin and I went to a high-end pizza restaurant in downtown Danville, CA, on what was a near-perfect CA evening – so we expected the place to be packed (like it was the last time we visited a few years prior).
We instead walked right in during what should have been an out-of-control dinner rush. And … it didn’t take long to see what had happened and why the place no longer attracted crowds.
The restaurant had brought in new technology and systematized everything – including ordering via a QR code app.
The app and all the other innovations were pretty cool – but for the fact that they removed people, personality, and accountability from the equation.
There were still hosts, servers, bussers, and cooks at the restaurant – but none of them engaged us or so much as flashed a smile.
They were all doing their jobs, no doubt, and following “the systems,” but nobody was going the extra mile – and it showed.
The restaurant was not nearly as cute or as tidy as it used to be; our beer was warm; our salads were bland and under-dressed; and our servers did not convey the slightest element of congeniality (they seemed almost irritated that we inconvenienced them by ordering food and drinks).
So, What Happened?
No Incentive To Enforce Standards. Prior to the new tech, the wait staff would no doubt enforce higher standards of cleanliness and food quality to ensure they maximized their tips.
But that incentive was gone.
Spoiled By Too Much Business. The place was packed and busy for so long, I suspect that the staff started to take it for granted – and it caught up with them.
I doubted the restaurant would make it because its overhead was so high.
It is ironic too that the place could have been saved if it had hired the “dude” (or a few people like him) from the very-low-overhead bike shop.
How Does This Apply to Mortgages and Real Estate?
In 2022, I made the point that what happened to the pizza place could happen to all of us, after a bout of “too much business” and after implementing new tech.
And – I in fact watched a lot of agents and mortgage lenders struggle mightily in the post-COVID world.
Today, however, the message is even stronger now that we’re seeing so many businesses (including mortgage lenders) rely on AI for customer service – and end up backtracking.
It doesn’t work because people respond to the warmth, extra effort, human interaction, and authenticity of the people like the “dude.”
AI can never replace dudes – or any other actual human who can connect with other humans.
It’s also interesting to see how too much tech/AI can turn the humans using it into automatons – causing as much damage as the AI itself.
Human connection continues to reign supreme.
