I manage a Help Desk for a mid-size mortgage lender. The problem I have is that there is far too much knowledge to attain to create a comprehensive service team. My team’s area of focus is our origination website. There is a world or knowledge for the agents to learn just about this but they also must learn about mortgage industry terms and processes. The problem comes when there isn’t any other direct customer service group until we are servicing the loan for the consumer. We have sales people and operations employees as the general customer service contacts and they frequently refer back to my group.

#1 - Managers have to be focussed and driven to find the right people. The challenge for me was to realize that I am running my own small business and to focus on that. Not always that easy but it makes me feel more responsible
#2 - Again this points to management. The problem I see is too many people have more than a full plate and some small gears here and there slip out. Noting to break the whole machine but efficiency is affected.
#3 - I do see this. The push has been in every area except dedicating a highly trained group to customer service so that operations employees can do their jobs without interruption.
#4 - This is a bad industry for this point. If you don’t generate loans for the lender you are not seen. The boom caused many people to get a broker’s license and just do a loan here and there to supplement their income. They don’t get the same service and the big brokerages.
#5 - It’s all about shareholder ROI - especially now that things are slowing in this industry. I see an opportunity to re-invest the gains made during the boom time back into technology and people and make major strides in market share. This is happening where I work but I don’t have a high enough understanding to feel if we are being overly cautious.