Comments on: Quicken Loans – How Employees Matter

By: Pam K-L

Pam K-L — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:49:55 +0000

Personal opinion: John Engler should NEVER HAVE COME TO LANSING!

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By: Pam K-L

Pam K-L — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:47:50 +0000

You are on target, Heather. We all have to do business with companies, regardless of income, need, or status. Why should any company have to farm out their customer service to other countries or hire uninformed and untrained individuals to speak to their customers? Whatever training Quicken used, I got superior and responsive customer service… which is SO much more than I can say for the multitudes of other companies we must deal with regularly by phone or internet!

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By: Pam K-L

Pam K-L — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:43:42 +0000

From the beginning, we asked for a fixed rate loan product, and were never offered anything else. No pressure, no bait & switch, just great customer service.

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By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:08:37 +0000

Whether its profit driven or customer service driven….does it really matter? Every business is clearly doing it to make money. Its how the world operates. Since we all need the service, in this case a mortgage. Isnt it nice to know that your going to recieve great customer service??!! I NEED my phone electric to be working and on month after month, year after year. However, when I call about a “billing error”, the person on the other end of the phone is usually rude or not understandable. Furthermore, I’ve been hung up on many times because the rep was frustrated with my questions or concerns. My point is, EVERYONE is out to make money, services are not free. So why not work with someone who respects you and gives you great service….regardless of the reason!

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By: Job Search Tips and Resources

Job Search Tips and Resources — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:36:56 +0000

Job Search Tips and Resources

Sorry, it just sounds like a crazy idea for me

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By: mortgage-calculator.completemortgage

mortgage-calculator.completemortgage — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:20:06 +0000

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By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:05:39 +0000

Although the head of our capital markets, Bob Walters, said that this is the worst mortgage market in over 20 years and that 30-40% of prospects that could have qualified a few months back now cannot, the management is demanding the same production. If this is not met, they are firing bankers. They are not acknowledging the market conditions, just ranting and raving trying to get bankers to quit so they don’t have to pay unemployment claims. It used to be fun coming to work, now everyone hates coming in. Stay tuned!

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By: Jeff Perry

Jeff Perry — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:59:09 +0000

We are going through a controlled layoff right now. We hired too many people and now we are forcing them out with unrealistic expectations in a brutal mortgage market.

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By: K. B. Richardson

K. B. Richardson — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:38:06 +0000

But what?… If thats what made sense for the client at that time what should Quicken have done? Not written the loan? Do we blame Credit Card companies for bankruptcy?

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By: Mark John Hunter

Mark John Hunter — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:02:42 +0000

I have spoken with some state employees who are given far more work than a human can do. One state MDOT permit writer told me he sits at his desk writing permits, and cannot visit or inspect any site as he is supposed to prior to issuing the permits. If he visited the sites the permits applications would pile up and never get processed.

Human services are rationed to inadequate level. There is not enough time available to provide support for persons who depend on the system.

Another state employee who is an inspector, this year for the first time did not have the time to inspect all facilities he is required to inspect.

And so Michael Bishop says cut more “fat” out of government????? Remember we are writing about training: When could there be training; there is not time to do the job? John Engler never left Lansing.

Mark John Hunter
Alpena

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By: Mark John Hunter

Mark John Hunter — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:52:23 +0000

Training employees is something I cherished doing, when I was in managment. To me training is a big part of managment. However several employers I had experience with saw training as wasted effort. They wanted to hire fully trained employees and never invest a cent or a minute, in them. In those cases the “managent” employees were paid only slightly more to have a title, but do exactly the same work, get blamed for any problems, but not given the authority to correct the conditions which invariably and repeatedly lead to the problems. I could never explain to those employers that training, and change could improve their profits. These were people who would march off a cliff, because no one could change their minds.

In the concrete block manufacturing industry I several times met employers who would complain about losing employees after they had trained them. The employees were hired in at about half of what a trained employees were paid at other companies; once trained they were not given pay raises, or only small pay raises. Then the employee would ask for the same or even a little less than what competitors were paying their trained employees. Those employees were often fired for asking, or if lucky already had an offer in hand. I heard this from employers and employees so many times, I wondered how it became such a custom. The position I am thinking of was a cash cow for the employers. Once that employee was lost, it took at least 3 months, generally longer, to find and give basic training and sufficient expereince to run a production line, so often the loss of the employee meant losing a few months profits for a production line!

I think part of the problem with these employers is too big an ego, and having to be in total control. That kind of personality can succeed financially, and often they do not, but they can. The financial success is limited because the benefits of the full ability of their employees can never be realized. The employer is the only one allowed to think.

Mark John Hunter
Alpena

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By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:35:35 +0000

A good friend of mine went through this training just 2 months ago and there is a reason that they have to train and hire so many people per month. Its called employee turnover.

What they didn’t say in the training was the extreme hours of telemarketing and cold calling that employees were expected to do and a meager base salary they get to live off of.

After all of this ideological “fluff” training workers are left with a caffeine headache and the reality of a post collegiate job in a phone bank with an average of $8 per hour in compensation.

Funny their CEO chose not to address these issues in his training……

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By: dan

dan — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:00:42 +0000

Margaret and Susan,
One answer, of course, is to convince the public-legislature that we need to invest more resouces in government work. That is a terribly difficult sell at the moment.
A second answer is that great training beats the either/or: either train or do the work. Great training is relevant and in a very reasonable rate of time begins to save time. Training must be keyed to the work and how to do it more effectively and efficiently. That may be personal skills oreinted training like “time management” or software applications; or it may be more group oriented, e.g., to reduce error rates and save reworking, etc.
Your question is a GREAT question, the absolute RIGHT question: (How) Can we use training to our benefit when work loads are so high? It would be a great question for a staff meeting discussion.
- Dan Mulhern

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By: Margaret

Margaret — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:28:24 +0000

I have the same question that Susan asked in the first comment – how do you balance the training needs of your staff with the time they need to be at their desk doing their job? I am a public servant, working at a Michigan state agency that is under a continually increasing mandate to do more with less. Every hour spent in training, staff meeting, teamwork exercise, or whatever translates to unanswered phones, unprocessed cases and unfinished investigations. How can you make any meaningful investment in your staff if you first can’t give them what they truly need….a manageable job?

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By: Keith

Keith — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:07:16 +0000

I commend Quicken on their customer service initiatives, but is it customer or profit motivated. Please dont misunderstand me, I am all for making a profit, but at what cost.

Michigan ranks as one of the highest mortgage forclosure states in the nation. High volume mortgage brokers have been linked to this problem. Have you looked at the default rate for Quicken originated loans as they compare to the national average? Are they setting up their customers for failure by making the process easier rather than accurate?

Customer service training is needed now more than ever, as long as it is true customer service and not just a way of improving the bottom line at the expense of the customer.

I dont know the statistics of Quicken, but I do know two families who lost their home from Quicken mortgages that they should not have been sqeezed into in the first place.

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