3 Principles to Guide Journey Creator Use and Drive Customer Relationship Success

By Jelaire Grillo, Customer Relationship Manager, Prosperity Home Mortgage, LLC

Winner of Total Expert’s Journey Wiz Expy Award

I’ve experienced the power and flexibility of Total Expert’s Journey Creator at two companies. The first time I worked with Total Expert was in my previous role at Intercoastal Mortgage Company. I then accepted my role at Prosperity Home Mortgage where I use Total Expert’s Journey Creator to improve the connections we make between our mortgage consultants (MCs), our agents, and our customers.

Here are three principles I’ve developed, after years of working with Total Expert, for using Journeys to drive customer relationship success.

Tip 1: Zoom Out to See the Full Picture

When you’re hyper-focused on the mechanics of building each journey, it’s too easy to lose sight of how everything connects. That’s why I map out our Journeys on whiteboards or huge sheets of paper to “see” everything.

Why is this so crucial? We have 60 active Journeys at Prosperity Home Mortgage. Each one of them needs attention, from a micro and a macro view. 

When you have 60 Journeys running, there’s a nearly infinite amount of tangents a mortgage process could go down, and you need to track them. Mortgage processes are flexible. Your customers and your agents have unique needs, with tangents that can stem from, for example:

  • First-time homebuyers who require more guidance
  • Customers who may need to work on building their credit
  • People who expressed interest in a home, but have pushed off filling out an application for months

Each of these customers deserves support and insights that pertain directly to their situation. Zooming out lets you see how each action plotted in Journey Creator meaningfully impacts these customers.

Tip 2: Regularly Review Your Journeys

Ditch the “Set It and Forget It” mentality. You should review your Journeys on a regular basis. Journeys are built to help drive meaningful messages at scale, but they can’t repeatedly deliver this value if you aren’t maintaining them. Change isn’t a bad thing. If you see an opportunity to optimize a Journey, you can and should.

However, the people building Journeys aren’t regularly engaging with customers. So make sure to source insights from your MCs and your agents. By implementing the feedback from these professionals, you’re driving more impactful change with your Journeys. 

Remember: You need to nurture your relationships and your Journeys to be successful.

Tip 3: Facilitate Relationships with Your CRM

Your tech stack needs to embrace the uniqueness of your customers, your MCs, and any agents who work with you. I was chosen for a couple of my roles specifically to optimize Journeys within my organization, so I understand how vital a CRM can be for the customer journey.

One crucial way Total Expert helps us is by authorizing co-branding. Our relationship with agents is very important. This functionality builds trust by letting full-service mortgage bankers, like Prosperity Home Mortgage, co-brand with agents. This presents a united front between an agent and a mortgage banker for the benefit of any customers looking to, for instance, refinance a home.

Those customers looking to refinance don’t just walk through the door, either. This is an important decision and customers need to feel understood. A CRM enables you to create customers for life by continuously fostering and building trust.

Don’t Wait to Create Lasting Customer Relationships

Any good relationship requires accountability. This is the sort of thing that Total Expert’s CRM provides. Yes, it optimizes the connections we can make and gives our mortgage consultants the ability to meet the needs of their customers, but it also systematizes and documents each of our interactions.

Keeping these records is especially important as interest rates are expected to gradually rise in 2022, changing the market. One fundamental way you can build lifelong relationships is by anticipating the needs of others using previous insights.

Total Expert’s Journey Creator keeps our customers engaged and keeps us accountable as we look ahead to a new year with new possibilities.