Taking the pain out of relocating

Partnering with a mortgage provider when relocating staff can help smooth over what can be a stressful time for employees. Michael Rogan, SVP and Home Loan Channel Executive at Chase, explains how its outstanding customer service, best-in-class technology and competitive rates can make moving stress free.

HRM. To start with, can you give a quick explanation of what services Chase offers as it relates to corporate relocation?
MR. In the past, we have done corporate relocation internally for our Chase executives and employees, as well as for a few major corporations. We’ve done that throughout Home Loan Direct, or what we call our Sales Centers, as well as through retail loan offices. What we’re looking to do now is move into full-scale national relocation mortgage services. And for the employee bases of those companies that are not relocating, we also want to provide corporate mortgage programs. Historically we’ve tended to think locally, but now we want to go national in terms of expanding our program. Our full range of credit products and sales call center model allows us a great environment to do so.

HRM. Why is Chase looking to expand into the corporate relocation planning space?
MR. We’ve seen some key players exit the market, and we think there’s space and room for a player that really has the full array of products across the credit spectrum, and can provide an excellent experience for the Client. We believe there is always room for a company to provide a great level of service and that is something we can do. We have a very scalable model, with four different sites to handle both prime and non-prime borrowers, which provides a consistent customer experience that Clients are looking for in this space.

HRM. Aside from your scalability and size, what else do you think will make you successful?
MR. Our investment in technology will play a big role. We have built a workflow platform, where from a service standpoint, we communicate incredibly well with our customers throughout the process. In addition, we will also provide service level agreements to ensure that we’re accountable. We have also built a decision engine for our Mortgage Consultants that allows them to build scenarios and gives our customers the right home loan that’s best for them and their situation.

HRM. What advantage does this decision engine give you and how does it work?
MR. Not a lot of people have expertise or familiarity with the mortgage process. They maybe don’t know what product to choose or even what products they should be considering. You look at the industry over the past few years, especially in the last few months there has been a lot of negative press about some of these adjustable rates, especially in the sub-prime market. Our technology allows us to provide more of a consultancy approach – we want to give the right advice to the customer, and to make sure it’s good advice and that they are directed to the right product.

Our technology can take a short application that is a few key variables, and it will go ahead and pull credit on the client and recommend the right scenario for that individual.

HRM. How do you ensure that you provide greater value versus your competitors?
MR. Of course, our scalability allows us to be extremely competitive when it comes to rate – we’ve run a weekly survey to make sure this is the case, and we’ve found that we are one of the most aggressive from a price standpoint. We also offer some great discounts from a fee standpoint as well. In addition to that, one of the things we have is a guaranteed close, so if we say we’re going to meet a closing date on a purchase, we’re going to meet that, or else it’s going to be of some benefit to the client if we don’t.

HRM. And what are the benefits to your corporate clients?
MR. Our corporate clients don’t pay any fees to us, they facilitate the relationship. The benefit is that they’re dealing with a trusted partner – Chase has been around for 200 years, we’re not going away from an organization standpoint. We have great leadership at the top of Chase, and that carries itself all the way through. We have a customer-centric culture, which should and will provide better service, and quite frankly we’re trying to make life as easy as possible for the HR professionals running the relocation program.

What we’re saying is if your employees are dealing with a trusted advisor, someone who’s giving good advice, a competitive program and competitive products then it’ll make their life easier – they can be more productive as they’re not worrying about the money side of things, not having the right mortgage on their minds.

HRM. And presumably it makes the end customers more loyal to the company?
MR. There are some surveys that have been done, that show that if your employees are homeowners they tend to be more stable in the long run.  If your employees buy homes, they’re more likely to be a productive and stable workforce and will tend to have a higher retention rate.

HRM. OK, so why is the corporate relocation space so important for your business? In the past you’ve not been fully involved, so what’s made you take the leap now?
MR. It’s a business I’ve personally been involved in for 10 years now, and it’s a business in which the credit quality of the individual is typically very good. From that standpoint obviously any lender likes good credit risk and corporate relocation does provide that good credit risk. Typically relocation mortgages are good business to do and there’s the value of the cross-sell that goes along with that to Chase. We have fantastic credit card programs, home equity programs which are incredibly competitive as well as banking. We can provide the full array of financial products. If someone’s moving, Chase is a national lender. If someone’s moving from one area to another, chances are we may have a Chase branch locally. Having a fairly good brand is certainly an advantage in having that bank presence.

HRM. You’ve mentioned the opportunity there to leverage your brand – from an HR point of view is there scope to expand the service out so corporations might partner with Chase as their financial institutions of choice for staff? Could you see the market going that way in the future?
MR. Absolutely. There is certainly the opportunity to offer a bundled product spectrum. I would say that most of the products: credit cards, debit cards, checking, savings are important. Typically most employees are going to have those needs, so if corporations want to offer that kind of service for staff, then there is an opportunity there. It would certainly give us an opportunity to leverage that kind of relationship into longer lasting customer acquisition almost

HRM. Moving is said to be one of the most stressful events short of death or divorce, what is the key to making it stress-free?
MR. Communicating well. We certainly understand there are so many facets to a move: taking a new job, new city, spouse potentially getting acquainted with their new surroundings, kids getting acquainted with their new surroundings, what we’ve found is the key is communication, which is why we keep to our minimum standards in place for communicating well while we’re relocating employees – that is every three days we give an update to that individual. The bottom line is that we don’t want people who are going through what can be a very stressful experience having to worry about their mortgage, we want that to be the easy part and we think we can make it the easy part.

Michael Rogan has over 15 years experience in a variety of roles in the
mortgage industry. He currently manages the direct to consumer mortgage and corporate relocation businesses for Chase. The Home Lending Division of Chase is part of JPMorgan Chase.