How Does a Kinder Brand Walk The Walk?
An interview with Jeff Bochsler, SVP of mortgage lending/branch manager of Guaranteed Rate and Liz Heitman, VP of mortgage lending
ML/CR: Of all the mortgage broker companies in Santa Barbara, what made you two choose Guaranteed Rate?
LH: When I decided to let go of managing to give more time to clients, I wanted to work with a company that had a local branch manager with high integrity and a commitment to professional excellence, as well as to our community. I had known Jeff for many years and knew of his solid reputation and dedication to the betterment of our community, so it was an easy choice with respect to working with him. What ended up being a wonderful surprise was discovering how completely committed the company is to these same values.
JB: Initially, two fundamental differences stood out to me about Guaranteed Rate that I hadn’t experienced before.
First, Guaranteed Rate had the vision and values that I needed to best serve the client. They had partnered with companies creating innovative products and systems which, with previous employers, were systems I was having to spend countless hours building on my own, taking away from time spent serving my clients. Too often, the time spent navigating the platforms at other companies takes valuable time away from being able to care for the client and the community. Either it’s too limited to fully support the loan originator or too rigid due to a lack of trust in its own employees. At Guaranteed Rate, this forward-thinking company had created a robust platform that meets all of our requirements for providing excellent service to our clients. As a result, we feel fully supported with the modern technology and systems we need to make our greatest contribution.
Second, we are never asked to carry out tasks that are company serving. The on-going result is we’re freed up to forever focus on serving our clients and giving back to the community. The net result is we are truly growing for good, offering an incredible client experience that continues to evolve for the better, and we’re giving away more money than ever before.
ML/CR: You mentioned that one of the reasons you chose Guaranteed Rate was because your values align. What are your core values for running a socially responsible business?
JB/LH: For us, a service-oriented, socially responsible business starts with the people. We are committed to integrity, transparency, honesty, excellence in care, execution, client privacy, giving back and the environment. And we believe deeply in tracking the impact of our social good initiatives and cutting out the environmental waste.
ML/CR: How do you operationalize those values on a daily basis?
JB/LH: We hold a fiduciary duty to both our clients and our employees, and we keep this foremost in our minds as we start each day. We strive to ensure that every transaction we are a part of meets not only the current needs of our clients, but also their big picture vision for their long-term financial goals.
To that end, Liz has obtained a Series 65 license to become a certified “Personal Finance Advisor” as well as becoming a certified “Academic Life Coach.” This additional training helps her to ask the right questions for a deeper conversation with her clients to be sure that she’s contributing to a successful future.
We ask our clients for feedback at the end of every transaction, and we track the feedback in a serious manner, adjusting processes that aren’t optimal at every level, always striving to be better. We then work to hold annual reviews with our clients to ensure no rock is left unturned.
The same holds true for our employees. We are in this together, and our collective livelihoods are on the line. We count on each other to come to work each day operating with the highest integrity and commitment to excellence to ensure the optimal outcome for our clients. We hire diverse, high caliber individuals, enabling us to best serve the community in which we live. We follow up by acknowledging and rewarding excellence to ensure a stable, committed and happy workforce.
Beyond our commitment to people, it’s become an imperative to track the social good that results from our efforts. How many first-time homebuyers are we helping? How many veterans? Retirees? How much money are we putting back into our client’s pockets? This isn’t to gloat; it’s to ensure the team is forever focusing on the key metrics that deeply matter to our community’s well-being. We continually review the good being done to ensure our eyes stay focused on these areas of impact.
Our industry can be heavy on paper use and sensitive information. We’ve cut nearly all paper use and waste out of our process flow. We leverage a lot of incredible technology to ensure a low environmental impact and continuously monitor our security protocols to eliminate the chance of any leaks of client information. Protecting consumer privacy is rarely talked about as being socially responsible, yet it is held with the highest regard and care.
ML/CR: Like our profession, there are many lenders in town. What would you say is different about the way you work with a client?
JB/LH: We ask the deeper questions that ensure the appropriate financing methods are being recommended. We have an incredible array of financing tools, and we aren’t distracted by the many other banking functions that tend to bog down traditional bankers. We are 100% focused on financing mortgages, and that’s what we wake up every morning striving to do best. And if we find that we don’t have the product that is best suited for our client, we don’t hesitate to refer them outside our company walls to other lenders with high integrity who may have a product better suited for their specific needs.
We wholeheartedly believe that the caliber of professionals on our local team is second to none. This creates an experience you will notice as unique due to the synergy we are able to achieve by working for a company that “walks the walk.”
ML/CR: Thank you both so much for catching the vision of a Kinder World of Commerce and instinctively stepping up to sponsor this article each month. We appreciate your spirit of generosity and your support of our beloved community.
Monica & Claudia
Jeff Bochsler is SVP of Mortgage Lending/ Branch Manager of Guaranteed Rate in Santa Barbara and Montecito, and Liz Heitman is VP of Mortgage Lending.
Jeff can be reached at (805) 450-9616 / [email protected] and Liz at (805) 455-0772 / [email protected].