Q: What impact has this had?
This model has changed the way the industry services REO properties and has been adopted by large government agencies, such as Fannie Mae and HUD.
We also use technology to create as many opportunities as we can to listen, to exchange ideas, to resolve issues in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation. This includes industry conference calls, webinars and other ‘virtual meeting’ communications. There is a reason why we were born with two ears and one mouth. We need to listen twice as much as we talk. Innovation doesn’t come from sitting in a room alone and thinking up good ideas. It comes from interacting with people throughout our industry, listening to what a customer needs and finding a way to deliver it quickly, efficiently and with the highest quality.
Q: You’ve mentioned in the past that one of the keys to Safeguard’s success is the ability to ‘understand your client’s needs and bring them actual value.’ How do you glean this information from your clients and what strategies do you use to deliver the value they need?
Safeguard believes in bringing people together to open the lines of communications. None of us are smart enough to solve problems on our own. But working together, there isn’t a challenge we cant overcome. We meet face-to-face with our clients. We attend industry conferences where representatives from all facets of our industry are engaging in dialogue. We also host two of our own conferences each year.
The first is a National Property Preservation Conference in Washington, D.C. It is where we invite representatives from all areas of our industry to come together to raise issues and work to address them in a spirit of cooperation. Participants at our conferences include our mortgage servicing clients, government representatives from HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, VA and FHA, the code enforcement community, and our competitors in the mortgage field services industry.
In August, we hold a vendor conference in Cleveland, and we invite our thousands of contractors from across the country. At that conference, we update our contractors on guidelines. We discuss best practices for maintaining and inspecting properties and give them an overview about major developments that will be impacting our industry. Importantly, our contractors hear from panels of experts that include our clients.
Q: Strong relationships seem to be at the core of your company’s success. How do you foster and strengthen those relationships?
Our clients are national. Safeguard is headquartered in Cleveland. We travel a great deal, meeting with our clients on a regular basis. We also hold regular calls with our clients — which we call ‘staff-to-staff’ calls — where the counterparts from Safeguard and the client interact, raise and resolve issues, and keep one another updated. After these calls, everyone receives a meeting summary, and follow-up items are identified and tracked.
We are active in our industry trade organizations and in the trade organizations that our clients are involved in. We support initiatives that are important to them. As an example, in Cleveland, we are actively involved with the Cuyahoga County Foreclosure Prevention Program. This organization has helped thousands of homeowners avoid the loss of their homes. As a company that inspects and maintains homes that are vacant and abandoned by homeowners facing foreclosure, we see firsthand the impact of defaults and foreclosures on families, neighbors and entire communities. We do our best to help raise awareness that homeowners in trouble can find help. We do what we can to encourage borrowers to reach out and communicate with their mortgage companies and to get help through the Foreclosure Prevention Program. There is no more important step a borrower can take to prevent the loss of their home.
How to reach: Safeguard Properties, (216) 739-2900 or www.safeguardproperties.com