Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Heartland Home Finance Deters Lead Theft with LeadGuardian
New Software Solution Also Serves as Valuable Training Tool
Challenge:
• Wanted a reliable method to prevent loan officers from stealing leads
• Wanted a method to monitor loan officers’ phone and email communication with leads
• Needed a system that would provide insight into activities at multiple loan offices
Solution:
• Implemented Leads360’s LeadGuardian® software to reveal if lead theft is occurring.
• Alerts are emailed to company management to see if employees are contacting leads legitimately
• Recording of outgoing emails and voice mail messages scrutinizes whether loan officers are correctly following company policy
• Improved performance of new employees, who use previously recorded interactions between employees and clients as a sales training tool
Results:
• Lead theft reduced
• Management now has a valuable deterrent against losing leads when loan officers depart.
As a result of implementing Leads360’s LeadGuardian® software, we began to see a lot of missed opportunities to close sales. Through the system I was able to peer into a specific branch office right down to the loan officer level to see what they were doing on a daily basis. Most small companies don’t have the technology to be able to do this. Leads360 made it very cost-effective to have this advantage. Now even smaller companies can achieve security and high performance like a much larger company.
Jay Dunsing, President, Heartland Home Finance
After more than 20 years in the mortgage business, Jay Dunsing knows what works and what doesn’t. As president of Heartland Home Finance, he’s been very active in his company’s development, and relies on Leads360 to keep Heartland at the forefront of technology and customer service.
“I am a huge Leads360 fan. Their products have really changed my company for the better, and their ability to listen to my needs and address them is by far the best of any vendor I’ve dealt with,” Dunsing said. “They are absolutely fantastic.”
So it wasn’t surprising that Dunsing would turn to Leads360 to address a chronic problem in the mortgage business – the loss of company-acquired leads through employee theft.
“In my business turnover is rampant,” Dunsing reported. “Our company has 200% turnover every year at the loan officer level. Some of our loan officers leave and join other mortgage companies and steal all the leads I developed for them, and close them at another company. My goal was to detect that theft by integrating fake leads into the system, which would hopefully deter other employees from attempting the same pilfering. “
Leads360 created LeadGuardian®, a module of Leads360’s LeadManager® lead management software application. The new software, which operates seamlessly with a mortgage company’s lead database, randomly places “check” leads within the database that are integrated with an e-mail and voicemail system that records messages and caller information. Alerts are emailed to company management who can hear mp3 files or read emails to see if their employees are contacting leads legitimately or if lead theft is occurring.
“The counterfeit leads are very easy to create, and each one has a unique email address and a unique 10 digit phone number. There’s no way my loan officers can detect that it’s a fake lead,” Dunsing said. “I then assign it directly to one of my loan officers; they make the call, which goes into a voicemail that is digitally recorded. That process has already shown me that I have a problem with how people leave voicemail messages, when they leave them at all.” Dunsing responded by creating a focus on proper phone procedure, to avoid any further missed opportunities.
“My fabricated client then calls back to that loan officer, and their conversation is recorded, so I can find out if they are they handling the conversation in a way that conforms to what corporate wants them to do.” LeadGuardian® also records all email communication, allowing Dunsing an opportunity to discover whether his employees are sending out automatic emails, or responding with an email that is specifically related to that customer’s circumstances.
“ LeadGuardian® will have a significant impact as a training tool for our loan officers,” Dunsing said. “When I bring a new officer on board, they’ll be able to hear prior conversations other officers have had with clients so they know what to expect when they get on the phone.”
The addition of LeadGuardian® to Heartland Home Finance’s LeadManager® software application has proven “invaluable,” according to Dunsing. “To try to determine ROI on the overall concept is impossible, but for us, we couldn’t function without it. I have 30 branches around the country, and this is the only way I can understand what’s going on in all of them. I can’t be in two places at once, much less 30 places, but I can with Leads360.”
Challenge:
• Wanted a reliable method to prevent loan officers from stealing leads
• Wanted a method to monitor loan officers’ phone and email communication with leads
• Needed a system that would provide insight into activities at multiple loan offices
Solution:
• Implemented Leads360’s LeadGuardian® software to reveal if lead theft is occurring.
• Alerts are emailed to company management to see if employees are contacting leads legitimately
• Recording of outgoing emails and voice mail messages scrutinizes whether loan officers are correctly following company policy
• Improved performance of new employees, who use previously recorded interactions between employees and clients as a sales training tool
Results:
• Lead theft reduced
• Management now has a valuable deterrent against losing leads when loan officers depart.
As a result of implementing Leads360’s LeadGuardian® software, we began to see a lot of missed opportunities to close sales. Through the system I was able to peer into a specific branch office right down to the loan officer level to see what they were doing on a daily basis. Most small companies don’t have the technology to be able to do this. Leads360 made it very cost-effective to have this advantage. Now even smaller companies can achieve security and high performance like a much larger company.
Jay Dunsing, President, Heartland Home Finance
After more than 20 years in the mortgage business, Jay Dunsing knows what works and what doesn’t. As president of Heartland Home Finance, he’s been very active in his company’s development, and relies on Leads360 to keep Heartland at the forefront of technology and customer service.
“I am a huge Leads360 fan. Their products have really changed my company for the better, and their ability to listen to my needs and address them is by far the best of any vendor I’ve dealt with,” Dunsing said. “They are absolutely fantastic.”
So it wasn’t surprising that Dunsing would turn to Leads360 to address a chronic problem in the mortgage business – the loss of company-acquired leads through employee theft.
“In my business turnover is rampant,” Dunsing reported. “Our company has 200% turnover every year at the loan officer level. Some of our loan officers leave and join other mortgage companies and steal all the leads I developed for them, and close them at another company. My goal was to detect that theft by integrating fake leads into the system, which would hopefully deter other employees from attempting the same pilfering. “
Leads360 created LeadGuardian®, a module of Leads360’s LeadManager® lead management software application. The new software, which operates seamlessly with a mortgage company’s lead database, randomly places “check” leads within the database that are integrated with an e-mail and voicemail system that records messages and caller information. Alerts are emailed to company management who can hear mp3 files or read emails to see if their employees are contacting leads legitimately or if lead theft is occurring.
“The counterfeit leads are very easy to create, and each one has a unique email address and a unique 10 digit phone number. There’s no way my loan officers can detect that it’s a fake lead,” Dunsing said. “I then assign it directly to one of my loan officers; they make the call, which goes into a voicemail that is digitally recorded. That process has already shown me that I have a problem with how people leave voicemail messages, when they leave them at all.” Dunsing responded by creating a focus on proper phone procedure, to avoid any further missed opportunities.
“My fabricated client then calls back to that loan officer, and their conversation is recorded, so I can find out if they are they handling the conversation in a way that conforms to what corporate wants them to do.” LeadGuardian® also records all email communication, allowing Dunsing an opportunity to discover whether his employees are sending out automatic emails, or responding with an email that is specifically related to that customer’s circumstances.
“ LeadGuardian® will have a significant impact as a training tool for our loan officers,” Dunsing said. “When I bring a new officer on board, they’ll be able to hear prior conversations other officers have had with clients so they know what to expect when they get on the phone.”
The addition of LeadGuardian® to Heartland Home Finance’s LeadManager® software application has proven “invaluable,” according to Dunsing. “To try to determine ROI on the overall concept is impossible, but for us, we couldn’t function without it. I have 30 branches around the country, and this is the only way I can understand what’s going on in all of them. I can’t be in two places at once, much less 30 places, but I can with Leads360.”
# posted by Leads 360 @ 3:58 PM 
