As I sat down to pen this, I wonder what is going through your mind – you the Loan Advisor.  Day in, and day out, you are at your desk working with customers needing to get into cars to get to work, to take their kids to soccer practice, to get groceries… Maybe you’re working a sub-prime lead and you have called every number provided on the application.  There’s no answer, or “Mom’s not home now,” says the voice on the other end of the phone.  Maybe “the number you have reached has been temporarily disconnected or no longer in service)” is the recording on the other end of the line.  Sound familiar?

Nothing can be more frustrating than trying to contact an applicant without making contact.  Before you hit the “Bad Lead” button however, let’s take a look at some other possibilities:

• What time of day you are making your calls?
• How many attempts are you making to reach out to the customer?
• What about emails – are you sending any?
• Have you mailed a post card?

We see a good many cases of customers incorrectly entering their phone number on an application.  Too many times a dealer will also call at the wrong time of day.  Take for instance the nurse who works the night shift in the emergency room.  If we call her at 5pm, are we likely to get her?  How about the court clerk needing a car loan?  First thing in the morning, or better yet email may be the optimal way to reach this person to make an appointment.  Alternating call times and trying other methods of communication may be more beneficial and being cognizant of the customer’s lifestyle can save lots of heartache and time.

If push comes to shove, give us a ring and we’ll help diagnose your process.  We’ve been doing this for 20 years and over that time and seen a good many ideas that have worked and some that haven’t.  Heck, we’ve tried some of those too.  More than likely we’ll have some ideas developed by our successful customers from all across the country to help.

Here’s to your success in 2010!