A mortgage company which recently became a bank through an acquisition has formally begun leveraging its servicing experience as it expands into outsourcing operations for others.
Toby Wells, a longtime industry servicing executive, oversaw the development of the new business line at Cornerstone Capital Bank. He also helped the bank's predecessor, Cornerstone Home Lending, bring servicing in-house last year. Prior to joining Cornerstone, Wells was the CEO of Specialized Loan Servicing and continued to work with it after SLS became part of Computershare.
Cornerstone's new subservicing offering includes outreach to borrowers through digital strategies based on a distinct amalgamation of vendor technology that the company brought together in consultation with communications experts.
"We have some things that we think really differentiate us," said Wells, who is the president of Cornerstone Servicing. "We try to take the mystery out of servicing for consumers."
Interactive voice-response technology aimed at minimizing call time is one example. It ingests customer data that clients can derive customer retention insights from through analytics. The IVR technology currently "listens" to English and Spanish. Other languages may follow.
The company consults with clients on all aspects of the servicing process, including default, but it is not a specialist in that area.
Cornerstone plans to work with a variety of customers, and already has added a few early clients. Its target market ranges from small mortgage companies who lack the scale to do the work as efficiently as it does, to larger ones who might want more selective services.
The firm's time-to-answer on average has been less than 17 seconds year-to-date. It also strives to handle 85% of calls within 30 seconds.
Cornerstone makes a point to hire call center agents who show empathy and a desire to help borrowers, and ensure the borrowers are proactively kept apprised of the status of outstanding inquiries, said Wells.
"The goal is to make it easy and intuitive," Wells said.
