Communication Is Key Skill For Success in Field Services.

Mr. Klein is CEO of Safeguard Properties Inc., a field service provider based near Cleveland.

When a mortgage loan servicer becomes responsible for the condition of an asset the company has loaned money against, it depends on field services vendors to protect that asset. Utilizing a good field services vendor improves the likelihood that the mortgage servicer's primary asset will be protected during the foreclosure process. This risk is further reduced when the field services vendor and the servicer practice the most important skill in the industry: communication.

Everyone in business will tell you that effective communication is one of the keystones of a profitable enterprise, but when it comes to the mortgage field services business, poor communication doesn't just hinder the operation, it shuts it down. To show you why this is true, let me first define what I mean by effective communication.

When a loan servicer and a field services vendor employ good communication skills, the servicer knows as much about the condition of the property as when the loan was initially written. The field services company literally becomes the servicer's eyes and ears, sending back all of the data that the servicer would gather about the property as if one of its employees was standing in front of the home.

During the default process, the servicer is called upon to make critical decisions as to how it needs to proceed. The timeframe that the servicer receives this information in is another critical factor in the default decision-making process. Based on the information provided by the field services company, the servicer will make the decisions that will determine its level of success. The better the information about the collateral, the better the decisions are likely to be. Having a vendor on the ground that the servicer can trust when a property goes into default can spell the difference between a satisfactory resolution or a heavy loss.

Fortunately, opening channels for effective communication is much easier today than it was in the past. Technology has introduced e-mail, Internet file transfer, spreadsheets, instant messaging, digital cameras and conference calls. But it's still up to the field services vendor to utilize these tools. It is critical that information is received from the field and transmitted to the servicer in a short period of time. Once again, technology is the key factor.

Safeguard Properties serves mortgage servicers across the nation, requiring our teams to send data back from all over the country. Technology makes this possible. In rare instances, the effective use of technology by the field services vendor is the only way to keep the servicer and its investors safe from massive losses. A terrible case in point was provided by Hurricane Katrina.