The world is getting less human. The number of automated jobs increases by 14% each year as businesses are seduced by the seeming efficiency and reliability of automation. Customer service feels this acutely; over time, it seems like more and more service interactions see unhappy callers wrestling with automated reps — ever go through the “Speak to representative… Speak to representative…” rigamarole? It’s maddening.

At TMS, we certainly appreciate the need for great tech — as evidenced by our proprietary servicing portal, SIME (Servicing Intelligence Made Easy)— but we believe that great servicing means getting more human, not less human. In other words, technology when you need it, and human when you want it. We believe that great personal relationships are the foundation of happiness, and TMS is all about helping Grow Happiness.

That’s why, over the last several years, we’ve doubled down on our CAREologists — and it’s these customer care representatives who deserve so much credit for our success. We’ve refined our hiring process, making sure only the most helpful and friendly people come aboard. We’ve upped our training regimen, giving each CAREologist 220+ hours of education and experience before they hit the phones. And we invest in their success; through company culture, personalized relationships, and working arrangements, we ensure that CAREologists’ lives in and out of TMS are as happy as possible.

That’s what you have to do to provide the industry-leading customer experience that we do. In this article, we’re going to give you a sense of what makes a CAREologist, and how CAREologists make us who we are.

Who Gets to Be a CAREologist?

At hiring time, we go looking for the most charismatic, coachable (and as we already said, helpful and friendly) individual whose personal values align with TMS’s organizational purpose.

Those values: People Matter, Inspiring Leadership, Strength of Character, and Rock-Solid Service. CAREologists are “people” people who naturally want to brighten everyone’s day by making things easy for our callers and resolving issues quickly. They believe in the power of collaboration, and they respond to leaders who lead by example. At the end of the day, TMS is in the happiness business — it just so happens that we do it through subservicing.

But that’s not all. In our revamped interview process, hopeful CAREologists are also subject to circumstantial challenges, in which they must solve complex problems on the fly. This way, we ensure that our people are both personally aligned and professionally savvy — Pink Unicorns, through and through.

Do automated sales reps go through this rigorous screening process? Do they put their values and abilities on display? Or do they simply get programmed to be an algorithmic funnel for customer issues, hopefully efficient enough to keep customers engaged?

What Do CAREologists Do, Exactly?

In short, CAREologists make customers smile over the phone.

Let’s say it’s May 11. The first thing customers hear when CAREologists answer the phone is, “Happy Eat What You Want Day!” Yes, May 11 is actually National Eat What You Want Day in these United States. Why do we start with that? To add a little lightheartedness to a call customers imagine won’t be especially fun. With an automated sales rep, it probably wouldn’t be all that fun. But with a Pink Unicorn who knows that it’s a day for culinary indulgences, fun is exactly what it is.

Then, CAREologists become you. Through rigorous TMS playbook education and specialized brand training, they learn the ins and outs of your customers’ portfolios, your communication preferences, and what’s important to you as an organization. They absorb all of this into their natural styles, and they become one-stop shops for all of your customers’ servicing needs. The result is a seamless experience: Our CAREologists take on your brand persona, so that your customers get the same level of care that you’d give them. There’s nothing lost in translation when your loan is transferred to us.

The benefits of enduring 220+ hours of yearly training are many, but perhaps the best thing of all is that TMS’s CAREologists deliver a 92% first-call resolution rate. The vast majority of customers never have to go further than that first call to make sure their needs are met. Given that failing to resolve customer problems on the first call is the #1 cause of customer dissatisfaction, this statistic goes a long way.

How many times have you been shuffled from menu to menu by an automated representative? How frustrating is it when they can’t meet your needs, and you end up having to repeat the whole process with a human representative? Less human = less happy. More human = more happy, to the tune of a 98% customer satisfaction rate — even during a global pandemic.

From the CAREologists Themselves

We do our very best to treat our team right, because we know that if they’re happy, your customers are happy; and if your customers are happy, everyone’s happy. We have an open and inviting work environment that fosters collaboration and generates smiles. We even have an indoor wellness park for CAREologists to relax and have fun. During COVID-19, we collaborated personally with each CAREologist to ensure that they could handle both their workload and increased family time without breaking their backs.

We do right by our CAREologists so that they can do right by our (and your) customers. This past December, we’re proud to say that the TMS team voted us an MPA Top Mortgage Workplace — which filled us with Joyitude.

But don’t take it from us, take it from them. Here’s what CAREologists have to say about working for TMS:

“TMS is super family oriented. I’ve known a lot of people and everyone here is the best group I’ve ever met in my life. If you’re actually looking for a company that cares and wants to help you grow then this is the place to be!!!!!” – Krystal Washington

“Ultimately, being allowed to be myself here and work hard. That is why TMS is special too! The culture that we have here is to show up and work hard. Any time I’ve been approached with something that I don’t agree with, I can push back and provide my opinion.” – Zachary Jubie

“The culture we have created here really draws in the best kind of people. We have created a space that allows for growth and for advancement and inclusion. Every day we show people that this is a family, and we are all operating for a common goal. We want everyone to succeed and that there is also a chance for everyone to succeed.” – Ashley Gaddis

People Matter

CAREologists have always been the backbone of TMS. Ever since we got out of origination and into subservicing, putting care into the customer-subservicer relationship was one of the major elements that set us apart. Over the course of the last six years, our CAREologists have helped us ride that principle to where we are now: one of the nation’s Top 10 Subservicers.

We’re curious — does your current subservicer invest 220+ hours of training in each customer care representative? For starters, what do they call their customer service team? Is “care” even a part of it? What about their numbers? Does your current servicer have a 92% first-call resolution rate, a 98% customer satisfaction rate, and a sub-5% abandonment rate? If not, it might be time to consider a switch.

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