Say "customer service" and a lot of people think of characteristics like "friendly" and "empathetic." Soft skills like friendliness, empathy and the ability to build rapport are important.

If you're selling a complex, high-ticket product or service, however, one of the most critical things you provide to the customer is product knowledge. The hard skills - what you know, and your willingness and ability to share what you know - will help you make the sale and keep the customer.

Sharing Your Knowledge And Experience
Sue Woodard, home loan consultant for CTX Mortgage Company, will tell you proudly that some of her best clients have never bought her product. Because she believes that customer service includes customer education, Woodard provides people with the information they need to make a wise decision. Sometimes, that decision is to obtain a mortgage loan from another company.

"There are people I've never done a loan for who have referred lots of business to me because of the information I've provided," Woodard says.

Demonstrating a depth of knowledge and experi-ence gives Woodard a competitive edge in an increas-ingly competitive industry. Three years ago, Woodard says, there were 200,000 people in the mortgage busi-ness. Today, there are twice as many.

Of course, what attracted many of the new arriv-als is the recent boom in home sales and refinancing. If the mortgage market cools, some of the new arrivals will move on to other careers. Woodard's ability to offer customer education will help assure that she'll still be in business a decade or two down the road.

A Step Above The Competition
In the meantime, Woodard uses customer education as a way to set herself apart from competitors who sell on price alone. "We're not the cheapest," Woodard's cus-tomer flier says. "Of course our rates and costs are very competitive, but we have also invested in the systems and team we need to ensure the top quality experience that you deserve."

Woodard says her prospective customers are better educated about mortgages, but are nonetheless intimi-dated by the variety of products available. "People don't go through the mortgage process every year," she says. "It's a complex decision, and the results of the decision stay with people a long time."

Sometimes Saying 'No' Is Good Service
Loans that wind up in default, Woodard notes, had to be approved and underwritten. In some cases, the defaults occur because of changes in the customer's circumstances. In other cases, she says, the very best cus-tomer service would be to say, "I don't think you should do this."

Woodard even provides her prospects with a hand-out whose bright red headline reads, "Shopping Around? Here's the Inside Scoop on How to Do It Right." The handout supplies four simple questions that people can ask to make sure a loan officer is experienced and profes-sional. Five additional tips for consumers help them to shop effectively for a mortgage.

Woodard doesn't downplay the need for soft skills. "You have to make people feel comfortable," she says. Still, she adds, "People already have friends. They don't need me to be their friend. They need me to be a trusted financial professional."