Although mortgage delinquencies continued to decline in the second quarter of 2021, an estimated 1.6 million homeowners were on forbearance plans as of August 8, 2021 (1). The long-standing moratoriums have been lifted and borrowers and servicers are looking for support to manage the anticipated default volumes.
ServiceLink has remained a steady hand throughout this unprecedented time. “We are known as leaders in the default market space, providing integrated default services,” says Marco Brenes, senior vice president, national sales at ServiceLink. “Our continual resiliency throughout the last year and a half is what makes us different. Our focus has been on the eventual swing of the market – and on helping position clients for the potential shift.”
Poised to meet the demand, ServiceLink has implemented a 7 Steps to Manage Capacity strategy to anticipate needs within the industry as the moratoriums lifted:
1. Due Diligence & Strategy
Continually monitoring current and forecasted client volumes, as well as industry trends allowed ServiceLink to be a step ahead of the July 31st moratorium lift.
2. Staffing with Scalability in Mind
Since COVID-19 hit in March of 2020, ServiceLink continued to grow staffing levels to help prepare partners with workflows to be positioned to handle the volume surges. Comprehensive training and cross training of employees to meet the changing demands, as well as consistently updating 30, 60 and 90-day ramp-up plans keeps our teams ready.
3. Remote Employee Onboarding
Our accelerated work-from-home onboarding strategy thoroughly trains our teams to be ready to meet the pending volumes, giving clients the added benefit of increased flexibility.
4. Third-Party Vendors at the Ready
ServiceLink instituted mandatory vendor capacity plans for 30, 60 and 90-day ramp-up scenarios to stay ahead of pending volume increases. A concentrated onboarding of local field service contractors, as well as an expansion of notaries and title abstractors keeps our national presence and consistency strong.
5. Reporting
Keeping clients up to date through ServiceLink’s robust dashboard reporting helps to manage and track volumes and trends, as well as monitor service level agreement compliance. Transparency is key to ServiceLink client relationships.
6. Investments in Technology
ServiceLink’s end-to-end default management services and EXOS best-in-class technology provides enhanced automation, streamlined processes and improved workflows and integrations with third-party vendors.
7. Technology Stress Testing
Each business workflow at ServiceLink has a dedicated IT test team to troubleshoot and ensure quality and consistency - even through the most sizeable volume expansion.
“We’re really excited to see our hard work from the last year and a half bring such positive solutions for our clients,” says Brenes, in summary. “Our staff and management team have made it their mission to help with the sheer volume our servicer clients are facing as these moratoriums lift. ServiceLink is ready!”
(1) DeSanctis, A. (2021, August 19) Mortgage Delinquencies Decrease in the Second Quarter of 2021. Mortgage Bankers Association. https://www.mba.org/2021-press-releases/august/mortgage-delinquencies-decrease-in-the-second-quarter-of-2021
