18 Dec 2021 : How it all began (as shared on the company website) : The 2012 personal (painful) experience of trying to buy a home but missing out because of the cumbersome, time consuming & complicated processes and eventually being unable to buy that “Dream House” gave birth to Better.com in 2014.
The Metric in Focus : We could take the current pre-approval process — 3 weeks of phone tag, runaround, and miscommunication — and reduce it down to the point where you could get a pre-approval on your mobile phone in about 3 minutes. [ That’s beautiful !! ]
The Vision Statement
Could not locate the Vision statement of the brand. A Vision statement can be an anchor to the organization’s choices while they make progress & grow to serve many more.
The Mission Statement
Brand Values & Beliefs :
Could not locate them on the website.
Suggestion : Any brand worth it’s salt should always identify the values that they will adopt(good or bad) so the entire organization from top leadership to the last employee align well with the same values. i repeat, same values. And. every organization should proudly feature the same on their website, so the customers & partners know whom they actually are working with.
On Website : The Pitch >> Mortgage industry is broken…Better.com is >> Faster/ Transparent/ Easier…making the process much much better & cheaper
On Linkedin : Making homeownership simpler, faster – and most importantly, more accessible
The Incident that got all the attention
900 employees terminated on a Zoom call just 3 weeks to Christmas 🎄🎅
The accusation definitely has not helped in getting support for the decision. A Parent is a Parent is a Parent.
The Root cause : One line : Your Employment here is TERMINATED effective immediately.
In Summary : 900 employees were terminated for non performance on a Zoom call( 3 weeks to Christmas 2021).
Suggestion : Most importantly, the timing : 3 weeks prior to Christmas(a season so special to all Americans) A brand that started out with core purpose of Empathy(for House buyers) missed out of showcasing Empathy for it’s employees.
In a situation like this, the Brand is a senior member of the society almost like a parent to it’s employees. If there were concerns, the organization could have flagged them much earlier and have the erring team members get back to rallying fully behind the brand. A parent will never wait for the child to gradually slip on expectation scale and then dump the child(with data as proof) at an orphanage right? Isn’t it almost same with the Organizations. Why not get an erring team member be alerted & supported to get back to winning ways. They did succeed in an interview process before getting the offer to join this wonderful organization. Isn’t it? Without a healthy society, how will brands give the maximum back to society & benefit in return?
What does it say about the Culture
No mention on the Culture that the brand wants to promote in the organization on the website.
Suggestion : Every organization that wishes to serve a member of the community(this make almost all companies as qualified members) should make them selves known well by their customers. After all, without the customer, the brand has no existence. They owe that much to the customer, irrespective of the ask of their customer to know them well.
What does it say about the Executive Leadership
The incident has put the Executive leadership in a poor light. One would get this question on mind : Was the executive leadership party to the decision on the planned video call with the 900 employees? Were they part of the decision on how that meeting was to be handled? (this being a matter of livelihoods of 900 employees, one would sense this as a meeting of HIGH importance).
Suggestion : Any & every painful discussion like this, should be well thought out and also is opportunity for the organization to display their Empathy for a human. They did had Empathy for the Mortgage customer was the core reason why the brand was created. So, Empathy is already something the organization values.
What does it say about the Board
The same question : Was the Board aware(was the Board required to be aware)?
Suggestion : Such decisions when taken through the Board, Executive Managements Teams would benefit from the maturity & wisdom of the Board. Would be nice to leverage this resource before proceeding with execution.
What does it say about the Customer
The Customer so far seems to be very happy with the Significantly better process that Better.com made available to them. Looks very likely that the customer finds it difficult to relate what happened with their personal values & beliefs.
Suggestion : Business Model get replicated overnight and Dominations can crumble like a castle of Dominoes in today’s customer driven business environment. This incident will be an opportunity for competition to get bolder & even start something new to leverage upon the opportunity created by Better.com themselves. A No-No for any business.
What does it say about the Community/Society
The organization was started to do GOOD. I sense their purpose as : To Do GOOD !!
An organization worth more than $8 Billion dollars(with 6500+ employees) is expected to be an example : A Positive example.
The last line : I hope this crisis will give birth to a better Better.com and a better world 🌎🤞
