“I haven’t been living here very long, but I’ve rapidly built my business because I make myself available by email, phone, and text. It doesn’t matter if it’s during normal business hours. People can get ahold of me, and if they can’t, they know I’ll respond as quickly as possible. To me, this is part of relationship building— that the people I work with know they can reach me when they need me. It creates trust.”
Recently BB&T purchased SunTrust. The acquisition was finalized in December 2019, and as it was a merger of equals, the two banks became a new entity— Truist. Over the next few months, BB&T will be updating all of their marketing materials, signs, and letterhead to reflect this change and their new name.
“Change is difficult for people, it can be scary for them,” Jim says. “So we’re trying to make the transition as worry-free and smooth as possible. But for our clients, there’s really not much of a change.
“This merger grants us access to better technology which allows our internal processes to run more smoothly and efficiently. This, in turn, helps us serve our clients better. Now we can do more and do it better while continuing with our great client service. There’s always room for improvement, and that’s what I’m trying to do— get better everyday, for our clients.”
The current COVID-19 epidemic has created a lot of uncertainty within the economy, the mortgage world, and the real estate market. But Truist is still taking loan applications, funding loans, and serving them.
“Right now, people are calling me saying, ‘I’m supposed to close tomorrow on a house and the bank is telling me that I can’t.’ But because Truist is so well-funded, we are able to be lenders. For current and new clients, it’s business as usual, with the same excellent service.”
As a company, Truist is taking all the necessary precautions such as working from home, and limiting face-to-face client contact.
“There’s a lot of scary things happening right now for people, a lot of lenders aren’t able to procure loans, and some people can’t close the loan,” Jim says. “So we’ve made accommodations— in manpower, for clients, for agents, and for the builders we work with— to make things happen.”