In Part I and Part II of my interview with Don Iannitti, President and CEO of Document Systems, Inc. (DSI), we learned about the impetus behind the birth of DocMagic and the technology that revolutionized an industry. In this final part of my interview, Don talks about the concept that guides his company.

The Guiding Concept

Is DocMagic what drives your company today?
Don: I'm very happy with what we've done for our customers with DocMagic. The innovations have been very rewarding, but that's not what drives our business. From the beginning, it has been our goal of always providing exemplary customer service that has driven DSI.  

Many firms talk about providing service to the customer, but to me, you cannot separate excellent service from the customer. You can't have one without the other. Our software has been and continues to be one way we deliver on that customer service promise.

I remember back in the early days… We would do anything to make our clients happy, to show them how important they were to us. I used to make brownies and take them to my clients. They loved it. I'd probably still be doing that today if we didn't have thousands of customers across the country.

The software has given me a way to deliver on our customer service promise for all customers every day. I think our customers know that and they see it in every set of documents.

From the very beginning, every document had to be beautiful. There was an aesthetic priority to our work that was almost as important to us as the legal compliance aspect. We have always wanted the presentation to be perfect. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished in that regard.

Of course, it's not just the presentation that has to be perfect -- the compliance aspect, the technical support, the ability to make form changes quickly and easily, and so much more that must be included. Everything we do is built on the concept of serving and satisfying every single customer.  

Have you found it difficult to hire people that share your vision of customer service?
Don: Our goal of complete customer satisfaction is so simple and so intuitive that it isn't difficult to train good people. Good people instinctively understand what effect superior customer service has on our customers. They understand how important it is, and it makes sense to them.

The employees that stay with us long-term understand our focus on customer service and it agrees with them. That's why people tend to stay with the company for so long. Providing superior customer service is a goal that simply makes sense to everyone in our company.

Are you saying that with great customer services sales will naturally follow?
Don: I don't really focus on the sales. With high levels of customer service, customers find their way to us. It's not about increasing sales. That's not our priority.

Traditional corporate management tends to focus exclusively on organizational growth, but that doesn't make sense if the service isn't there from the beginning. We've grown our business by focusing almost exclusively on the needs of our customers.

This approach has made us very successful as a company. But, it has also made us successful as individuals. Offering the very highest levels of service to the customers you serve makes it easy to sleep at night; it makes everything else you do in life feel that much more worthwhile.

And your customers see that?
Don: I think most companies do. Certainly the vast majority of our clients understand the importance of service. But not every company gets it.

I think it's a shame when a firm enters the marketplace in search of a solution and focuses more on the price than the service level. We can compete on price, but that's not the first consideration for a company that realizes how critical documentation quality is.

We want our clients to understand our commitment to service and how that commitment has shaped the company as it has grown. I don't think there's another team of people anywhere in the industry-any industry-that is more dedicated to truly serving the customer than the team we have at DSI. It's a shame when companies don't look hard enough to see that. Personally, I don't see why a customer would ever go to another firm for the services we offer.

It's becoming clear that your people are very important to you.
Don: Well, yes. We have great technology, but it was all built by the people in this building. They are DSI's real assets.

But more than that, we are a family here. We all believe in the same things. Sometimes, I think our clients expect us to have a more traditional corporate structure. In general, humans are just another resource to many companies. They hire more when they need them and lay them off when the work drops off. We simply don't operate like that. The people here at DSI are absolutely critical to me and to DSI's success.

How has your role within the company changed over the years?
Don: There have been changes, but I don't think it has evolved in the typical corporate fashion. I'm still in the trenches every day. I'm not sitting in an office reading over management reports.

And, I don't spend a lot of time looking out 10 years into the future and predicting what our business is going to be like. I'm more concerned with what our business is like today, what our customer’s need right now.

Having a future vision has value, but my method has always been to ground myself in the reality of where we are right now and focus on what we are doing right now. When you do that, in my opinion, things fall into place. They always have for us.

I enjoy leadership. I love my job as CEO of this company. But I choose to lead from the front lines. I feel that is most effective.

What about your customers? Have they changed?
Don: Yes, they have certainly changed over the years. We've seen consolidation among the small banks and mortgage companies we serve. At the same time, we've experienced lending volumes of historic levels. We've seen technology bring new efficiencies and benefits to borrowers. There have been so many changes in the way people do business in this sector. Who could have predicted it?

Our customers have also become more competitive. I would have expected more product specialization among lenders, but you really don't see that. Most lenders have a large menu of loan programs that they can offer borrowers with frequent new additions.

Due to many changes in the way we do business today, including the ability to offer borrowers the loan program best suited to their needs, we continually strive to meet our customers' demands by empowering them to serve the borrower through the use of our products.

What changes have you seen in the mortgage industry, the good and the bad?
Don: The worst thing I have seen is the increase in mergers and acquisitions resulting in the gobbling up of great lending institutions and assimilating them without regard for their original character and capabilities. I have seen a lot of that. We've lost some good clients because they were acquired and subsequently poorly managed.

On the other side of the spectrum, the expansion of loan programs available to the borrower has been a very good thing. The broker business is an example of how that has benefited borrowers. A broker can offer loan programs from many different lenders to meet the exact needs of the borrower. That makes sense to me.

To meet the exact needs of the borrower, a broker or loan officer now needs the proper tools to match the loan product to the borrower's real needs. That's where our LoanMagic product comes into the picture. One of the reasons we developed that product was to further enable the loan officer to do a better job for the borrower. You can't judge the right program by looking at which one offers a better commission. You have to look at the borrower's needs. It can be a rather complex process, but tools like LoanMagic can make it look simple.

Is that what you're working on now?
Don: LoanMagic is where I'll be putting a lot of my efforts this year. The LoanMagic product has so much potential, I plan to give it a lot of attention. Many things are going to happen this year, which will get that product positioned properly.

I'll be spending a good deal of time managing the evolution of our software tools. We want to continue providing software for the entire mortgage process. In doing so, we will abide by our commitment to provide excellent customer service while giving our customers the technological tools they need to best serve their customers - the borrowers. By fulfilling this mission, day in and day out, it is my hope, as CEO of DSI, that our commitment to excellence will be a good reflection of our industry.

Melanie A. Feliciano is Assistant General Counsel of Document Systems, Inc. and a member of its Compliance Department.