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67 Sadow had also worked with Caruso in a previous life—in his case, during the ServiceMac CEO's time at Bank of America, where Sadow had managed the mortgage and other legal teams. "I have been in the servicing business and origination business for years, but this was the chance to really do it right," Sadow said. "We want to make sure the customers are treated the way they should be treated, and we also want to make sure that clients get the transparency and the focus that they deserve." As became a familiar theme during my ServiceMac conversations, Sadow said his ServiceMac role challenged him to swim in unfamiliar waters. "I've managed legal departments before," he said. "I've managed compliance departments before. I've managed operational risk. e challenges here are more around looking at factors beyond just the day-to- day operations. My biggest challenge was thinking holistically about the personnel risk, the information security risks, and the cash-management reporting risks, and then figuring out how to build out a structure that covers those areas. at was a bit of a stretch for me." Nevertheless, he told DS News he felt inspired by Caruso's leadership to rise to the occasion, a sentiment echoed by everyone I spoke with at ServiceMac. "Bob is transparent and candid," Sadow said. "I want a leader who's going to tell me what he's thinking, what he's expecting, and who doesn't mince words. He entrusts that you're going to get things done, and then he expects it to be done. He doesn't micromanage at all." "He's very generous with his knowledge," Hatfield said. He holds you accountable, but he doesn't tell you how to do it. He has high expectations, but he gives you a lot of latitude in getting it done." "SOLVE IT AND MOVE ON" Caruso united his team around a central vision focused on two tenets: data and customer service. "Our industry has often been accused of poor quality, poor customer service, and not taking care of customers," Caruso said. "We're determined to implement solutions designed to change that paradigm." "From day one, we started capturing all the data and information about the customer and their interactions with us," Hatfield said. "Now that we understand where the customer's coming to us, we understand the types of issues we're trying to deal with. Next, we start architecting a platform that's capable of both being the customer-facing site with self-service capabilities and the internal, customer service system. e platform is one piece, and so it's being designed with that end state in mind." ServiceMac's integration of tech and focus on innovation and "working smarter" even extends to the devices the team members use to complete their daily tasks. e entire ServiceMac office runs off virtual desktops, with everything cloud based and nary a PC tower in sight. "You can sign on from anywhere in the world," Hatfield said. "is allows us to be infinitely scalable from an infrastructure perspective. All our telephony systems are all cloud based. All our desktop systems are all cloud based. It makes disaster recovery much easier, because it's all there, it's all recoverable. Our team members can work from literally anywhere in the country from a secure platform." Perdue said that Caruso wanted to do things right the first time, "because many of us spent a lot of time going back and fixing things that were broken over the years, and much of that involved data and technology." e ServiceMac team, Perdue explained, approached innovation as a cost-management tool. "When you do something right the first time, it will actually lower your costs," she added. "You only get one chance, usually, to build something from scratch," Sadow said. Of course, a clean slate sometimes sounds a lot more exciting before you're actually staring that white void down yourself. "You've got the clean whiteboard," said Sadow. "Now what are you going to do with it?" One defining innovation Caruso was eager to spotlight is the fact that ServiceMac's customer service call center significantly streamlines the convoluted phone trees that have become punchline fodder for a generation of stand-up comics. "We only have two buttons," Caruso said. "If you want to go through the automated machine, hit one. If you want to talk to a customer service person, hit two." Caruso "I believe in connecting with regulators—not being afraid of regulators, but actually working with them to make sure that we have what they need and that we're meeting their expectations. It goes back to the golden rule: treat people as you would like to be treated." —Eric Sadow, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer, ServiceMac

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