I owe you an apology. I feel it’s only right. I got lots of likes and offline ‘congrats’ messages as a result of people reading the first post with this headline, and probably not much further.

In the first line of the original post, I mentioned I was able to pay off a mortgage recently. Not the mortgage, simply the smallest, by far, of the mortgages the missus and I have.

The post wasn’t about inviting congratulations on this modest achievement, it was about how the mortgage company didn’t even acknowledge this milestone with me, when they could have celebrated it and used it as a marketing tactic to unlock some of my newly freed-up disposable income.

The fault lies in the eye-catching – and perhaps misleading – subject line. Better would be been ‘Not Celebrating the Mortgage Payoff’ or ‘The Missed Pay-off Marketing Opportunity.’

Sorry. I’m still saddled with debt, and the bank manager has a vice-like grip on the reins…

I was able to pay off a mortgage the other day. I expect it’s the kind of thing that happens all the time to thousands of homeowners. It had a few months to go before it was finished and it seemed to make sense to get a redemption figure and get rid of the very small outstanding amount a few months early.

Another reason was that my other mortgages are not due to be paid off for another 15 years or more, so I wanted to get this one out of the way.

So, in the time-honoured and fuddy duddy old way, I wrote in looking for a redemption figure, they wrote back a fortnight letter, and I sent off a cheque for the balance the next day. Fabulous.

That was a few weeks ago. I haven’t heard anything. No acknowledgement letter with a zero balance. More importantly, no congratulations letter.

This is a missed opportunity. Firstly, it’s a golden rule of marketing that you celebrate each milestone of the customer journey with the customer. Secondly, this doesn’t have to be the last milestone, it could be the chance to say ‘hey, well done, you’ve paid off your mortgage, you’re going to be a few quid better off a month, here are some savings suggestions.’

I realise much of this is automated these days, but you can still build rules into your process that trigger a congrats letter to each customer, celebrating the mortgage payoff. It’s very cheap, it’s common sense, it leaves your customer with a good feeling and it might prod them to buy another product from you. Easy.