Blog · Behind the desk

How does member services answer a rate question during a call today?

The call guide has not changed. What changed is how fast the desk can open the right section, and how plainly the answer says which version it came from. The Member Services Lead on the current-quarter readiness work.

When a member asks about a rate during a call, the Harbor Mutual desk follows the member-services call guide: confirm the term and the documented tier, open the current consumer loan rate sheet, state the applicable APR with its source and effective version, explain that a quote is not approval, and record which version was used. For the standard example, that means 5.49% APR for a top-credit-tier 60-month new auto loan from this quarter's sheet, with the withdrawn 6.24% APR sheet named as superseded if the member has it. The desk's current-quarter readiness project is about making that routine faster and better recorded, not about changing it.

Dana Okafor · Member Services Lead, Harbor Mutual · · 4 min read

Last updated

What is the current-quarter readiness project?

A short project with three open items and a deadline two weeks out. Retire stale scripts and prepare the agency renewal review, is how I wrote the description. The items are: remove the stale 6.24% APR script from the shared call material, with the lending desk as counterparty; send the disputed disclosure to Compliance with both source versions attached, where no remedy has been approved; and review agency renewal capacity against the aggregate dashboard. All three are open as I write. This post is about what the rate routine looks like while we work through them.

What does the routine look like on a call?

The call guide, step by step.

  1. Name the question and the product. "You're asking about the rate on a new auto loan over 60 months."
  2. Confirm the term and the documented tier. The tier comes from the authorised assessment, never from a guess; the fair-lending checklist requires the same documented criteria for every member.
  3. Open the current sheet and state the APR with its source. "On the current consumer loan rate sheet, effective this quarter, the top-credit-tier row for a 60-month new auto loan is 5.49% APR."
  4. Say what is conditional. "That is a quote, not an approval. Your tier, the vehicle's eligibility and the term are confirmed before a written offer, and the written offer controls."
  5. Record the version. The sheet and section the quote came from go into the record.

What if the member mentions 6.24%?

Then they have the withdrawn sheet, or a script quoted it to them. We name the withdrawn prior rate sheet, say that the current quarter's sheet replaces it and explain the change without blaming the member. If the 6.24% figure was quoted to them by us, that is a disputed disclosure and it goes to Tess Nakamura under Harbor Disclosure Rule D-4, with the sheet actually quoted preserved alongside the current one.

How do representatives find the right section quickly?

They ask for it. The desk keeps the rate sheets, the bulletin, the coverage summary and the call guide on Vera (unicorniq.ai), and a representative on a call can ask, in plain words, what rate applies to a top-tier 60-month new auto loan. The answer comes back citing the current sheet by title and section, says the prior sheet is withdrawn, and does not offer the withdrawn figure as an alternative, because the audit copy of that sheet is restricted to the Compliance review tier and the representative cannot read it. That last part is deliberate. A new colleague should not be able to find the old rate by accident, let alone quote it.

What I value most is that the answer carries its version. "5.49% APR, current consumer loan rate sheet, Section 1, effective this quarter" is a sentence a representative can say aloud and a reviewer can check later. The guide always required the version to be recorded. It is simply easier to record something you were just shown.

Does this replace the call guide?

No. The guide is the routine; the workspace is where the sources it points to live. A representative who skipped the guide and quoted whatever came back first would still be wrong to do so. The point is that step three, open the current source, takes seconds instead of a folder search, and step five, record the version, is a copy rather than a reconstruction.

What about the stale script?

It is still in the shared folder, flagged, and its removal is an open action with a one-day due date against it. Until it is gone, the rule for the desk is the one Jordan Reyes wrote about after a few weeks on the job: the script is not the source. Removing the script is housekeeping. The routine above is what prevents the next stale script from mattering.

What does good look like at the end of a rate call?

The member knows the rate, the sheet, the effective quarter, what remains conditional and who owns the next step. The record shows the version. Nobody guessed a tier, nobody blended two sheets and nobody promised an approval. That was true before this quarter's project and it will be true after it. The project only makes it faster and easier to prove.

Q&A

Questions I am asked about the rate routine are answered below.

Last updated 1 October 2026.

Questions and answers

What rate does Harbor Mutual quote for a top-tier 60-month new auto loan?
5.49% APR, from the current consumer loan rate sheet effective this quarter. The withdrawn prior sheet's 6.24% APR is superseded and never quoted. All figures are fictional demo data, not an offer.
Has the call guide changed this quarter?
No. The steps are the same: name the question, confirm term and documented tier, quote the current sheet with its version, separate confirmed from conditional, record the version. The project makes those steps faster and easier to record.
Why can't a representative see the withdrawn sheet?
The audit copy is restricted to the Compliance review clearance tier, held by the Member Services Lead and the compliance officer who review disputes. Representatives work from the current sheet only.
What happens if a member says they were quoted 6.24%?
It is treated as a disputed disclosure. The sheet actually quoted is preserved alongside the current one and sent to Compliance under Harbor Disclosure Rule D-4. The member is told the case owner and next review date.

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