If you think that low rates and location are the sole deciding factors that a borrower considers while choosing a lender, you might want to think twice. Borrowing experience plays a huge role in the acceptance of lenders. In a tech driven world, tech-savvy consumers prefer to complete the loan application process within the comfort of their handheld devices at home or on the go. A multichannel experience entails integrating different communication channels to provide a seamless borrowing experience.
According to the quarterly consumer research conducted by Fiserv, a leading financial services technology provider, 67% of consumers with an existing home loan prefer to complete the loan application through a laptop or a desktop and 29% of them prefer a mobile device.
While creating a multichannel borrower experience during all the mortgage processing stages can provide immense opportunities to improve borrower experience, the execution of the same can be a bit tricky for lenders. When a borrower chooses to walk into a bank starting right from the loan origination process, it is highly unlikely that they will walk out midway. However, when the same borrower shifts from one digital channel to another during mortgage processing, the lack of a seamless switching experience will lead the borrower abandon the transaction midway.
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Lenders who exhibit an end-to-end digital maturity in their process execution have more chances of enabling a favorable borrowers’ experience. A digitally superior multi-channel model should be backed up by a customer-centric approach to make the model more adaptive to evolving borrower expectations. Such change in expectations range from the way and time they want to be engaged during the mortgage processing stages to multichannel preferences.
In light of this, here’s looking at the ways by which lenders can improve their multichannel borrower experience:
Ways to Improve Multichannel Borrower Experience for Mortgage Processing
Adopting an Omnichannel approach– As pointed out earlier, the lack of a seamless switching experience between multiple channels ruins the entire borrower experience during mortgage processing. There are chances that these channels do not work in a cadence, thereby creating a siloed borrower experience.
A survey by Accenture’s North America Consumer Digital Banking found that 73% of consumers agree that there is a lack of uniformity in their loan application experience at a bank, on online platforms, and mobile channels.
Borrowers’ need for consistency can be addressed by adopting an omnichannel approach in the multiple mode approach which essentially means establishing a unifying function of physical, digital, and online channels. This can be achieved by leveraging a robust digital lending platform that can unify the three key convergence points of the lenders and borrowers which are branch meetings, calls over the phone, and in-app loan applications. For instance, a person clicks on a link to apply for low-rate refinance mortgage loan offered by his known lender using a desktop at home but could not complete the application because of some urgent errands.
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The person then stops by the lender’s branch to talk about the application. The information which he entered earlier was saved on a temporary basis and could be quickly retrieved without the person having to enter the data again. The person asks for some more time before finalizing the application. Upon request the person receives an email with the loan application link from the loan officer the next day which the person opens using his smartphone to complete the application remotely. This instance draws a complete picture of how a unified multichannel borrower experience looks like during the stage mortgage processing stages.
Technology adoption should hinge on customer preferences and lenders should make a fair assessment of how this will impact their existing customer segments.
Did you know that younger demography is reported to use about 6 to 9 different communication channels and the ability to get information from their preferred communication channel is directly corelated to their satisfaction?
In the coming days, it is widely believed, that the millennials will bring all the profits for the mortgage industry. Therefore, it is important for lenders to gain data insights into their location, preferences, and their nature of interaction in each channel. This would help them create a customer-centric multichannel approach for mortgage processing.
Constant evaluation of the legacy technological platforms – It is a must for lenders to keep a track of existing technological platform to understand the level of overhauling it needs. This is essential to improve the multichannel borrower experience in mortgage processing. They should identify the outdated areas that can be fused with the integrally used service-based platforms such as the loan origination system (LOS). In this case, it should be ensured that the LOS is flexible and becomes a part in driving the multichannel approach.
In contrary with the legacy systems, workflow-enabled LOSs has the ability to support customer choices, dynamisms in regulatory frameworks, and event-driven communications. However, it is critical that lenders factor in the impact of the addition of new technologies to the legacy platform and ensure that the addition restores consistency in the back and front office operations.
Parting Note
With more millennials occupying the customer base in the mortgage industry, it will be even more critical for lenders to adopt more digital technologies to drive multichannel communication. This is a tried and tested way of improving lender and borrower relationship at each stage of mortgage processing. As more and more borrowers are inclining towards more than five communication channels during the loan origination process itself, lenders must rehaul their communication channels which are responsive to each borrower’s unique needs.
Who Are We and Why Should You Consider Our Expertise?
Expert Mortgage Assistance is a trusted third-party mortgage loan processing company. We have a team of professionals who leverage cutting-edge mortgage processing technologies to aid lenders and brokers in accelerating loan closure cycles, thereby gaining a much-needed edge in the highly competitive mortgage industry. Our well-defined and automated loan processing back office processes have helped lenders to minimize operational overheads, bring more accuracy, and expedite time to market.
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