Break the Rules: Reimagine Mortgage for Customer Expansion

The mortgage industry and financial services, in general, have been flooded with rules. Dating back to the advent of the Dodd-Frank Act and fast forward to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, managing operational processes within a framework of variable rules has become a fact of life…. But do we do it well? And, even if we do it well, we may be overlooking a real opportunity, the chance to use technology for end-to-end visibility of processes, customer preferences, and your organization’s product offerings. 

It’s time to refocus priorities on customers versus a heavy rules concentration. Why not incorporate Know Your Customer (KYC) guidance at the forefront of your outreach to mortgage customers? Their needs are changing as more homeowners stay in place. They also have equity, and taking a consolidated view of your customer as a whole opens the floodgates of potential. 

Doing the same thing, the same way, but in separate silos?

For the most part, we conduct business the same way we always have, whether we’re originating a mortgage, servicing a loan, processing a home equity loan or home equity line of credit (HELOC), or any other customer process. The rules may change from one silo to the next; however, the corresponding functions remain similar.

Analyzing existing processes with a fresh set of eyes is key to new process automation. If your organization has replicated operational processes in multiple business silos, then your offering can become misaligned and cemented into your overall systemic platform, applications, and architecture. Rules and decision-making capabilities are then added based on where they will be used instead of how they’re utilized, which can yield significant redundancy throughout your organization. This adds cost, customer dissatisfaction, and risk by duplicating tasks, functions, resources, and errors. You can try a different approach! 

Better results. Better visibility. Better profitability.

If we’re going to truly create a modern approach to process automation, then it’s time to look at your customer-centric processes from a broader perspective. Identify and evaluate similar processes across your organization. For example, does your decision tree begin with, are you looking for a mortgage? Shouldn’t it begin with, are you looking to financially leverage homeownership? The next steps are virtually identical. The differences lie in the extent of data required, the applicable rules, and the approach.

As interest rates and housing inventory continue to rock the mortgage industry, it’s an opportune time to expand and consolidate similar process capabilities, such as home equity products, under your consumer and mortgage umbrella. Reimagine and expand the services that you offer to today’s customer by creating access to the full spectrum of related financial products at the point of engagement – start doing business differently.

Using Mortgage as a Springboard

It’s an old saying, but with modern workflow automation, there’s no need to remain locked into old business silos. When you reassimilate your approach to business rules and processes, then your organization can break free from traditional structures and readily migrate to a customer-centric, reusable workflow strategy. This strategy marries similar processes in support of better service versus practices designed to facilitate manual methods of delivery. It is time to meet all of your customers’ needs from one centralized point of access. For example, homeownership can touch each of the following customer-oriented areas and more, whereas today, these programs could send your customers to multiple disparate areas within your organization with no one looking at the customer as a whole: 

1. Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC)
2. Home equity/second mortgage
3. Piggy-back second mortgage (either of the above)
4. Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM/Reverse mortgage)
5. First mortgage
6. Refinance mortgage
7. Loan modification

Change the Paradigm

Start with a sophisticated user portal linked to your corporate website that is flexible enough to guide your customers and deliver immediate responses to their needs. The possibilities are endless and only start with the above, as well as only beginning at the point of application. CLARIFIRE® makes it possible for your customers to retrieve meaningful data and results 24/7, in real-time, throughout any loan or consumer product lifecycle. Your customers can access a consolidated view of all of their products and options at one time, make payments, view events, obtain answers to questions, apply for additional loans, and so much more.

Organizationally, oversight, event tracking, updating, and more will all be pushed to a new level because intelligent decisioning is not simply about eligibility determination. This sophistication supports capabilities that can identify what your customers need and when they need it. CLARIFIRE® provides self-serve options to address your customer requests and track all corresponding activities and communications, as well as identify and escalate exceptions. But this is only the beginning.

Reimagine your business with CLARIFIRE®. Contact us today to find out how you can unburden your organization from process redundancies and drive your business into the New Year with a modern approach to process automation and customer interaction. Find us at eClarifire.com or directly at 866.222.3370. CLARIFIRE®, truly BRIGHTER AUTOMATION®.

 

Jane Mason | @janemasonceo

Jane has applied her vast experience (over 25 years) operating process-driven businesses to successfully redefine client-focused service. Jane has worked with expert programmers to apply cutting-edge web-based technology to automate complex processes in industries such as Financial Services, Healthcare and enterprise workflow. Her vision confirms Clarifire's trajectory as a successful, scaling, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider. A University of South Florida graduate, Jane has received many awards related to her entrepreneurial skills.

 

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