The following post is part of a series of blogs written by MeridianLink Partners who will be attending the MeridianLink LIVE! User Forum in May 2022. To learn more about the event, click here.
By: Eltropy
Phone calls and emails are becoming secondary communication channels for the majority of the people. In our personal life, we see phone calls without a text first as impolite and email inbox has become the junkyard for spam emails. However, text messages are opened at a rate of 98% as compared to just 20% for emails. In addition to that, 95% of text messages are read and responded to within 3 minutes, opening a wealth of opportunities for lenders to reach the members during the lending process. The success of texting in lending has been well documented here.
While text is great for rapid communication in quick succession with customers, text is unencrypted and therefore not suitable for sensitive document exchange. Instead of resorting to email, fax, or mail for document collection and sending documents for signature, loan officers can use secure chat - for document exchange and collecting eSignature, dramatically reducing the loan processing time. A link to secure chat right in text conversation allows loan officers to seamlessly collect documents in real time.
Before documents collection comes the hard part: selling your loan products to the customers. Customers going through these preliminary processes for the first time need empathetic interactions with officers to feel comfortable with loan terms. As an alternative to scheduling face-to-face meetings, an Omni-Channel Digital Communication channel like video calling gives loan officers the ability to meet via sending a link to an ad-hoc video meeting or schedule a video meeting at a later time. Unlike Zoom meetings, customers don't need to download anything or learn complex UI. These calls are designed to work in the customer's browser without any downloads, leading to quicker and easier access on both ends; resulting in deepened service and resolving a range of roadblocks.
In addition to video and secure chat, a good Omni-Channel Digital Communication solution should also provide the loan officers Co-Browsing. Co-Browsing allows officers to view the borrower's browser window in a secure and compliant way and guide the borrower without taking control of the desktop.
While text as a method of communication is key in selling and funding loan processes, a text solution that is part of Omni-Channel platform provides a higher level of effectiveness & productivity as compared to a text-only solution. If you are looking for a text solution for your loan officers and other users in your Financial Institution, make sure to future proof your investment by selecting an Omni-Channel Digital Communication Platform.
Eltropy is integrated in MeridianLink to help you accelerate your landing process. To learn more about the Eltropy and MeridianLink integration, click here.