Published on 6/8/2023
IBV software is a start, but do you have the support required to scale?
For lenders, one of the most critical resources to secure is your IAV or Instant Account Verification provider. You need to have access to up-to-the-minute transaction history to make lightning-fast underwriting decisions. Whether you are in Auto lending, Consumer lending, the MCA space or anything in between, it’s all about the digital bank statement to access key data points.
In a perfect lending world…
… your fraud-free borrower has every required detail on hand to step through your application process, which has been analyzed and optimized for the best user experience possible, of course. From your finely tuned integrated system, you get every data point you need for your fully automated process to verify the bank account and verify the borrower’s identity, all while fulfilling your KYC requirements. Your underwriting process is almost nonexistent, and your highly trained tenured agents spend their days googling crafts that can be made with paper clips and surplus Post-its. If only it were this easy.
In lender reality..
… your borrower has had their identity stolen in the past and is skittish about entering personal information into any system. You don’t have the budget for a UX or design team, so your semi-automated application remains after over a decade. You have to use three vendors to cover underwriting and compliance requirements because you got dinged on your last Know-Your-Customer audit. Your underwriting team is backed up for days because your tech team doesn’t have time to figure out what needs to go where in your integration waterfall to filter out the applications by eligibility. And your agents are doing the best they can with no bandwidth for training and an overburdened call center. Whether it’s all of the above or a single friction point, it goes without saying that a little extra help would be appreciated.
This is where your Instant Account Verification service SHOULD be picking up the slack
If you choose your vendors wisely, you are not on your own to navigate the roller coaster ride of online lending. Start by consolidating vendors. This cuts down on invoices, contracts and onboarding fees, but also the required support. For example, DecisionLogic offers both IAV and IDV, so you can cover your underwriting and compliance needs in one place. And should you need extra help digging into an Identity Verification report or a digital bank statement, you’d be reaching out to the same world-class Support Team.
Make sure that the same verification service offers training!
What is the use of streamlining services if your team doesn’t know how to efficiently use the product? It will inevitably cost you more in wasted time or product onboarding in the long run. Not only should you be able to get continual platform training for your agents, but they (your agents) should also be able to get training on how to coach your customers. A process-proficient customer service team can help you save on costs, but a team who understands every step of the user journey, how to navigate it AND can guide a borrower in easy-to-understand verbiage is priceless. This is something we love to do for our customers. It creates happier, more confident customer support agents, which in turn creates happier, returning borrowers. (Everybody wins!)
Bonus points if they throw in borrower assistance
Even with the best user experience, and a highly trained call center team standing by to assist your borrowers, it’s nice to have back up in place to help lighten the load. Someone who can advocate for the process like you do, but without straining resources or budget. More and more savvy borrowers are actually seeking out lenders who work with specific providers because they know they can get the support they need. As one such provider, it goes without saying that DL is a big supporter of this trend.
Ongoing workflow maintenance is no longer a “nice-to-have”
Your selected IAV partner should be offering custom user journey reviews at least once a year. What worked last year may not cut the mustard this year. The industry changes constantly, and you have to be able to (at minimum) keep pace with what your competitors are up to. The more optimized the user journey, the more borrowers complete the process, the more loans you underwrite. Your UX can absolutely make or break your year.
The DL Support Team proactively watches for trends in our customers’ conversion rates and makes recommendations on an ongoing basis. We are also happy to set up a full workflow review at any time from general UX suggestions to A/B testing help. This is the standard you should expect, so don’t settle for less.
Don’t forget the tech team!
Frequently, lender tech teams are so far behind the scenes they get neglected in the support department. This is unfortunate considering if they have the assistance they need during the integration or updating process, they will be able to make those highly technical adjustments a lot faster. Obviously, you can’t be expected to understand both the in-depth business side and the granular technical side of every vendor’s offering, but that’s where you must get assistance from the platform itself.
Pro tip: Make sure you check for tech support fees. Most systems want to charge you for the software and charge you again to get it implemented. A good partner will not add fees to help you use their program. (That doesn’t even make sense!)
There’s more than one way to support
Or at least there should be. If your underwriters need everything in writing, support via email will be their go to. But your call center might need real time chat so they can talk to your borrower at the same time, hitting that “one call resolution” goal. And your tech team might need to be guided via screen share to get them over a roadblock that is holding up release. Make sure the support you get is through the channel you need, or you risk losing speed and gaining frustration. If you can accommodate your teams without hurting your bottom line, you have already had a great lending year before it even started.
Fun fact: DecisionLogic has live support via phone, email, and chat 5 days a week with no hold queues and no automated system to fight through. And we don’t charge for it, regardless of how much you need or how much you have spent with us. We are a true partner in your business and treat our customers as such. It’s the DecisionLogic difference.
