A re-occurring challenge we hear from our clients is that transformation agendas – and the underlying technology required to achieve desired results – are solely focused on origination and servicing platforms. However, these systems only manage the product lifecycle, and very rarely focus on the end-to-end picture: optimally managing customer interactions. This is why aligning origination and CRM platforms creates stronger business value and a more delightful customer experience.
Understanding where people are in their customer journey has more of an impact than most people think. And, when data plays a big role in understanding that, CRM platforms can have just as big of an impact on a bank’s growth objectives as origination and servicing. If you know where a customer is in their journey, you can create the right experience at the right time to have a bigger impact on the main product being purchased, as well as serve ancillary needs such as home insurance.
This is where lenders have an opportunity to deliver an industry-leading customer experience.
CRM and origination often aren’t aligned
Typically, a lender’s CRM system tends to be owned by central marketing teams, with origination managed by product teams. Often these teams have competing change agendas and digital transformation strategies, which creates a lack of alignment between customer data and origination, especially when it comes to technology.
Loan origination technology helps lenders manage every stage of the loan process more effectively, from underwriting through to closing. CRM helps nurture leads, coordinate teams and customer communication to strategically grow the business.
However, when used in isolation, it further exacerbates any legacy technology issues by just adding another disparate system to the mix that doesn’t properly leverage and sync all existing customer data.
Why does this matter now?
The three key elements to a successful marketing campaign are data, timing, and proposition. If you present the right proposition at the wrong time, then you will achieve a worse outcome than the wrong proposition at the right time. For example – if it takes a month for data from origination to flow into a CRM platform, then it may be too late to initiate an email marketing campaign to a first-time buyer about a home insurance product, as they will have already completed on the purchase of their home.
In a competitive market, one way for lenders to truly differentiate and become a market leader is to align these two areas as an effective marketing and sales tool.
Lenders that do this will have greater opportunities for growth
Those that consider their CRM and origination strategies in unison, will have greater control over the customer lifecycle to leverage opportunities to drive sales, grow the value of customer relationships, and be market-leading in their ability to:
- Create a unified 360-degree view of each customer across their end-to-end relationship
- Run targeted marketing campaigns across all channels and media, surfacing the right offer at the right time for your customer based on their preferences or stage of the process
- Achieve a streamlined and connected experience with all personas involved
- Enhance operational efficiency throughout
- Drive customer and broker satisfaction and loyalty
Using data more effectively also allows for a more personalised service – helping to improve engagement (and drive sales) with existing customers and provide a tailored service across their entire home-buying journey, not just at the time of first application. Solving this challenge is key to being able to unlock pre-approved mortgages and personalised pricing, as you need to be confident a customer can receive a mortgage before you market to them.
On top of that, when CRM and origination platforms share the same technological foundations or are flexible and easily integrated to, it will make it materially easier to achieve your vision faster and with reduced risk compared to those who pursue disparate transformation strategies.
In summary
As with any transformation endeavour, execution is key. This is made simpler when technology synergies are understood and embraced at the outset.
Lenders with aligned CRM and origination transformation strategies will have greater end-to-end control of the customer lifecycle vs their peers. If the technology strategy for both marketing and product functions can effectively manage data in a timely manner, then an opportunity to better service customer needs will be available.
How nCino can help
Your customers have come to expect a more streamlined and personalised service. A platform like nCino ensures you can automate the loan process with minimal rekeying and faster processing, as well as provide the technology to ensure a smooth flow of data between CRM, origination, and core banking processes.
More importantly, we partner with our clients to ensure we integrate seamlessly into 3rd party systems. This eliminates operational hiccups that can cause poor customer experiences and ensures a “single source of truth” between lead nurturing and CRM tools to maximise the value of customer relationships and optimise profitability. And, with a flexible and configurable platform, we can help achieve a lenders’ vision both now, and into the future.
Learn more about the nCino platform solution and how we are transforming financial institutions through innovation, reputation, and speed.
Thomas Chaplin serves as a Head of Mortgage Product at nCino, EMEA. Thomas works with financial institutions across the EMEA region to understand their lending processes to help them accelerate their digital transformation projects. Prior to joining nCino, Thomas worked in various Product Management roles at Lloyds Banking Group and Accenture as a Management Consultant. He has over 19 years of experience in financial services and is a passionate advocate for digital transformation. Thomas holds a holds BA in Business Management from the Open University, London
