Implementing a new technology solution can make or break an organization. Mortgage loan officers (MLOs) are often hesitant to relinquish control over their sales and marketing activities – regardless of how manual their current process is. So, it’s understandable that there will be some resistance along the way.
At the same time, technology giants, such as Amazon, Google and Apple, have put the pressure on other companies to match their approach and deliver highly personalized and streamlined customer experiences, utilizing a combination of high tech and high touch.
To keep up with these high standards and stand out from the pack, financial services organizations must not only invest in best-in-class technology that will elevate their loan officers and accelerate their marketing and sales efforts – but also actually convince loan officers to use this technology.
So, how can today’s leading lenders effectively roll out and drive adoption of a new technology solution to deliver an unforgettable customer experience?
Here are key strategies and best practices learned from our own customers that will help you position your loan officers for success using the Total Expert Marketing Operating System (MOS), increasing adoption and transforming your marketing organization into a revenue driver.
Make It a Must-Have, Not a Nice-to-Have
Most people can’t go a day without their favorite technology, whether it be a mobile device, laptop or other handheld device. Why? They make their lives easier, save them time and require little effort to get the output they desire.
The same can be said for your loan officers’ go-to marketing and sales solution. The Total Expert MOS is the backbone powering their customer, prospect and partner relationships. Loan officers can adopt the “set-it-and-forget-it” mentality knowing intelligent automation is working in the background to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time – and grow their pipeline.
What’s more? They can leverage pre-built, yet fully customizable content and campaigns – built specifically for financial services organizations – to implement a single, cohesive strategy across multiple channels.
And best yet – opportunities to connect on a personal or “high touch” level with leads, customers or partners will be teed up and delivered to the MLO for the right action, at the right time.
When you present your loan officers with a powerful solution that will give them time back in their day while simultaneously nurturing their contacts based on their unique needs in a personalized manner, it’s going to be hard to live without it.
SUCCESS STORY: One Total Expert customer turned on an anniversary email campaign on behalf of their loan officers. The very next week, one of their loan officers was contacted by a past customer and earned another mortgage from them – a $1.3M transaction! Additional Total Expert customers have since followed suit and are seeing strong results – growing revenue and also boosting adoption of Total Expert.
Let the Results Speak for Themselves
The numbers don’t lie. Loan officers using “set-it-and-forget-it” auto-campaigns project seeing a 10-15 percent lift in open rate. Furthermore, personalized emails deliver six times higher transactional rates compared to non-personalized emails. And this is where the Total Expert MOS excels – delivering personalized content to create customers for life.
With 80 percent of companies expected to compete primarily based on customer experience this year, you don’t want to put these numbers to chance.
Leading with an “all-in-all-on” approach is a best practice that’s shown to deliver. More and more, we see our customers successfully leading with this this method, ensuring that their loan officers gain the benefits of proven best practices and intelligent automation, rather than an “opt-in” that might leave their adoption and engagement to chance. You can always decide if you want to allow your loan officers to opt out – some of our customers allow this, some do not – but it gives you a method by which to help manage and support their success. The faster you can ramp up your team to deploy these personalized communications by leading from the top, the faster you will achieve optimal results.
However, not only is it important to analyze the results, it’s critical to celebrate the wins. Several customers recognize MLOs who are getting the most out of the Total Expert MOS with awards – driving home the message that the MLOs who are leveraging the platform are the ones driving high production volume. Providing that extra push motivates loan officers to not only use the system – but trust it.
SUCCESS STORY: A Total Expert customer who utilized this approach encountered frustration from an MLO who had “not approved and rewritten” the email that was sent to his database. However, the MLO called back the next day to apologize, stating he had received five purchase leads from the one email being sent out!
Start Small, Think Big
In order for any implementation to run smoothly, there must be champions within the organization focusing on the success of this new software solution.
Before you take the leap of faith to get an entire team on the system, start with a pilot group of five to ten MLOs. Make them the “champions” within the organization by providing them with specific use cases to help standardize processes. Then, when the rest of the team signs onto the system, they know who they can to turn to internally for questions so they can quickly reap the benefits of the latest solution.
Each loan officer will leverage the Total Expert MOS differently. Break down the key features first so your LOs feel comfortable with the core functionality. One idea would be to work in groups of five features, for example: data, auto-campaigns, social media, co-marketing and lead capture apps. Empower your LOs to master these five areas, so they can move forward with confidence and start using additional features at their own pace.
SUCCESS STORY: One Total Expert customer onboards and trains new LOs on how to use five critical, but bite-size features of Total Expert. They ask each LO to pick just one feature and incorporate it into their business immediately. As a result, LOs “get hooked” on that feature and see immediate results. Through ongoing training sessions, they ask them to again, choose one feature and incorporate it into their business. This grows their use of the Total Expert platform over time and excites them with quick wins, so they’ll continue to see value in the platform.
Conclusion: Level Up and Win
There will never be a shortage of industry disruptors, and organizations must continue to ensure they have best-in-class technology in place to set their loan officers up for success.
When the time comes to introduce a new solution to your team of MLOs to keep up with industry leaders, the process can be smoother than you may think. Total Expert is here to be your innovation partner, to evolve with you as the needs of consumers and your loan officers change and give you a competitive edge to outlast your competitors now – and in the future.
