Making Applications Processes Customer Friendly - Part 3

Most customers find applying for credit difficult and confusing. Institutions are often accused of requesting too much information for a ‘simple answer’. Application forms are often full of ambiguous and unnecessary information. Customers also complain that after enduring the trials of applying that they often get declined without an adequate reason.

Asset based products have the worst reputation for confusing application processes. This series of tips will explain how you can make your asset based applications processes less onerous for you and your customers. The adoption of three key principles can lead to increased sales as well as lower process costs.

The previous tips discussed how separating the process into appropriate stages can improve the customer experience. This tip deals with the third principle.

Principle 3 – Effective use of technology and customer channels at each stage

With today’s technology options, applications processes can be enhanced at almost every stage. Effective planning can lead to improvements in client service, dramatic reductions in turn around time, reduced costs and reports that allow the process to be monitored and improved over time.

Various options include:

1. Workflow applications processing systems that allow front-end screens to dynamically present the options to customers during the process and these screens to be pushed out to a number of previously inaccessible channels.

    

2. Fax server technology that eliminates re-capturing and all the time, costs and errors associated therewith.

    

3. Scoring technology that allows for near instant accept/decline decisions and pricing or terms of business options.

    

4. Warehousing and reporting technology that leads to an enhanced ability to collect and use MIS to continuously improve the applications process. Tracking a sale from the point of origination right through to the point that it is loaded, is invaluable in setting targets and implementing incentive schemes to improve sales and customer service. Channel conflict can be adequately analysed and performance at every step of the process can be improved.

Business lift is generated through consolidating the various applications processing systems into a single system. However, this is often a long term IT project which can delay the other associated business benefits. In practice it is possible to follow a phased approach which allows the business benefits of a centralised, consolidated process to be realised relatively quickly, while still moving ultimately towards a single application processing system approach.

Many client friendly practices can be made possible once an applications process is on a sound technological platform.

This series of tips dealt with improving the customer experience in applications processing. A reputation for good customer service in this area along with sound application principles allows an organisation to improve the quality of the book overall. This reduces the overall load in the collections and recoveries areas and allows for more focused attention and therefore improved results.

Paul Shortridge is a Senior Consultant at PIC Solutions, the largest customer management solutions company based in the Southern Hemisphere. He has over 5 years experience in the financial services industry. Previously with Nedcor as manager – innovation in retail credit, he headed up a team that successfully rolled out projects to reduce risk, increase revenue and reduce costs across all credit and transactional products. In this role, he implemented initiatives that increased revenue by R100 million and introduced their 8-second home loan pre-approval process. As lead consultant at London Bridge Group, Paul was responsible for the business lead in large scale project implementations as well as assisting the sales team with expanding their market in South Africa. He holds a BSc and MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town.