Perfect Harmony
HOW LENDERS CAN CREATE A BETTER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE BY COMBINING MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGIES
T
oday, mortgage lenders can leverage copious amounts of data on consumers to create a personalized customer experience. However, does more data mean more problems? With numerous ‘moment-in-time’ signals available, lenders often struggle to effectively leverage the multiple sources of data to contact consumers at the right time. Mortgage Banker Magazine recently spoke with Mike Eshelman, CMB, head of Consumer Finance for Jornaya, about the recent data revolution and how lenders can effectively rein it all in to enhance the experience for their customers.
and helps form the big picture: 90 percent of the world’s data has been created in the last two years. It’s one of those stats where, upon hearing it, you start to realize that we’re truly having a technology revolution. Specific to the mortgage industry, the digital mortgage discussion has been going on since 2012. Today, we’re seeing companies like Total Expert and Blend with a laser focus on digital mortgage technologies. Data is the fuel that powers a lot of these personalized customer experiences that everyone’s chasing. So, when you start to realize how new it is to have so much data available at your fingertips, it makes sense
data points that have been around for quite some time and are outdated when it comes to marketing outreach. Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) companies are making it easy for lenders to tap into new data sets; yet, not all data is created equally. Leveraging behavioral data sets widens the view of the consumer, helping lenders deliver better customer experiences and increase their marketing performance. Multiple technologies can cloud that picture. It’s important to find a true partner in your DaaS provider. One works with you on your outreach strategies, and one who uses data and intelligence to connect to known consumer wants, desires, and needs based on actual consumer behavior. We know this formula drives better engagement and higher acquisition, growth, and retention. It’s just more relevant as we look at the digital evolution.
MORTGAGE BANKER: How has leveraging data evolved in the last few years?
MIKE ESHELMAN: Initially, a client
would monitor a consumer list, someone who they care about, and we would just signal yes or no. Did we witness them in-market for a mortgage? We took it to the next level as we understood the data of which we had access. We built algorithms to understand how consumers were interacting with comparison shopping sites.
Mortgage Banker: Why is aggregating data from multiple technologies been a challenge for mortgage lenders?
MIKE ESHELMAN: There is a stat
from a few years ago that blows my mind
20 MORTGAGE BANKER | JUNE 2021
that the challenge for marketers is trying to piece those different data sets together to create a seamless customer experience. We’re not talking credit triggers, mortgage leads, or MLS listing alerts. Those are static
We were able to identify if they were inmarket, and what they were in market for. For example, we could identify a refinance versus home purchase journey, which enabled marketers to send the right type of engagement, which could be, “Hey, if you’re in-market for a mortgage, we’d like to help you.” Or more focused messages like, “Thinking about a refinance? We can CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
