Mortgage lenders are diving head first into automation technologies to streamline the loan origination process and gain sustainable competitive advantages.
Benefiting both lenders and borrowers, digital mortgage platforms—specifically mortgage point-of-sale (POS) solutions—help improve workflow efficiencies, mitigate security and compliance risks, reduce costs, improve abilities to increase loan volume, thereby enriching the borrower experience through fast, easy, and transparent transactions.
However, due to a lack of communication, technology, resources, gaps in systems and processes, and—sometimes—an unwillingness to accept change, there are some critical considerations for developing strategies to be able to successfully implement and adopt mortgage POS platforms.
What does it take to successfully adopt your new mortgage POS technology? Here are six tips.
1. Define Your Digital Mortgage Strategy
What is your digital strategy? Define the need and purpose for implementing a digital mortgage POS platform. Map out the necessary steps for achieving your mortgage technology goals.
According to Jim Deitch, CEO of Teraverde and an author of two best selling books on lending transformation, “Digital Mortgage Strategy has to be led from the top. A successful strategy examines and questions the existing business process. It’s particularly important in the POS/LOS space, since customer experience and lender employee experience have to work hand-in-glove. Simply adding additional technology to an existing business process usually results in suboptimal performance. Thinking through the integrated customer and employee experience is crucial. And resistance can be expected. That’s why executive sponsorship and commitment is so essential.”
Additionally, you’ll want to have the proper teams in place. To successfully migrate to a digital platform, appointing or hiring qualified department leads to manage implementation and ensure adoption is essential, as your POS provider will work closely with each division. This is a very involved process and all teams will need to work together.
“A successful implementation of a digital platform not only requires adequate preparation and resource allocation, but also superior guidance from partners, and a change in management’s allocation of [the company’s] existing resources and workflow design,” said BeSmartee’s Operations Manager, Rick Johnston.
2. Create Organizational Buy-in for Change
Developing organization alignment will help your team realize and support your vision. These people will become your champions and encourage a faster adoption across the organization.
BeSmartee works closely with lender clients to develop their digital mortgage adoption strategy. In some cases, this has involved gaining the buy-in and cooperation of key decision makers. We take a phased approach to implementation in which we roll out one major feature at a time. This way, your LO’s are able to fully acclimate to your new environment. In one instance, we suggested the client implement our first-level product tier, BeSimple. This helped build confidence with leadership and, ultimately, led them to add features little by little, along the way.
Another client tested the BeSmartee® Mortgage POS with one branch to determine whether or not the platform was a good fit with their current processes. Our implementation experts provide real-time guidance and support to ensure lenders can perform all necessary tasks at any given time. The lender worked with our implementation team to add and remove features and functions until they were confident and ready to deploy the full power of the mortgage POS to the rest of the branches. This a time-tested process proven to be extremely successful.
3. Determine How a Mortgage POS will Change Your Business
How will a digital mortgage POS fit into your process and how will this change your business? Assess existing policies, procedures and organizational structure. Ask yourself: Where are you right now and where do you want to be post-implementation?
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“Sometimes, because the mortgage POS user experience is so simple and seamless, people don’t realize that it can really change the entire process—the overall loan origination process and how it positively impacts the borrower experience. This is where, internally, business and technology must merge,” said Veronica Nguyen, Co-founder and EVP of BeSmartee.
Lloyd Booth, COO and CTO at BlackFin Group supports this notion, saying, “The most important thing any IT department can do to foster innovation is to develop a true partnership with the business. Innovation rarely comes from a technologist dreaming up a new product or solution in a back office. It comes from listening to the business and understanding the influencers that the business believes will make an impact.”
4. Educate Your Team
Train everyone on your team on how to use the product. Not only should teams be educated on the product, there should also be strong communication, where everyone knows what’s going on at all times. If your originators don’t understand how to use the product, they will likely be resistant and not want to use it.
“Another roadblock could be insufficient employee training and lack of an efficient roll-out plan,” said Mohammad Yousaf, Vice President of Business Development and Technology Partnerships at National Mortgage Insurance Corporation (National MI).
Post-implementation, you’ll want to ensure your team is utilizing and leveraging the full potential of your mortgage POS solution. Consider setting up technical demonstrations and ongoing learning programs for your teams that interact with the new platform. This will help avoid challenges that come with gaps in systems and processes, and streamline your technology roadmap.
5. Manage Mortgage POS Adoption Results
Set clear deadlines for adoption and track results, specifically, the adoption key performance indicators (KPIs). This will allow the lender and mortgage POS provider to immediately address any concerns. Consider a monthly check-in meeting. Remember, the main goal is to always see a higher return-on-investment (ROI)!
6. Be Transparent
Trust is a “high-value currency.” Share your ultimate goals and adoption results with the entire organization. Seeing the positive changes to your business will encourage your team to want to contribute to the increase in ROI.
Consultant Elif Suner, MBA, M.Ed, PCC, told Forbes, “Change is about adaptation and resilience! It’s about how we cope with the inner resistances. When we feel safe, it’s easy for us to deal with it. If the leaders are good at boosting positive emotions, then employees will feel safe and be more equipped for change. The focus of the leader should be how the followers can feel safe and positive, which will bring an emotionally agile climate.”
Has your business experienced a successful mortgage POS adoption? What advice would you share with lenders?
Seamlessly transition into the digital mortgage space. Book a demo with BeSmartee here.
