The Amazing Customer Experiences You (and Your Customers) Have Been Dreaming About are Closer Than Ever.

Lending Tips

At Fundingo, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in customer expectations during the pandemic. Even in a post-COVID/COVID safe world, people will still want to continue the digital conveniences that helped us all get through this difficult time. Increasingly, there is a demand for digitization of lending services and a shift to integrated Loan Management Systems. On top of this, the end of cookies and increased privacy concerns have made first-party data critical for marketing efforts. All of which has forced many companies to rethink their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy. Our clients are looking to secure technologies to manage rapid growth successfully and streamline the operations, and we vigorously pursue options for unifying data and empowering teams to put the customer first.

As Fundingo CEO Henry Abenaim points out, “Our clients might not know how to optimize their CRM, develop it, or what’s possible as far as integrations go.” The most remarkable thing about connecting business to digitization for Henry is unifying customer information. Whereas many alternative lenders could still be working on spreadsheets, we help them overcome this laborious process by providing them with the integrated platform on Salesforce. “There is such a wealth of information that operations can be hard. We expedite that process using an integration within Salesforce so qualification and onboarding are far more thorough.”

How Salesforce Customer 360 Solves Today’s Challenges
Using tools like Salesforce Customer 360, Fundingo creates an integrated loan management platform for relationships with customers via record views, dashboards, or reporting. The most important benefits to implementing the solution are “automation, integration, and customization,” Henry said.

Customer 360 also helps employees access the information they need to do their best work. This increases collaboration and alignment among everyone, which leads to more connected, personalized experiences for your customers and helps you build stronger relationships with them. It also results in more satisfied employees, who are freed up from repetitive tasks so they can focus on doing their best, and most rewarding, work.

“We at Fundingo are all about automation, especially since so many people are coming to us with antiquated ways of operating. We are also all about Salesforce integrations, as with LexisNexis or Docusign,” Henry said.

By keeping your team connected on a single, scalable platform, you’ll be able to make real improvements in every phase of your customer’s journey. Marketing becomes more personal with the ability to listen to customers and engage with them across multiple channels with customized messages. Following up on sales leads becomes faster and easier with tools that help you manage information, automate processes, and gain insights from real-time analytics. E-commerce becomes more effective as you unify data, personalize interactions, and grow revenue across every channel from customers.

Here are some of the most common ways a Customer 360 approach in the lending industry help our clients achieve their goals:

Customer 360 provides a one-stop customer-centric platform, allowing for collaboration and innovation at low cost. Especially with the current climate of the workforce, it’s more essential for everyone to be organized around each other and focused on the customer.

Customer 360 is ready to launch and scalable, allowing native apps (like ones developed by Fundingo) to run without using non-Salesforce computing resources. Everything is possible, even if you don’t have an admin or a developer.

Native Customer 360 apps also inherit the platform’s data security feature and compliance with data protection regulations and laws.

What this means for our clients (and you)
What’s most important for Fundingo, is demonstrating to our clients how successful companies in the alternative lending industry can be using Customer 360 to manage business operations. Few would argue about the importance of effective CRM in today’s marketplace. Some companies see it as a challenge, as they struggle to keep up with customer expectations. But those companies using Customer 360 are discovering new opportunities in CRM, forming stronger relationships with their customers than ever before, and fostering enduring loyalty.

Most exciting about Customer 360 and Salesforce Fundingo Henry emphasizes, is how “you have everything in one place, for everyone, in all functions, and with a high level of customization, with a large ecosystem of providers globally to provide continual support.”

Our clients love the fact that they can communicate, market, take payments, and then schedule their consultations all in one platform—which greatly enhances productivity. If you’d like to do the same for your business, Fundingo can help get you there.

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How Lenders Can Mitigate Fraud in Challenging Times

Lending Tips

Post-COVID Communications for Financial Services

Lending Tips

Curious how to navigate communications in a post-Covid landscape?

“As nations struggle to balance a safe return to economic productivity, the livelihoods of millions will be affected – but the financial sector can help to ease people’s anxieties.”

With that being the case, communication is all the more important to not only keep business running, but to also ease worries and make life feel better for everyone. So here are a some great tips from Finance Monthly

How did the pandemic change the future of lending?

Lending Tips

Under normal circumstances, businesses facing financial hardship have a number of options to help weather the storm. The financial stresses of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, are far from normal. So, what does this mean both for lenders and borrowers?

Disruptions affecting supply chains and cash-positions eliminate the option to simply return to normal even if social distancing is no longer necessary. Also, short-term priorities are eclipsing long-term financial goals. This means that money will likely go to covering loss of income and changes spurred by the pandemic.

So, how can we adapt lending to the short and medium term changes coming our way? The European Investment Bank explains this and more in their blog.

Borrowers Still Hold Misconceptions About Alternative Lenders

Lending Tips

The economic crisis is causing more and more businesses to seek additional funding. Many individuals who are beginning their search still have long-held misconceptions about what makes them a good candidate for a loan. So, what do some of those misconceptions look like?

While traditional bank loans may have strict requirements for applicants, many business owners still believe that their credit score must be perfect to get funding. They may be unaware of other factors affecting their eligibility and terms, like having a solid business plan or showing their ability to pay. Alternative lenders also have their own requirements which may allow more flexibility for applicants. Considering the effects that COVID had on businesses, this is good news to many business owners struggling to keep afloat.

Some business owners who are now looking for funding may be under the misconception that online lenders are not trustworthy. While the former lack of regulation let some lenders set questionable terms, fintech has since matured. Applying for loans online lets borrowers compare terms and apply for multiple types of funding at once.That said, borrowers should still do their homework before agreeing to any lender’s terms.

Is your business doing enough to educate borrowers on alternative funding? And how can you predict how the market for your services will look? There are a few indicators that you can still rely on.

How Can You Help Your Clients Be Better Borrowers?

Lending Tips

To most borrowers, getting a mortgage sounds simple enough. So why do so many of them drop off between approval and closing? As it turns out, lenders often forget how mysterious the process may appear to new borrowers. A change in income or debt can disqualify unsuspecting borrowers seemingly out of the blue if they’re unaware of how mortgage lending works. Not surprisingly, this hurts everyone involved, including lenders. So what can you do to help your clients be better borrowers?

First, education is key. Especially for first-time home buyers, the process of purchasing a house may appear unclear or even overly simple. To avoid deals falling through, make sure that your clients understand that any changes in debt or income can affect their ability to take out a mortgage. Borrowers should have a clear understanding of what circumstances can affect their ability to purchase a home in order to be confident in their ability to pay.

Additionally, those applying for a mortgage should understand that the down payment and monthly costs are not the only things that they will have to pay. While lenders must make as accurate estimates as possible when creating their estimates, borrowers may forget to factor in costs like the various tests and inspections that take place before closing on their home. Additional costs negotiated with the previous owner might come up as well, so borrowers should be prepared to have extra money put away to cover the costs.

Thankfully, for lenders looking to better educate their borrowers about mortgage loans, there are plenty of resources available online and for printing. Just by providing the proper resources, you can help your clients become happy, confident first-time homeowners. Considering that your ability to meet your customer’s needs determines your business’s success, your clients’ best interests should never be overlooked.