Month: December 2019
Marketing and sales solution equips loan officers with enterprise-grade technology to exceed consumer expectations
Assurance Financial, a full-service residential mortgage banker licensed in 25 states, has selected the Total Expert Marketing Operating SystemTM (MOS) as its marketing and sales solution. The rapidly growing lender based out of Louisiana will implement Total Expert’s platform to collect and manage consumer data while deploying multi-channel marketing based on intelligence-driven automation.
“The Total Expert MOS will fuel our loan officers to provide best-in-class service to our customers throughout the entire customer journey,” said Kenny Hodges, Chief Executive Officer at Assurance Financial. “Their unmatched content will empower our loan officers to deploy personalized marketing assets from lead to loan – and beyond – to build stronger customer and partner relationships. Consumers and Realtors expect a digital experience and leveraging the Total Expert MOS will enable our team at Assurance to provide that and more.”
The Total Expert MOS’s open API will empower Assurance Financial to offer a digital experience to their salespeople with best-of-breed integrations to multiple applications, including lead capture services, point of sale and loan origination applications – making Total Expert the hub of their marketing and sales efforts. Leveraging consumer data is key, and Assurance Financial will be better positioned to serve their customers by harnessing their data – and using it to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.
“We understand the pain points producers encounter on a daily basis and the challenges they face to stay front and center with their customers, prospects and partners in an increasingly more competitive market,” said Sue Woodard, Chief Customer Officer at Total Expert. “We are thrilled to partner with Assurance Financial and empower their team with the right tools to deliver exceptional customer service and cultivate customers for life.”
November 27, 2018
Going Digital: Assurance Financial Partners with Blend to Simplify the Borrowing Process
To meet rising consumer expectations, Assurance Financial is catapulting themselves into 2019 with new technologies that will make the borrowing process faster and easier for the consumer. Beginning in January, the Louisiana-based mortgage company will partner with Blend, a mortgage application software that digitizes the application process.
“This new technology puts us at the front of the mortgage industry. We can now compete with big name lending companies by offering a convenient way to apply while still focusing on the local level service we have always given our borrowers. We are going into the digital space with a high-tech but high touch approach,” said Kenny Hodges, Chief Executive Officer at Assurance Financial.
Utilizing Blend will allow Assurance Financial to expedite the loan process and create less leg-work for the consumer, because borrowers will be able to easily apply for a mortgage product from anywhere they have internet access – even their mobile devices. Currently, the average home loan takes over 30 days to secure, with Blend, there are fewer steps on both the borrower and the lender side, which leads to faster funding.
Assurance Financial is done with the old days of lending where borrowers spent hours at the loan officer’s office filling out paperwork, and every small change had to be faxed back and forth countless times. With Blend, Assurance Financial will lead the industry in user-friendly lending that is easy to use and understand.
Katherine Campbell, Director of Marketing at Assurance Financial | January 31, 2019
No matter what industry you’re in, nor how many ways you say something, it is only in documenting and publishing a process that you can standardize it. This is not always the fun work, but it can be the most powerful.
Especially in the mortgage industry, most loans have a very typical process of moving through a system. Lead – Application – Processing – Underwriting – Funded. What could be confusing about “the way we’ve always done it?” It’s probably no surprise, but the most confusing part is getting everyone to agree on this standard process. Somehow thousands of loans are started and closed, yet in a room full of long-term employees, many do not agree with any one way to process a loan. You know how this goes….
“Well, with most loans, I start like this, but with that loan officer, I usually do that, and sometimes I just go ahead and order the appraisal, but sometimes they prefer their own, and I usually check that box, but in some cases I think it’s confusing, but really, they’re pretty much all the same process.”
HUH? There’s actually nothing standard about it. Hence training and replacing absent employees can be a longer and more expensive process than needed. And, now enters the ultimate standardization opportunity – DigMo! So, how do we take several new pieces of technology, train everyone to a rote process on them, measure efficiency, and find ROI in this huge investment? In a word: STOP. In four words: Standard Technology Operating Procedure. At Assurance Financial, we designed a procedure to ask everyone to stop and think: What is the most efficient way to use our technology for communication, collaboration, and transformation?
As the digital mortgage opportunities continue to impress and ease the burden of loan processing, it is an exciting time! However, it is imperative to bring everyone in your company along at once – whether or not they are directly involved in the technology of the moment. How many employees you have are the number of potential champions in your market who can be buzzing with enthusiasm. Also, when everyone is included then the buy-in is much higher. Even if you have only adopted a digital application tool and no other tools, ultimately, every department is going to be tasked with new technology and procedures. Getting them involved early gives them plenty of time to mentally prepare for the change.
Here’s how we did just that. Starting two months before releasing our new marketing operating system and our digital application, we held three meetings that included at least one or two people from every department. We celebrated these new investments and explained the digital road ahead. Then, we dug in and got everyone to agree (eventually) on the best practice for getting a borrower from start to finish through our company with using the new tools. We had strict ground rules that noone was allowed to say, “that’s how we’ve always done it.” Everyone had to leave “my way” at the door and only invite “best practice” to join them in the meeting.
We started with clearly defining the customer journey from end to end. We put a title as headers for each part of the process and wrote clear steps to complete them. Then we eventually wrapped it up with a published edition with “Version 1” at the bottom. We explained there would be many more versions to come, and we would keep up with that number on our intranet. We then printed them on nice paper, ordered fun tchotchkes for promotion, and shipped it in a box to all of our locations. Stickers for computers so they don’t forget, signs for the office walls, and mousepads were included. (PM me if you’d like to see the one-page published process.) Creating some fun around the change and doing it in advance made adopting our new tools more palatable for the company. Two technologies down, FIVE more to go (at least), and the first STOP version published. Can’t wait to set my eyes on Version 12!
Katherine Campbell, Director of Marketing at Assurance Financial
Published on February 13, 2019
Hodges is the president and CEO of Assurance Financial, an independent, full-service residential mortgage banker. After working with Wells Fargo for seven years following college, he founded Assurance Financial in 2001 and has grown the company to 21 branch offices supported by two operations centers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Charlotte, North Carolina. The company has more than 200 employees and is currently originating mortgage loans in 28 states.
He is an active member of the Mortgage Bankers Association and the Louisiana Mortgage Lenders Association where he has served as board president. He is also a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and serves as the Louisiana Chapter learning officer.
Hodges received his bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship management in 1994 from Louisiana Tech University, where he served as Student Government Association president. Today, he lives in Baton Rouge with his wife Danna, a 1994 Louisiana Tech alumna, and their three children.
“Inside the C-Suite” provides a forum for top corporate leaders from some of the nation’s most prominent companies to share their views on topics of societal, academic, and professional importance. The series strives to stimulate insightful conversation on current issues by providing a platform for high-level executives to speak about cutting-edge issues, elaborate on trends, share wisdom, and provide important career inspiration and advice for students. Topics cover a variety of themes in core business subjects such as economic climate, ethics, corporate responsibility, leadership, globalization, strategic planning, entrepreneurship, technology, innovation, and diversity.
April 4, 2019 | Alumni, Business, Engagement
Clever branding brings Blend to life in the form of Abby, a 24/7 digital loan officer assistant helping Assurance Financial shave days off processing and expand into new markets, no physical expansion required.
At Assurance Financial Group, efficiency, growth, and customer satisfaction are inseparable. In a mortgage market that, according to COO Steve Ward, has “never been more competitive than it is right now,” success depends on careful stewardship of these three metrics.
“The way we acquire a customer and meet their needs through the loan process journey is top of mind,” CEO Kenny Hodges told Blend.
To address efficiency and customer needs, the Assurance Financial team decided to boldly leverage creativity by partnering with Blend. Taking advantage of Blend’s white-label platform, a 24/7 loan officer assistant named Abby was born.
Whether on Assurance Financial’s home turf of Louisiana or elsewhere across the country, each applicant has 24/7 access to an intelligent digital assistant, powered by Blend’s data-driven lending platform. To put it another way, Assurance Financial successfully achieved efficiency, growth, and customer satisfaction, backed by Blend. Thanks, Abby.
“The way we acquire a customer and meet their needs is top of mind.”
A Digital Lending Platform outshined simple POS alternatives
The decision to go with Blend came about after a thorough investigation of the lending POS market. Assurance Financial’s leadership investigated numerous digital solutions, hoping to find three integral features.
According to Ward, “we looked for a provider that a) was throwing the right amount of continuous R&D into the product, b) offered an easy experience for the customer, and c) was thoughtful about how to interact with our LOS.”
“The ability for the company we were working with to not only support us through implementation but also to continue growing the platform was very important,” Hodges added.
In the end, the product that checked all these boxes was not a simple POS. The clear winner for Assurance Financial’s team was Blend’s Digital Lending Platform.
Selection, however, is just the start. Winners in the competitive IMB market emerge from the pack through intelligent implementation and clever branding. No one knows — or does — this better than Assurance Financial.
“We looked for a company to not only support us through implementation but also to continue growing the platform.”
Implementing lending technology is just the start
“At some point, everyone is going to have this digital experience that is easy and fast. It’s expected. I decided we needed to personify what we were doing for long-term success,” says Katherine Campbell, Assurance Financial’s director of marketing and mastermind behind Abby.
Abby is a digital loan assistant. When applicants visit the Assurance Financial website, they are presented with the opportunity to either connect directly with a loan team member or begin the process with Abby.
“Working with” Abby allows applicants to proceed through Blend’s digital application, reaping the benefits of the platform’s intelligent workflow and user-friendly interface.
Hodges emphasized Blend’s flexibility in enabling such a unique implementation. “We went with a white-label product to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. We want to personalize the experience, especially in how we transition our clients to one of our home loan experts.”
Abby creates a personal-feeling way for applicants to take full advantage of the 24/7 functionality that Blend’s platform offers.
“What’s cool is that borrowers understand that she’s ‘support-at-your-service,’” Campbell shared. “Abby is there around the clock to offer a personal touch to your lending experience.”
If at any point customers require an in-person touch — to answer a question, say, or clarify an application requirement — Blend’s platform allows loan agents to jump in with no interruption to the overall experience.
Assurance Financial’s team was quick to point out that Abby is not a gimmick. The ability to “interact” with a digital avatar has reaped tremendous results for the company’s bottom line.
“Abby has converted so well,” Campbell proudly noted, because Blend fits into Assurance Financial’s borrower journey, moving leads from their CRM into the LOS.
Building a massive footprint, no physical expansion required
Armed with the flexibility provided by a digital loan assistant, Assurance Financial has substantially increased its reach. The team is finding leads and winning conversions through purely digital growth.
“We’re marketing in areas where we don’t have branches — we’re just a name,” emphasized Operations Manager Scott Alexander.
Hodges added that “the acquisition numbers have been fantastic so far. Even though we don’t have boots on the ground in every market across the country, Abby helps us capture market share.”
According to Alexander, this internal commitment has had a major payoff. “Our Blend files are going through the system three days faster on average. This could not be accomplished without training and buy-in across all sales and operations teams. We made it clear that this was a long-term commitment and priority, and we definitely had a couple of leaders who stepped up to help evolve the transition.”
What’s in store for Abby moving forward?
With Abby working hard to deliver tremendous results for the team, excitement is high. Because Blend’s product roadmap is on full display, everyone at Assurance Financial can see how Abby will continue to develop over the years. They understand that the customer experience is only going to get increasingly automated and more robust.
“Ideally we’d like a one-touch file throughout the whole of processing, disclosures, underwriting, and closing,” Alexander previewed. Based on the success she’s had so far, Abby is up to the task.
The leading mortgage loan finance company adopts Domo’s cloud-based platform to help demonstrate the benefits of digital transformation
SILICON SLOPES, Utah, Oct. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Domo announced today that Assurance Financial has chosen the Domo platform to help its efforts to boost marketing efforts and ultimately, originate more loans.
As an award-winning home loan expert and a top mortgage finance company licensed in 41 states, Assurance Financial offers a full range of online and in-person services. The company recently transformed its business offerings to increase digital options with customer service at the forefront, including a full-service digital assistant. However, the more solutions the company engaged, the more segregated the data became since it lived in different tools. Furthermore, these modern tools were not fully integrated with legacy systems. There needed to be a single source of record to gather data. After a careful search, Assurance Financial partnered with Domo to bring all of Assurance’s data into a single platform and give key stakeholders visibility into how its digital efforts impact the bottom line.
“We needed a clear story of the customer journey to best understand the gaps and opportunities to fill them,” said Katherine Campbell, director of Marketing at Assurance Financial. “By using Domo, we are able to gather intelligence from website analytics, our customer relationship tool, point of sale platform, and all the way through selling off to the secondary markets.”
Domo is providing Assurance Financial’s leadership with much-needed insights into the influence of new technology efforts on the company. Key benefits so far include an increase in sales, greater insight into the annual impact of seasonality and the ability to better personalize targeted messaging. The marketing team has further been able to demonstrate strong return on investment.
“In order to break out of the old-school mortgage industry mentality, Assurance Financial is bringing a new approach to the industry and digitally transforming the organization to have better insight into and understanding of the data,” said Pam Marion, chief customer success officer at Domo. “Domo’s cloud-based platform gives the team the confidence they need in their data to take actions that impact business results.”
To learn more about how Domo has helped democratize data for over 1,800 industry leading, innovative and disruptive organizations, visit Domo’s customer page.
About Domo
Domo’s mission is to be the operating system for business, digitally connecting all your people, your data and your systems, empowering them to collaborate better, make better decisions and be more efficient, right from their phones. Domo works with many of the world’s leading and most progressive brands across multiple industries including retail, media and entertainment, manufacturing, finance and more. For more information about Domo (DOMO), visit www.domo.com. You can also follow Domo on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
October 7, 2019