Lease and loan servicing volumes are up. The reasons?
- Questions about loan forbearance.
- Increase in requests for lease and loan modifications.
- Longer loan terms—up to 84 months.
- Lender reliance on lease and loan servicing systems that haven’t incorporated the latest automation capabilities.
To accommodate and manage this influx, lenders would greatly benefit from the implementation of lease and loan servicing automation. Without it, lenders can expect higher servicing costs, increased workloads, and lower client satisfaction.
The Benefits of Lease and Loan Servicing Automation
Lease and loan servicing automation covers a range of functions from simple, lender-created decision rules to mobile servicing applications that give borrowers greater control over their loan or lease. If your lease and loan servicing workloads are beginning to overwhelm your agents, take a look at three key loan servicing automation capabilities that will significantly improve and streamline your lending practice.
#1 Workflows and Decision Rules
With all loan and lease information being captured digitally, decision rules and workflows can be applied to automate many of the servicing activities previously done by manual review or hand-off among servicing agents. Configurable rules that are easily defined by lending professionals eliminate manual steps and instantly make decisions that:
- Validate data to facilitate an efficient, error-free workflow.
- Route inquiries to the proper queues and servicing professionals.
- Notify agents of situations where exception or escalation processing is required.
Configurable workflows driven by decision rules minimize (and ideally eliminate) manual hand-offs and facilitate rapid and consistent processing of high-volume activities, such as:
- Initiating the welcome process for new borrowers, including verification of contact information, preferred contact channel(s), confirmation of terms and conditions, automatic payments, and FAQs to ensure a smooth transition from lease or loan origination.
- Ensuring lease or loan modification terms and conditions comply with applicable regulations.
- Verifying vehicle, lienholder, and registered owner for titles.
- Processing end-of-term loan, lease, or balloon payments.
- Certifying all required information is provided in response to an inquiry.
Workflows can incorporate scripts (for recommended interaction with customers) and notes that explain why a specific step is taken, reducing the amount of time needed to train new agents. As work tasks move into a servicing agent’s queue, they are automatically prioritized to ensure the most important tasks are completed first. Configuration menus enable administrators to easily determine queue prioritization and quickly make modifications as business needs change.
Decision rules and workflows remove the variability inherent in high-volume processes executed manually by different servicing agents, and also ensure that servicing activities comply with current federal and state regulations.
#2 Real-Time Account Updates
Borrowers and servicing agents should have access to current, accurate account information at any given moment during the lease and loan servicing cycle. Automated, real-time updates eliminate the delays associated with the traditional method of batch-processing payments. With automated updates, there’s no confusion regarding payment receipts that are not reflected in current account balances, which is often a main reason for call center inquiries.
#3 Automation in the Hands of Borrowers
Mobile loan and lease servicing applications that run on popular smartphones and tablets put automation capabilities into the hands of borrowers. The ability to submit and confirm payments, check account balances, receive automated alerts or notifications, or immediately obtain loan payoff quotes can significantly reduce the servicing department’s workload. Transactions that previously required manual processing or the printing and mailing of documents are eliminated. Automation reduces servicing costs and enables agents to focus their time on borrower interactions that truly require experience and skills.
Lease and Loan Servicing Automation Is Vital to Lender Success
Automation implemented via decision rules, workflows, real-time account updates, and mobile technologies benefits both lenders and borrowers. Every opportunity to replace manual processes with automation delivers lasting benefits: consistent decisions executed rapidly, significantly greater efficiency, lower servicing agent workloads, and greater customer satisfaction. Lease and loan servicing automation is essential for competing successfully in today’s market.
Getting Started
defi SOLUTIONS provides configurable origination, management, and servicing solutions for loans and leases—in addition to analytics and reporting—plus a wide range of technology-enabled BPO services. If you’re looking for a solution that achieves greater efficiency and streamlines complex processes, take the first steps in exploring how auto lease or loan servicing automation can benefit you. Contact our team today or register for a demo.
