Consumer Direct Connect

As the lending industry continues to evolve, your customer’s demand for digital integrations increase. Consumer direct lenders provide lending options to a higher volume of borrowers using mortgage CRM software and other apps to provide a web-based lending experience, where traditional retail lenders use loan officers to work directly with the borrower on their loan.

This Article Covers:

• The key differences between consumer direct lenders and other types of lenders
• How consumer direct lenders rely on technology to close more loans per year
• Integrations consumer direct lenders need to flourish

Consumer direct divisions of mortgage origination companies offer a quick, efficient online experience for completing the entire loan process digitally. Typically these loan originators rely on broad marketing campaigns and programs to bring inbound leads to consumer direct loan officers.

Originally, consumer direct lending was thought of as a novelty, but during the post-crisis housing recovery, low-interest rates created the environment for tech-savvy home buyers and refinance customers to dominate the market. These customers wanted to engage with the loan origination process in the digital world.  

With some estimates indicating that more than half of homebuyers complete their mortgage process digitally, many lenders are looking to adopt the structure of a consumer direct model.  

Consumer direct lenders continue to face challenges when it comes to providing the same experience to borrowers and referral agents that they can offer the same, or better, level of customer service that home buyers come to expect from retail lenders.  

The difficulty for loan officers that deal in consumer direct lending is that they deal with a much higher volume of prospective clients than a traditional retail lender and need specialized toolsets to respond within the aggressive follow-up protocols laid out by their organization’s leadership. Essentially, a powerful Mortgage CRM can create those nearly instant responses to borrower inquiries required in the consumer direct model. This can be accomplished through automated marketing tools built into the CRM across text, email, or web channels or even through integrations with inbound call center systems through open data APIs.

Luckily, as technology continues to improve, the gap that once existed is beginning to narrow. 

The key for consumer direct lenders to continue their growth with new home buyers is to have open and clear lines of communication.  

Communication is key to closing more loans. This is why consumer direct lenders choose Surefire CRM by Top of Mind Networks over other mortgage CRMs. Centralized marketing and content for messages direct from the lender to the consumer allow for a seamless stream of communication for any number of lending scenarios.  

This, paired with lead distribution algorithms and open data interfaces to connect with inbound call systems offered by Surefire ensures that customer inquiries and new leads are given the same customer service experience they’d receive from a retail lender.  

Permission access for referral partners also helps ensure that real estate agents can monitor the loan origination process and assist with keeping their buyer’s transaction on track to close. 

As the leading mortgage marketing software provider, Surefire CRM keeps consumer direct lenders top of mind and allows creative freedom for customer marketing and engagement with award-winning creative content backed by industry-leading compliance. Surefire also helps lenders:

• Close more loans through the implementation of customer recapture and retention campaigns
• Provide multi-media brand integrations that engage and retain customers with customizable journeys
• Increase the number of new prospects with marketing automation that lets mortgage professionals understand each customer’s needs
• Ensure compliance by automating the administrative review of all marketing materials and campaigns
• Strengthen referral partner relationships with co-branded communication
• Expand the available branded content vs lead management tools such as Insellerate or Velocify.