Advanced customer relationship management technology addresses top three lender issues quickly and economically
RED BANK, NJ (October 20, 2014) -- Vantage Production, LLC, a leading innovator in customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, sales and content solutions, has experienced outstanding growth and success in its first full year of offering the Vantage Integrated Production (VIP) CRM platform, signing contracts and/or onboarding dozens of leading lenders nationwide. The common needs expressed by these mortgage lenders reflect shared priorities across the entire industry, according to Vantage Production CEO Paul Zoukis: compliance, cost reduction and recruiting.
Compliance starts at customer contact, and every bit of communication to the borrower is a potential violation if not carefully controlled, Zoukis points out. “Lenders are figuring out how exposed they are when they do not centralize marketing communications and borrower presentations for every mortgage loan officer, field branch and website,” he says. “CRM technology is essential in making certain your messaging and content are accurate, consistent and within branding and compliance guidelines. Lenders must have complete control of the message, regardless of how, when or where borrower interactions are taking place, whether in-person, through a call center, at a branch or online,” says Zoukis. “And it doesn’t stop there. You need complete documentation on every borrower communication for the inevitable audits that will stem from CFPB oversight.” These compliance concerns tie directly into the next most frequently cited reason clients have expressed for adopting VIP, he says: cost control.
“Origination costs have gone through the roof over the last year, thanks to compliance concerns, reduced loan volume and other factors. Using ‘true’ CRM that leverages all data across the enterprise, lenders can optimize decision-making and automate their marketing and sales processes, resulting in the highest degree of productivity possible by eliminating unnecessary steps such as redundant data entry,” Zoukis explains. “They also will have the ability to automate marketing campaigns and create impactful, compliant borrower presentations quickly and easily. Productivity per employee is vastly increased, pull-through ratios are improved, and the cost per loan is slashed,” he says.
The third main motivator for adopting VIP has arisen as a result of the shifting competitive scene, with large banks surrendering market share to regional players and expanding national mortgage lenders. “A number of our clients are in growth mode,” Zoukis explains. “They are looking to recruit top loan officers and often entire branch operations, and as we have learned, technology is a prime influencer in these decisions. Clients like Guild Mortgage, Waterstone Mortgage, Residential Home Funding and SecurityNational Mortgage Company know that the better your technology – notably the marketing system that will help MLOs do more business – the better your chances of recruiting the top performers,” he says.
On this point, Zoukis cites the April 2014 “4th Annual Survey of Originator Opinions” released by Hammerhouse, LLC, a Mission Viejo, California-based national recruiting firm. “Nearly half of the LOs surveyed cited that an advanced marketing platform and easy-to-use integrated systems are among the most important considerations for selecting their employers,” Zoukis says. “As the survey revealed, superior marketing support is essential to attracting the best talent, and lenders are finding it is the key to successful expansion efforts.”
Vantage Production sees 2014 as having been a true watershed year for advanced CRM technology, a time when lenders began looking for far greater capabilities than those typically available with prevalent contact management software programs. “A true CRM like VIP leverages all the data in the company so that repetitive tasks are eliminated, status and progress are charted, and borrowers and referral partners are completely in the loop,” Zoukis says. “By adding outstanding content developed by industry experts with collective centuries of experience in the business, lenders gain a tremendous competitive advantage when they update their solutions,” he notes. “And our technology continues to advance, with consumer and referral partner-facing websites, mobile device capabilities, and delivery methods that lower costs and make the technology accessible and completely affordable,” he says. “We expect 2015 to be another truly outstanding year for VIP.”
About Vantage Production
Vantage Production, LLC provides advanced CRM systems, compliant automated marketing and sales solutions, compelling content for the mortgage industry, and professional development programs. With solutions tailored to the requirements of both enterprise lenders and loan officers, Vantage Production serves more than 400 leading lenders and tens of thousands of individual subscribers. For more information, visit www.VantageProduction.com.