A host of tools — some established and some in their infancy — are helping loan officers do their jobs better and faster.
TrustEngine, ChatGPT and CLARIFIRE® are three examples of tools helping drive the fintech revolution within the lending industry. Each one combines automation, artificial intelligence and/or predictive analytics to help mortgage professionals excel. Cost varies for each, depending on the type of subscription.
TrustEngine
TrustEngine leverages big data and AI to help banks, credit unions and independent mortgage lenders extend personalized services to borrowers. It has three products — Borrower Intelligence Platform™ (BIP), Mortgage Coach and Sales Boomerang.
BIP is a helpful loan officer companion. It can anticipate borrower needs, ask compelling questions to generate engagement, craft messages, adjust tone and style, and encourage conversations. The platform also produces reports featuring optimization opportunities and trends.
By tackling client communication tasks, BIP also can help mitigate loan officer attrition. In 2022, 14% of high-performing loan officers changed offices, and another 12% left the mortgage industry.
Moreover, Mortgage Coach is a robust tool that helps borrowers intuitively understand the financial impact of various loan options, make an informed decision and apply. It uses powerful visuals to simplify comparisons on its total cost analysis. It’s adaptive, tailoring options based on a borrower’s unique goals.
Sales Boomerang is a predictive operation that monitors changes in prospects’ and customers’ lives and alerts lenders to important shifts that may trigger need for a lender. If a client or potential client lists a property, gets married, builds sufficient equity, celebrates a 62nd birthday, gets in touch with competitors, moves up a credit range or qualifies for mortgage insurance removal, Sales Boomerang will send an alert.
TrustEngine’s trifecta of tools is promising, but only Mortgage Coach and Sales Boomerang are time-tested. BIP hit the market in 2023, so it hasn’t been around long enough to determine its efficacy.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a notch above regular chatbots the mortgage industry has seen in the past. This generative AI solution gives lenders an intelligent digital assistant that can meaningfully engage with site visitors around the clock. It uses natural language processing to understand queries and respond like a human.
This AI-powered chatbot can replace some duties of customer service representatives, and, unlike human agents, it can hold quality conversations simultaneously with potential customers. Lenders employing it can tackle more leads efficiently and help drive business fast.
Replacing an army of customer service reps with ChatGPT can mean massive savings for any business. By early spring 2023, 66% of American business adopters of this tech saved $5,001-$75,000, according to data analytics firm Statista.
ChatGPT is still a work in progress, though. Its responses are as reliable as Zillow Zestimates, which are less accurate than expert advice from experienced real estate agents, for example. ChatGPT’s machine learning algorithms are imperfect and need some fine-tuning to fix the chatbot’s biases and tendency to “hallucinate,” or make things up.
CLARIFIRE®
Since 2000, financial institutions have used CLARIFIRE® to automate and improve workflow. The company’s mortgage servicing automation software has data-rich intuitive dashboards and displays cohesive views of systems. It also supports integration with third-party operations, including Freddie Mac’s Resolve® Solution, CoreLogic Credco and Boston National Title.
It’s cloud-based, flexible and scalable. It also has a self-service customer portal with guided display configuration, document sharing and alerts.
“Loan servicing software can increase the speed at which you can process customer requests, including workout decisioning for modifications, bulk processing of solicitations or pre-foreclosure recommendation automation,” the company’s website says. “You can drastically shorten cycle times as data is processed and workflow launched without the need for hands-on manual efforts or the running of old fashioned queries. This increase in processing speed drives down the overall servicing cost per loan.”
This tool’s longevity speaks to its quality and performance. Still, some users have complained about issues with intuitiveness and file compatibility.