Streamlining customer interactions in commercial lending

The commercial lending process is notoriously paper-heavy and time-consuming. To get loans approved, borrowers have to provide a mountain of documentation that often has to be collected from various sources. This includes bank statements, tax returns, financial projections, and more.

On average, it takes anywhere from 45 days to 3 months to complete a commercial loan application.

Why does it take so long?

First of all, banks require a fairly thick stack of documents before they can underwrite a commercial loan. They'll need copies of the leases, a rent roll, historical operating expenses, a financial statement on the principals, and usually tax returns. 

All of these documents take several days to gather.

Next, the bank also requires third-party reports - the appraisals and engineering reports - which usually take at least 6 to 7 weeks to complete. 

Within the bank, there are multiple departments involved in the process, further complicating the loan underwriting process.

Collecting all these data points from multiple stakeholders is a time-consuming and inefficient process - for both the borrower and the lender. 

The problems with manual data collection methods

There are multiple issues with manual data collection methods, such as:

• Inefficiency: Collecting customer data manually is a time-consuming and error-prone process.
• High costs: The manual process of collecting customer data can be expensive, particularly if borrowers have to travel to meet with loan officers in person.
• Poor customer experience: Customers often find the manual data collection process to be cumbersome and frustrating.
• Siloed data: When data is collected manually, it's often siloed in different departments and systems, making it difficult to get a holistic view of the customer.

The benefits of digital data intake for commercial lending

The digital age has ushered in new ways of collecting customer data that can help streamline the customer experience. By leveraging digital data intake methods, commercial lenders can collect customer information more efficiently and with less hassle.

Digital data intake has several advantages over traditional paper-based methods. First, it's faster and more convenient for customers. They can submit their information electronically without having to track down physical documents.

Second, digital data intake enables workflow automation in the commercial lending process. By gathering customer data electronically, lenders can take advantage of software that automates repetitive tasks such as data entry. This can help speed up the overall process and free up staff to focus on more value-added activities.

Third, digital data intake provides a complete picture of a borrower's financial situation. When information is submitted electronically, lenders can access a borrower's complete financial history rather than just a snapshot in time. This can help them make more informed credit decisions.

Fourth, digital data intake provides a complete picture of the customer. Lenders can gather a wider range of information about customer finances and business operations than they could with paper-based methods, and the information sharing with internal and external stakeholders is streamlined.

Overall, digital data intake provides a number of advantages that can help streamline customer interactions in the commercial lending process. By leveraging digital data intake methods, lenders can provide a better customer experience and improve overall efficiency.

The benefits of digital data intake

Digital data intake methods offer several advantages over manual data collection methods, including:

• Greater efficiency: Digital data intake methods can help commercial lenders collect customer information more quickly and accurately.
• Unified workflow: Digital data intake enables end-to-end automation of the entire workflow involved in commercial underwriting.
• Reduced costs: Leveraging digital data intake methods can help reduce the costs associated with customer data collection.
• Improved customer experience: Digital data intake methods can help improve the customer experience by making it easier and faster for borrowers to provide required information.
• Streamlined customer interactions: By leveraging digital data intake methods, commercial lenders can streamline customer interactions and reduce the time it takes to approve loans.
• Progress monitoring: Digital data intake methods can help lenders track customer progress and identify any potential bottlenecks in the process.
• Roles and permissions: With digital data intake methods, commercial lenders can set up roles and permissions to ensure that all parties involved in the process have the access they need.
• Better data quality: Digital data intake methods can help improve the quality of customer data by eliminating errors and duplicate entries by validating data at the point of entry.

Digital data intake methods for commercial lenders

There are multiple digital data intake methods that commercial lenders can use to streamline customer interactions, including:

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• Customer portals: Customer portals are secure online platforms that borrowers can use to submit their loan applications and supporting documentation.
• Online forms: Online forms are a digital version of the paper forms that borrowers often have to fill out when applying for a loan. By using online forms, lenders can collect customer information more quickly and accurately.
• Electronic signatures: Electronic signatures (e-signatures) are a legal and convenient way for borrowers to sign loan documents electronically.
• APIs: APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) allow commercial lenders to securely share customer data with third-party applications.
• Digital data intake journeys: Customer-centric UIs focus on providing a seamless customer experience when collecting customer data. Using digital data intake journeys, commercial lenders can provide a better customer experience, reduce customer effort, and improve overall efficiency.

The advantages of digital data intake journeys

Digital data intake journeys offer user-friendly data intake workflows that are optimized for customer experience, which leads to increased customer satisfaction and conversion rates. In addition, digital data intake journeys:

• User-friendly UI: The customer data intake journey is optimized for customer experience, which leads to increased customer satisfaction and conversion rates.
• Allow for pre-population of forms with customer data, which reduces the amount of time it takes to fill out forms.
• Push and pull data via API: This allows for data to be transferred without the need for customer interaction, which can help reduce customer effort.
• Support multiple channels: Customers can submit their information through the channel of their choice (e.g., online, in-person, etc.), which can help increase customer satisfaction.
• Reduce errors and duplicate entries: By validating data at the point of entry, digital data intake journeys can help reduce errors and duplicate entries in customer data.
• Provide a full view of the customer: Digital data intake journeys can help lenders gain a complete view of the customer by showing a unified picture of customer data from multiple sources.
• Enable real-time data validation: Ensure accuracy
• Allow for e-signatures: Speed up the process.
• Provide a customer dashboard: Give both lenders and borrowers visibility into the status of their loan application, which can help improve customer satisfaction

Digital data intake methods offer commercial lenders a number of advantages over manual data collection methods. By leveraging digital data intake methods, lenders can improve customer experience, reduce costs, and streamline customer interactions.