Working in a remote and digital-first environment is nothing new for us and many others in the financial technology sector. For many years, our team of fintech experts has worked, both on-location, and across the country; allowing us to reach our clients, integration partners, and provide service throughout the United States. A recent, rapid, and unprecedented shift in the global workday and an economy that has transitioned to a very similar remote and digital status has us wondering: What can distant collaboration teach us about the fintech world of this exact minute and how can we prepare for months and years to come?
Remote, Controlled
Scrutinize Processes and Collaboration
As industries look to adapt to a new business environment of remote work and transactions, it is likely that many will notice that processes and work styles that were in place just a few months ago, are simply inefficient or are completely no longer viable. This may be a time to encourage process and work style scrutiny. Every touchpoint between a lender and borrower is an opportunity to establish or lose trust and should be treated as such. Even seemingly minor touchpoints.
Most organizations operated at least somewhat remotely through conference calls, screen-sharing and more, long before January of 2020. And yet, if you’ve been spending time online lately, it’s likely that you’ve come across a stream of articles and comments with many experiencing the actual in-real-life-version of this “conference call in real life” short from years back.
Develop Habits the First Time Around
There is data to support that habits are made somewhere around two months of repetitive practice, so whether the fintech transaction environment moves toward remote due to our recent forced experience, or if this is a temporary move that will find us appreciating a personal touch even more, now may be a good time to take a look at organizational processes under a microscope and make adjustments to smooth things out, early on.
Design a Digital Handshake
Maintain Trust, Maintain Distance
In financial tech, trust might just be the most important (and unspoken) factor in any process, to ensure that borrowers and lenders feel comfortable with performing a very important transaction without possibly ever seeing a face on the other side of the table, or in many instances (auto, solar, and more) even seeing the item they are borrowing for, in-person.
We have, for years, looked at and enhanced how the loan origination process can establish trust on all ends, this is now more important than ever for borrowers and lenders to maintain relationships in this almost entirely distant business environment. From investing in features that allow for more open and remote communication between lenders and borrowers, to developing and testing our very own remote processes like video demos and onboarding entire LOS platforms for financial institutions all over the country, we’ve been preparing and optimizing digital relationships since before we were preparing for y2k.
Innovate and Respond
New Products, Perfected
If you are like many FNI loan origination platform partners, your organization is constantly developing new products or building and launching new processes to optimize efficiency, revenue, and overall performance.
If now doesn’t seem like the right time to launch a new product or process, it could be the right time to invest in ensuring the quality of a lending-based product so that when the time does seem right, you’re sure you’re putting the best possible experience for your borrowers out into the market.
While we keep an eye on what’s coming next, and continue to stay educated and prepared to push the fintech industry forward, the loan origination software experts at FNI will keep providing insights and, of course, providing hands-on and high-level service to our loan origination platform partners. For the time being, from a distance.
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