While it might be an understatement, the pressure of rising servicing costs and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's insistence on improved customer experience are adding to the increased challenges in this new world of mortgage servicing.
Generally, it's assumed that improving service levels requires greater investments in staff, but the cost to service loans is already at historic highs. Servicers seem forced to choose between busting the budget or risking the wrath of regulators.
At least part of the answer lies in making better use of existing customer facing technologies, including Interactive Voice Response. IVR systems reliably provide self-service opportunities for borrowers 24/7. They're proven, they're consistent, and, for most servicers, they're already in place.
What is lacking with existing IVRs are application modifications that will make them easier to use and better attuned to the borrower's needs. Just as servicers continuously retrain customer service reps to meet the changing needs of borrowers, IVR systems need periodic audits to assess their performance and develop needed design improvements.
While IVR performance varies based on the nature of the portfolio, most IVR applications can handle 40% to 50% of all inbound calls without involving a live representative. But there's no reason to be satisfied with existing performance. With creative scripting, utilization can increase to 60% or more. Every increase of 1% to 2% of IVR efficiency takes an enormous burden off the call center staff, so it's certainly worth the investment of time to examine ways to improve scripting.
Here are some things to consider as you review your IVR application:
Clean Up the Clutter — IVR scripting often is the result of years of modifications, adding a menu option or a change in messaging here and there. The resulting script is often confusing and not to mention difficult to navigation. Consequently, borrowers opt out for an agent. Cleaning up the clutter in your IVR application will go a long way toward improving customer experience.
Increase Authentication — The more borrowers who authenticate in the IVR, the more who will self-serve without speaking to an agent. Offer borrowers multiple means of authentication. The most widely used authentication methods are loan number and last four digits of Social Security number and/or full Social Security number and ZIP code. In addition, borrowers respond favorably when the system automatically locates loan information by recognizing the borrower's phone number and then prompting for the last four digits of their Social Security number. This simple phone number lookup can improve IVR utilization by 3% to 5%.
Less Is More — The 80/20 rule should apply. Do not expect your IVR system to answer 100% of borrower questions. That approach will lead to lengthy menus and difficult navigation. Instead, make sure that the information typically requested by borrowers is easily accessible through short, simple menus. Offering fewer, but more important menu options can often result in increased utilization.
Add Critical Self-Service Options — Make sure borrowers are able 24/7 to make one-time drafts, make a promise to pay and request an automated faxed payoff statement. These requests drive call center volume, and they're easily managed by well-designed IVR applications.
Anticipate Caller Requests — By creatively taking into consideration call characteristics such as day of month, time of year and account loan-level criteria, scripting can be dynamically tailored to anticipate borrowers' needs. If it's the 15th of the month, many callers are calling to make a payment. Make sure that's a top priority in the menu structure for callers whose payments are due. Has the caller requested a payoff statement recently? Offer an updated payoff quote before other general options.
Providing an improved customer experience is possible without further increasing servicing costs. The key is making better use of the technology investments servicers already have in place. The biggest payoff is in improving customer-facing applications, such as IVR, to better address borrower needs. Servicers who creatively address these opportunities will find that it is possible to meet borrower needs and remain compliant without substantial additional investments.
Barry Hays is senior vice president and co-founder of TeleVoice.
