By: Anna Morris, Account Executive, Banking & Financial Services
To understand this story, there is something you should know about me: I am a little bit of a control freak. Okay, you got me – it is more than a little bit, I am a control freak.
I like to understand processes, timelines, and next steps and control them as much as possible. I schedule my day out to maximize efficiency, I hate being late, and I try to always be one step ahead.
This is not a story of efficiency and timeliness though. This is a story of three process failures I experienced firsthand when I tried to obtain a mortgage from one of the top ten US mortgage lenders. A story that really made me realize some of the top challenges for mortgage lenders, even prominent ones.
My story is worth sharing because the unnecessary stress and dangerously tempting option to abandon the process and go with a different lender, are experiences that hundreds of thousands of people go through every year. My story is also of particular interest because I sell software to mortgage companies specifically aimed at improving the loan origination, post-close, and correspondent lending processes.
When my husband and I found the perfect house, we had already spoken to our mortgage lender and had any and everything that the lender could ask for scanned in a folder labeled “Mortgage Documentation.”
The day after the showing, I called our mortgage banker and told him about the new home, that the seller accepted our offer, and that we were looking for a modest 45-day close. Easy enough, right?
That is when the first frustration hit.
Let us pause for a quick vocabulary lesson. For the purpose of this story, “wasted time” is defined as unnecessary travel trips, inefficient processes, and time my mortgage banker could have spent on other valuable activities. Quick reminder: wasted time is one of my biggest stressors, as well as one of the apparent top challenges for mortgage lenders.
Printing Supporting Documentation
It all started when a loan officer told me I could not electronically submit all of the documents that I perfectly organized in my well-prepared folder, but I had to physically print off all 116 pages and bring them into the office.
If you are like me, you don’t have a printer that is capable of printing 116 documents at your disposal, so this meant rescheduling my day to include a trip to FedEx, where I spent $40.00 (because paper isn’t free), and a drive to the bank. For an average 9:00-5:00 employee, this afternoon trip could’ve taken days. For me, it meant I had to submit the documents at 9:00 AM the next day (instead of noon the day before) and waste three hours of my day driving to FedEx, printing documents, driving to the branch, waiting for my mortgage banker, then driving back to work when I could have just submitted the documents electronically.
I wouldn’t be a Type A person if I didn’t document this in table form, so I give you Exhibit A: Time Wasted Printing Supporting Documentation.
| Business Days | My Time (Hours) | Extra Trips | Process Time (In 8-Hour Workday) |
| Day 1: Time Wasted Printing Documents | 3 | 1 | ½ Day |
| Total Time Wasted | 3 Hours | 1 Trip | ½ Day |
Sorting, Scanning, and Indexing Documents
Admittedly, I somewhat empathize with my mortgage banker. Our banking & financial services team has worked with many mortgage companies who greatly struggle with sorting, scanning, and indexing documents. It is a frustrating and grueling process and our data confirms it is one of the top challenges for mortgage lenders.
When I arrived at the bank with my stack of 116 pages and handed them to my mortgage banker, I asked what he was going to do with the paper. He proceeded to tell me his process:
- Group the 116 pages together to form documents.
- Scan each group of documents to get individual electronic copies.
- Index each document.
- And conclude by sending the documents to his processor.
I was dumbfounded. “You mean to tell me that you have to sort and scan all of those pages I printed out, just to convert them back into an electronic format, then rename them all?!” He confirmed the process and told me that it takes four to five hours to complete (for each customer!).
Four to five hours to do something I already did = another half-day wasted in the process.
Exhibit B: Time Wasted Sorting, Scanning, and Indexing Documents:
| Business Days | My Time (Hours) | Extra Trips | Process Time (In 8-Hour Workday) |
| Day 1: Time Wasted Printing Documents | 3 | 1 | ½ |
| Day 2: Time Wasted Sorting, Scanning and Indexing Documents | 1 | ||
| Total Time Wasted | 3 Hours | 1 Trip | 1.5 Days |
Printing the Loan Application, Signing, and Delivering to Branch
Later that day my mortgage banker called to tell me our next step was filling out the loan application. He said it was ready and I needed to come pick it up, sign it, and bring it back.
My answer to this was “no.” No, I am not going to drive back to the bank to pick up a document. No, I’m not going to reschedule my day again. And no, I will not waste any more of my time.
Eventually, he agreed to scan the document and send it via email…the next day…after my husband already left for work.
As there was no way to electronically sign the loan application, I once again made a trip to FedEx to print it, waited for my husband to get home from work, got his signature, then drove to the branch the next day to return it. Notice a pattern?
Exhibit C: Printing Loan Application, Signing, Delivering to Branch
| Business Days | My Time (Hours) | Extra Trips | Process Time (In Eight-Hour Workday) |
| Day 1: Time Wasted Printing Documents | 3 | 1 | ½ |
| Day 2: Time Wasted Sorting, Scanning and Indexing Documents | 1 | ||
|
Day 4: Time Wasted Printing, Signing, and Delivering Loan Application to Branch |
3 | 2 | 1.5 |
| Total Time Wasted | 6 Hours | 3 Trips | 3 Days |
You can only imagine how I felt at this point – or maybe you experienced this as well. Only a few days into the process and more than half were spent on what I consider pure process failures/faults. Needless to say, this was a stressful start for an efficiency-oriented person.
What Could Have Made it Better
Eliminating wasted time is key to decreasing loan turnaround times and increasing customer satisfaction. To do this, our banking customers implement solutions that include electronic signature, electronic submission of documents, and automated document capture.
Electronic signature would have allowed my loan officer to send the loan application to me as soon as it was ready. My husband and I would have been able to review and complete the loan application simultaneously and have it back over to our loan officer prior to close of business the same day.
In addition, with an electronic way to submit documents tied into an automated document capture solution, customers could avoid unnecessary trips. The bank could create a list of needed documents and require customers to electronically submit a document for each. Not only would this ensure that customers have all of the proper documents submitted the first time, but it would also eliminate the need for the loan officer to separate, scan, and index all of the individual documents.
These technologies would change the process from a failure to a success. It would save an immense amount of time on both the bank’s end and the customer’s end, and it would help solve one of the top challenges for mortgage lenders by guaranteeing happy customers that keep coming back.
About the Author:
Anna has a strong background in effective problem solving and relationship selling. When she is not working, you can find her camping, running, or playing soccer with her husband and two dogs. What Anna enjoys most about Pyramid Solutions is everyone’s drive to work as a team with clients to analyze and solve business problems.