Sometimes, life can seem like it moves much too fast. At other times, however, it's painfully slow. Think of the last time you sat in really bad traffic. Or the last time you waited way too long in a line at a theme park. Or maybe even the last time you sat through 60 commercials just to watch your favorite football team and they lost anyway.
Despite all of our technological advancements, modern life can still be just as tedious and boring at times as it was 1,000 years ago. The consumer financing application process is no exception to this rule. But, just as we've learned to speed up travel, communications, and information processing, there are ways to make that process easier for everyone involved. Before we dive into the solution, though, let's take a more in-depth look at the standard process.
Let's begin with a very simple scenario. A customer comes into your store and they really want to purchase a product from you. Naturally, you want to sell it to them. The customer says they're interested in financing options and what do you know, you happen to offer them. Everything is going well so far, and then the actual application process starts.
If you're using paper applications, the process is particularly annoying. You hand the application over and the customer fills it out. You or your team member have already spent time explaining the application and you now may have to spend more time answering further questions. Once the customer hands the application back, you have to type their information into the app.
All done, right? Not even close. If the application is declined, you have to move on to the next lender and retype the information. This process could go on and on. Frustrated yet?
OK, so maybe you use your run-of-the-mill consumer financing portal company. You send the customer over to the portal kiosk and set them loose. But the same problems arise. The customer is on a timetable, and they weren't expecting to have to do all of this. If they have questions, they don't have any time to look into the answers; they're going to need assistance from your staff. And if they get declined by their first choice of lender and have to reenter their information, they're bound to get every bit as frustrated as you or your staff might when entering info from paper into an app.
It's enough to make your head spin. Thankfully, there's a better way. A much better one, in fact.
Let's start the process over and go back to the beginning when the customer first starts to fill out their application. Something's different than before. For one thing, we're not in your store. It looks like a home. A kitchen, in fact. Your customer is seated at their kitchen table enjoying a muffin and a nice cup of coffee. They're applying for financing on a tablet, at their own pace, without the pressure and stress of trying to rapidly fill out a paper form or having to use a confusing kiosk. Everything is simplified and in the palm of their hand.
What's more, your customer feels far more comfortable entering sensitive personal information on their own device, so they also feel more relaxed and confident about their purchase. And without the pressure of standing in front of a kiosk or rushing through a paper form, they are much less likely to make entry mistakes, which will save everyone time.
With customers filling out forms without visiting your location, you'll generate leads with every new form via direct notification, putting your salespeople in pole position. Once your team receives the secure application, they can transmit it to all of your lenders with one press of a button. There will be no more data duplication because of rejected applications to waste your team's time.
FormPiper's convenience doesn't stop with transmitting applications, however. Its reporting tool allows you to see a snapshot of your financing program. You'll be able to see how many forms have been successfully run, which lenders were used in the application process, how much revenue you brought in with each lender and merchant fees per lender. These automatically generated reports will save you even more time.
Comparing the two processes above makes it clear: FormPiper is the winner when it comes to convenience for your business and your customers. The only question now is what you and your staff will do with all the time you save. It might be the perfect opportunity to shred some old paper forms and take a kiosk or two out to the curb. With FormPiper simplifying the consumer financing application process from start to finish, you won't be needing them.