How To Drive Loan Growth With An Appointment Scheduling Solution

Loan Growth is consistently a top priority for banks and credit unions. There are many strategies that can be impactful to drive increased loan growth – from promotional offers to marketing campaigns. But, in today’s highly competitive banking environment, what else can you do?

In this post, we’ll unpack how implementing an appointment scheduling tool can drive loan growth, the data to back it from a Forrester study and examples of the success that financial institutions are seeing. 

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When Intent Is High, Grab Your Customer’s Attention

Loan opportunities can easily slip through the cracks if you don’t have the right experts ready to serve interested customers. Here’s how you can keep your staff in the right channels to capture interest in the moments that matter:

• Make it  easy for customers to connect with the right banking expert in any channel—website, online banking, mobile app, branch—to discuss loan options.
• Minimize lost opportunities by efficiently routing referrals from greeters, contact center agents, and tellers to the right loan expert.
• Capture and nurture customer interest in products and services by offering always-on scheduling options, even when staff is unavailable.
• Send confirmations and reminders to minimize cancellations and maximize conversions.

Equip Your Staff To Be Loan Growth Ambassadors

Ensure that your staff are well prepared for meetings – have visibility into key customer information, allowing them to deliver personalized, efficient service:

• Reduce follow-ups in initial meetings by sending customers reminders to bring relevant documentation.
• Equip your staff with a birds-eye view of each day. When they know exactly who’s coming in, at what time and for which products, they can prepare in advance to host highly effective meetings.
• Collect relevant customer data and documentation throughout the booking process, so you can match product recommendations to their specific needs.

Better Understand Your Data, To Capture Demand

There’s no doubt about it — better data leads to better banking experiences for customers, employees, and the institution as a whole. Without accurate insights on hand, FI’s may not recognize opportunities to improve loan growth, and they may struggle to understand where the opportunities are:

• Maximize your team’s efficiency by understanding the who, when, and where of banking expert demand so the right people are available to work every opportunity.
• Allow your staff to serve multiple locations virtually so your in-demand products always have coverage.
• See where staff spend their time, who’s overbooked, and who’s available to help reduce wait times for popular products and services.
• Determine which of your CTAs and marketing campaigns are translating into loan opportunities and sales.

The Impact To Your Financial Institution

The findings of the Coconut Software TEI study, highlight the following benefits:

• An 8.5% increase in pull-through rates for loans and 1% increase for mortgages
• $1.6M in additional profit from loans and mortgages sold over three years
• 1,200 additional loans and 95 additional mortgages sold
• 10 min reduction in handle time for loan-related appointments

How do these numbers sound? Here are a few examples of the success that our customers have seen:

•  The Credit Union of Southern California increased funded loans by 12%. The team at CU SoCal finds that if someone walks into the branch for a loan, there’s a 48% chance they’ll follow through and apply for a loan. But if they book an appointment, they come prepared, and the odds of those loans being funded rise by 12%. “That gets me excited,” says Aaron Young, SVP Retail Operation at CU SoCal. “It makes me wonder, ‘How do I get more people to use appointments?”
• Kemba Credit Union saw a 13% increase in loan production after implementing Coconut.

Ready to learn more?  Read the full study or Speak to an expert now.