Situation Analysis
ThunderRoad Financial is a premier indirect lender in the Powersports industry. Although the company was experiencing steady growth and success, President & CEO Donal Hummer was becoming increasingly frustrated with the company’s relationship with its loan servicing and customer care provider.
From delinquent rates that were higher than expected for a prime portfolio to unacceptable call abandonments due to too long hold times for valued customers, Donal felt like anything but a valued client.
“The overriding message was that my business was not valued in the least,” said Donal. “When I raised concerns about a frustrating journey for my customers or about key metrics that were critical to the health of our portfolio, they fell on deaf ears. I had to fight for insights into simple things such as how long my customers were waiting on hold or how often delinquent customers were being contacted. It was the sum of all these frustrations that led me to seek out a new partner and engage in Servicing Solutions.”
Our Approach
Servicing Solutions’ concierge approach to customer service was built on developing relational partnerships with our clients. In other words, we develop flexible and customized solutions models that exceed our clients’ evolving needs.
In the case of ThunderRoad, we were faced with an abnormally short two-week conversion deadline. We worked quickly to identify the appropriate model for their unique needs. We started this process by conducting a thorough service review of the organization in an effort to identify potential service delivery improvements. Additionally, we completed a full review of business processes to identify gaps, inefficiencies and potential areas to streamline and automate.
With this information at our disposal, we were able to drastically improve the customer experience by executing a plan to get back to the basics of customer care. From relationship-building welcome calls to customers, using the right blend of technology and artificial intelligence tools to engage with customers, and a collections strategy appropriate for prime customers, we were able to drastically improve the customer experience and performance metrics by implementing the following:
- A relationship-building “welcome call” process.
- Implementation of technology and AI tools to offer self-help remedies to customers.
- A customized concierge servicing strategy that is appropriate for their prime customer base.
Results
After converting the portfolio to Servicing Solutions within a concise but necessary window, results followed quickly. In the first 90 days of our partnership, delinquent accounts fell dramatically and have since held steady at an average of below 70 basis points. Call abandonment rates have dropped and are consistently below 2%, with more than 80% of calls being answered in 20 seconds or less.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say the migration to Servicing Solutions eliminated many sleepless nights for me,” said Donal. “In my 30 years in this industry, I’ve used several servicing partners. This has been, by far, the smoothest process and the best example of a true partnership. They put our interests before theirs…that is a rarity today, but it is the right recipe for a long-term partnership.”