The best way of ensuring the balance between automation and the personal touch is to embrace a collaborative digital strategy. The number of digital partners available to asset finance companies, and their range of capabilities, offers great optionality but requires clear thinking.
Getting the right digital partners in place can provide a “joined-up” experience for customers and allow the organization to make the most of the diverse advantages that other tech providers in the market enable.
Funding Options’ Conrad Ford thinks that asset finance companies are well-practiced at discerning good partnerships since “they have always been hugely important to the industry”. He also points out: “Dealers and manufacturers are a good half of the industry, but they are quite traditional in how they partner, so the moment someone gets in and disrupts that, it will take off”.
What makes for the best partnership?
The best partnerships now are hybrids of the new and old. One consumer lending technology company, for example, engages in point-of-sale finance by providing instant finance for regular retail purchases. Sensitivity analysis and underwriting can happen in real-time, and the customer journey is absolutely changed. Affirming this approach, Cloud Lending’s Mukul Mittal says, “Digital partnerships should be about creating both seamlessness and transparency”.
Mittal adds, “You should be able to walk into a store to try and procure something, and while you’re doing that, retailers, brokers, and lenders should all be working behind the scenes to provide you with transparent finance at the point of sale”. This is not only great for the customer, but for the lender as well. They can close the deal while the customer is on the shop floor. Finally, with digital partnerships, dealers have the financial muscle power to handle the financing options.
Read other blogs in the Asset Finance, the Digital Age, and Readying for Success series.
Asset Finance, the Digital Age, and Readying for Success
Another Big Asset Management Innovation: AutomationWhat’s Really Imperative When It Comes to Asset Finance Innovation?
Making Finance Decisions in Minutes…It’s Fast Becoming Mission Critical
Many of the insights shared are expounded upon in the Cloud Lending report, Asset Finance: Top tips for succeeding in the new digital landscape. The report offers much more important information, including the opportunities of open technology and APIs in driving Asset Finance today and tomorrow.
Download the report, and please share your thoughts with us.