Table of Contents
Introduction
This article explains Agent Walkthroughs in basic terms. If you are new to the concept of Agent Walkthroughs, this article is for you. However, if you already have a foundation of knowledge that you would like to expand upon, feel free to skip to our other articles that dive into Walkthroughs in greater detail. Check out our Creating Agent Walkthroughs, Agent Walkthrough Role-based Access, and Agent Walkthrough Groups articles for more advanced information on Agent Walkthroughs.
Revenue Use Case
Use Case: Process Wizards/Revenue
The Problem
A lender decides to implement a new payment program to increase collections from borrowers who are undergoing hardship. In order to implement this plan within the company, they train new employees, make quick reference guides about how a loan or borrower becomes eligible for the program and demonstrate to their people the way to implement the payment program within their lending software. The result is that agents now use the payment program as a way to appease angry customers, not just to help customers who qualify. The program is occasionally improperly implemented due to human error.
LoanPro's Solution
Agent Walkthroughs are an excellent way to make sure revenue-driving measures are implemented and adopted well. For something like a payment program, a loan will only qualify, and the Walkthrough to implement the program will only be made available, based on the lender's business logic. The program enrollment will happen through the walkthrough, but the changes to the loan will be made behind the scenes by Automation Engine, making the plan effective, and training and adoption easy, speeding implementation.
Compliance Use Case
Use Case: Process Wizards/Compliance
The Problem
A lender has a borrower who is called to active-duty military service, qualifying them for an interest rate reduction from 15% to 6%. The borrower calls the lender, asking to lower their interest rate. The agent is skeptical, but the borrower explains that the interest rate reduction is required by law. The agent reduces the interest rate to 6%, but no documentation on the call to active duty was ever requested. And since nothing but the rate change was recorded, so an audit of the loan might prompt the business to raise the rate back to what it was, creating compliance problems down the road.
LoanPro's Solution
Agent Walkthroughs help keep you compliant. An Agent Walkthrough is designed to walk servicing agents, managers, and other personnel through a specific process. As the user moves through each screen, they can enter information relevant to the process, and can be required to enter necessary information. Completing a process using an Agent Walkthrough ensures consistency, trackability, and that the necessary information will be gathered and provided, keeping the lender compliant.
Efficiency Use Case
Use Cases: Process Wizards/Efficiency
The Problem
During the life of a loan, a borrower may declare bankruptcy. This process includes several steps, and can be quite involved. It also doesn't come up that often, so it probably requires special training and knowledge about all the moving parts. If a bankruptcy isn't handled correctly, it's possible the lender will lose their claim to repayment of the debt. So, it's important to make sure bankruptcy or other less-common lending processes are something that servicing agents and managers are trained on. It's also important not to let untrained personnel make uninformed bankruptcy decisions. Walkthroughs help solve these issues.
LoanPro's Solution
Lenders create Walkthroughs for lending processes, like bankruptcy, so they can give permission only to specific servicing agents to carry out those processes. Lenders can also set rules to check that a loan qualifies for a process before it's carried out. When agents use a Walkthrough they are guided through a screen-by-screen process within LoanPro that lets them enter only relevant information for each step. Each screen within the Walkthrough includes customizable, detailed instructions. Any important updates to a loan that should be made as part of the process are done behind the scenes by the Automation Engine, moving decision making to the business level and reducing training time and cost as well as human error.
Highlights
An Agent Walkthrough guides LoanPro users through a processes by presenting sequential screens that contain or gather information relevant to the process. Each screen includes customizable instructions to lower the possibility of human error.
LoanPro's Loan Management System (LMS) is a powerful tool. We understand that it may be a bit daunting to expect every member of your team to master both loan processes and the Loan Management System itself. Agent Walkthroughs make lending processes easy to follow with very little training.
You've likely used a walkthrough before to install an application. Without walkthroughs, you'd need a background in computing just to set up a new printer or internet browser, and that would just be annoying. LoanPro's Agent Walkthroughs are just like the installation walkthroughs you have seen before, but they exist entirely within LMS and walk users through your own loan servicing processes. Best of all, they are configurable.
Where Do Agent Walkthroughs Fit?
Like we discussed above, Agent Walkthroughs are set up to guide you through a complex process. Some processes, such as dealing with a fraud claim or handling a bankruptcy, involve multiple steps on different pages within LMS. Agent Walkthroughs simplify this process significantly. If implemented properly, the Agent Walkthrough will not only explain how to complete the required steps but also take you to the right pages to do so.
Rules and Validations
We mentioned above that Agent Walkthroughs help eliminate process missteps and mistakes. Agent Walkthroughs make it easier to follow the correct steps, but you may be wondering, "What if a user uses an Agent Walkthrough on a loan that doesn't need it and ruins something?"
LoanPro uses what we call Rules and Validations as a solution to this problem. Rules and Validations work in tandem as a team of fail-safes.
Rules determine if a loan qualifies for an Agent Walkthrough before it's opened. Essentially, the rule contains business logic to determine if the Agent Walkthrough should be available for the loan. If a loan doesn't qualify for an Agent Walkthrough due to the Rule that you set, the Agent Walkthrough cannot be opened. Each Agent Walkthrough requires a Rule, and you can only set one on each Agent Walkthrough. As an lender, you determine the logic that goes into a rule—they're customizable.
Validations are similar to Rules but vary slightly. While Rules run before an Agent Walkthrough is opened, Validations run as soon as you open an Agent Walkthrough. Validations can restrict access to an Agent Walkthrough but, unlike Rules, don't have to. Instead, you can decide to set specific Validations as "not required" to let users use their judgment on whether to use the Walkthrough, based on the loan situation. Validations are set up to give your personnel a bit of flexibility. Validations also offer the chance to add some clarity on why a loan may or may not qualify for a specific Agent Walkthrough. At least one Validation must be created for an Agent Walkthrough like Rules, but you can create as many Validations as you'd like. As a lender, you get to determine the logic these contain as well.
Categories and Groups
Once you have created your Agent Walkthroughs, it's a good idea to organize them. You can do this easily with Walkthrough Categories. The idea of Walkthrough Categories is straightforward—they allow you to group your Walkthroughs into categories like servicing, fraud, or bankruptcy. These are merely used to tidy up your list of Agent Walkthroughs and help you find related Walkthroughs more easily.
Agent Walkthrough Groups, on the other hand, allow you to determine which users within your company have access to which Agent Walkthroughs. If you have specific personnel that you'd like to restrict a group of Agent Walkthroughs from using, Groups will help you do so. For example, if you'd prefer to revoke access to fraud Walkthroughs specifically from your servicing team, creating a Group is the best option. Each agent user within LMS can be assigned to an Agent Walkthroughs Group, and any Agent Walkthroughs that are not categorized within the assigned group will not be viewable by the user.
User Role-based Access can play a part in Agent Walkthroughs as well. Some users prefer to create "Walkthrough Only" roles that grant users access to make changes to loans only through Agent Walkthroughs. A user role like this is useful for personnel that are still becoming familiar with the software or personnel who are expected to make only specific, minor changes.
The access that an Agent Walkthrough provides supersedes the access granted by the user's assigned role. In other words, if a user is denied access to information by their user role, an Agent Walkthrough that accesses that information will grant access to the user within the Walkthrough. For example, a user may be denied the access to view sensitive customer information. But if the same user opens an Agent Walkthrough that has access to that sensitive customer information, the user will be able to view it while within the Agent Walkthrough.
This Feature is Not
As with any feature, getting the most out of Agent Walkthroughs requires you to understand their limitations. Here's a few things that Walkthroughs are ill-suited for:
- Walkthroughs are not total automation. Walkthroughs make it easy for your agents to service their loans, but human input is still required. Though, walkthroughs do work well in tandem with our main automation tool, Automation Engine.
- Walkthroughs are not failure-proof. Walkthroughs help your agents navigate through the software, but it's still possible for an agent to make a mistake once they get there. Good training and clear instructions can help mitigate that risk.
What’s Next?
If you have made it this far, you have a great start on creating and using Agent Walkthroughs. The information in this article is basic, however, and the topics discussed here are discussed in greater detail in other articles. If you would like to learn more about how to create Agent Walkthroughs, our Creating Agent Walkthroughs article is a great source of information. We also have additional material on creating Agent Walkthrough Groups and creating roles specifically for Walkthroughs.
Written by Nate Christensen
Updated on March 27th, 2024