“We continue to be passionate about our industry, and evolving with it has been both stimulating and rewarding.”
One of the biggest challenges organizations face today is having an abundance of tools in their tech stack. While these tools provide value, using them to ensure everything is in sync to create a uniform experience can be difficult. Disjointed interfaces, inconsistent branding, and data that does not communicate can lead to frustration for both loan officers and borrowers. Massachusetts-based Volly—the mortgage and banking industries’ most innovative component-based platform that seamlessly integrates marketing and customer engagement strategies with robust lending technologies—can streamline CRM and digital engagement activities, centralize marketing collateral and provide a POS solution all in one environment. This provides relief for IT, marketing, and compliance departments. Having everything under one roof can reduce expenses, improve efficiency, and increase loan officer production.
Volly was created following the combination of three SaaS-based technology companies. These companies started approximately 15 years ago when mortgage marketing was an afterthought. Much to their surprise, they found mortgage bankers who mailed postcards that resembled “dental appointment reminders” and used Excel for their CRM. “So, we built a CRM platform specifically for the mortgage industry—and we embraced a boutique approach to marketing with the #1 goal of making the borrower feel like they are more than just a transaction,” says Michael Bedard, VP, Client Services at Volly.
“We immediately received positive feedback and started working with an enterprise-level bank. At this point, brand assimilation became a very important part of our business.”
As the industry advanced, so too did the need to work with lead providers and develop email strategies for competing against larger audiences. Twenty lenders were emailing borrowers at once, and clients desired a way to stand out from the pack. This need has inspired the development of Volly’s Digital Engagement platform. Customer journeys, landing pages, and integrations with lead management systems are all critical—but so is the unique approach that one size does not fit all. “Borrowers are aware of when they are being ‘automated’ and this has an impact on the relationships they’re building with a lender or a loan officer,” says Michael Bedard. “Digital Engagement delivers an attention to branding and strategy that is critical.”
Volly is still growing. They have added a POS solution to their platform. “We also continue to ask our clients our favorite question: ‘How can we help?’ This has led to digital marketing, social media, and video projects for clients,” explains Michael Bedard. “We continue to be passionate about our industry, and evolving with it has been both stimulating and rewarding.”
Volly makes it a point to streamline the tech stack: their CRM, Digital Engagement, Marketing Portal, and POS solutions are together on one platform. The result is a reduction in meetings, fewer names to remember, and fewer obstacles as loan officers work to achieve their weekly goals. “We also streamline those tasks that eat away at a marketing department’s bandwidth, such as creating copy, designing emails, and producing marketing collateral,” says Michael Bedard. “In larger organizations, we know there can be much demand within marketing departments—everyone needs everything done yesterday—so we work alongside our clients as an extension of their team.”
A national bank utilizing Volly’s Salesforce package had multiple vendors for collateral, email, and fulfilment. The company streamlined these services, improved onboarding, and oversaw expansion into other lines of business. Overall, user growth and activity skyrocketed 600%. Says Michael Bedard, “With any implementation, there is a learning process. Clients modify their technologies in ways that work best for them, so there is always a new language to learn. Repetitive. We work with marketing departments in many ways, but at the end of the day, we need to earn their trust.” The company regularly adds new integrations to its platform to better streamline implementations and provide more solutions to clients. “We are also expanding the wholesale side of our business, including providing a broker platform to third-party originators that will allow for dynamic branding, CRM, and marketing automation,” says Michael Bedard. “The goal is to increase lead pipelines and customer conversion rates.”
