Kennebunk White Paper

Kennebunk Savings Bank white paper for MortgageBot.com

by Gary Crum

Who: Kennebunk Savings Bank

Where: Kennebunk, Maine

Why: Increase customer service

How: Mortgagebot® PowerSite™

Executive Summary Founded in 1871, the $500,000,000 Kennebunk Savings Bank is a true community bank offering a full range of commercial and personal financial products. Already the leading mortgage lender in the county, Kennebunk’s goal was to improve customer service in the mortgage lending process. The refinance boom was overloading capacity. Their strategy was to better utilize branch personnel in the mortgage origination process and improve their website capabilities. Mortgagebot Powersite replaced the Bank’s existing 20 question website questionnaire that customers had liked, but required intense interaction between the customer and the mortgage processors.

System Overview Once the online customer or branch manager completes the Mortgagebot application, Kennebunk utilizes an automated loan processing system that imports the loan application, saving time and decreasing errors. While implementing the new process, management devised several new procedures to take advantage of the point of sale automated underwriting decisions. Most significantly, they were able to shift some underwriting chores to the loan processing center and away from the underwriters. Fewer hands on the loan file has resulted in a more fluid paper flow, and thus better, faster processing.

Multiple Mortgage Delivery Systems At Kennebunk Savings Bank, four traditional mortgage loan officers take mortgage applications using the Bank’s mortgage origination software. In addition, the Mortgagebot Powersite has become the unique application tool at Kennebunk Savings Bank for branch and website originations. The intuitive format allows occasional users such as branch personnel, to effortlessly input a mortgage loan application. Since the branch employee communicates the underwriting findings to the customer immediately, the banking relationship is strengthened and the borrowers are much less inclined to shop further. Additionally, branch personnel can check loan status at the site and provide updates to the customer as the process continues.

Ease of Implementation Management at Kennebunk took advantage of the prerecorded Webinar training offered by Mortgagebot. Training was scheduled around the operating requirements of the branches. Branch personnel required minimal training on how to use the Mortgagebot Powersite and readily embraced the technology as a vast improvement verses taking mortgage applications on paper.

Key Success Factors

· Webinar training was flexible to suit Kennebunk’s training schedules.

· The downloaded application integrated fully with their existing mortgage processing system.

· Management was able to customize the procedures to suit their own customer service needs.

· The project was implemented by a senior level special projects person with full support.

· Management’s rapid completion of the project, starting implementation in May, 2003 and rolling out to customers in July, 2003.

· Adjustment of existing mortgage processing procedures to take advantage of the automated underwriting decisions and Mortgagebot’s online status updates.

Conclusion

A successful implementation was facilitated by Mortgagebot’s easy to follow start-up program. “This was great for us. They have a very sophisticated product that made it incredibly easy to work with. There are great tools that made the process pretty painless,” said Martha Muldoon, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Special Projects.

Including the branches in the mortgage process has improved service and strengthened customer relations within the branches.

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