Car Loans Inc. is implementing a “mobile-first” strategy to cut servicing costs and better the customer experience, according to the company’s Chief Executive Max Haynes.
“Our numbers are showing that over 90% of subprime borrowers have a smartphone,” Haynes said. Some of these consumers are struggling to make their car payments, but never miss a phone payment, which is because these mobile devices are their “window to the world,” he added. “It’s their lifeline, and we want to make sure we are speaking to them using that lifeline rather than endlessly calling them.”
Car Loans Inc. launched an in-app chat feature in April through PaySwag, the company’s technology subsidiary, to allow consumers and customer service representatives to talk to each other in real time.
“With increased scrutiny with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you’ve got to use a lot more care in your approaches to calling borrowers,” Haynes said. “The mobile phone and utilizing technology like PaySwag allow a better, more pleasant form of communication that is on their [the customer’s] terms rather than our terms.”
By ramping up its mobility features, Car Loans Inc. expects its defaults to decline, he added. The mobile features engage consumers and provides an open-communication channel to prevent them from “shutting us out if there is a problem,” Haynes said.
The games can serve as an additional reminder of the consumer’s commitment to their payments. “By having an app or by having this game in front of them it says to them, ‘Hey, you agreed to make a payment on this date and here is the date,’” Haynes said.
“As long as we are in front of them [the consumer], we can typically solve the problem, and we have done a good job to make sure we are constantly engaged with the customer.”
The company currently operates in two states, Nevada and Utah, and works with 30 dealers. It plans to open in Idaho by the end of the year.
