Prestige Financial Services has delayed until Oct. 10 the launch of its website and mobile app upgrades, Chief of Operations Rich Hyde told Auto Finance News. However,when launched, the new site is expected to boost direct-to-consumer loan originations, he added.
Direct loan originations “haven’t grown much,” Hyde said, because “we’ve sort of held it back until we get the pieces in place to make it as easy as possible for the customer.”
The Salt Lake City-based lender originates fewer than 50 direct loans per month, compared with about 2,500
indirect loans.
“At this point, the real driver of the direct side is the website, and features that are on there,” Hyde said. “The
launch of that will help push forward our direct business.” Prestige delayed the upgrades in order to avoid releasing it in two phases, Hyde said. “The back-end of the website still needs some refining, and we decided to add some additional customer information, some things that made it more interactive and provided more information for customers.”
The upgrades — which were originally projected to launch in September — include educational videos plus the ability for customers to access their balances in real-time, sign up for reward programs, and interact with customer service more efficiently, he added.
