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Mortgage Sales Lead-to-Application Workflow Analytics [Live dashboard]
How to make it easier for your mortgage sales team to improve their performance
Mortgage sales function performance is one of the most significant contributors to mortgage lenders' profitability.
Borrower Lead to Loan Application is one of the mortgage sales function workflows that has the most impact on the sales function performance.
And it's one of the workflows a mortgage sales team has the most control over.
So, improving lead-to-loan application workflow performance can deliver significant business value for mortgage companies.
But it's tough for a sales team to improve their workflow performance when they don't know:
So, in this post, I'll share how to automate operational analytics to help the mortgage sales team answer these questions and improve lead-to-application workflow performance.
This post results from the same solution design process we use when companies hire us to automate operational analytics.
And the live dashboard below resulted from the implementation of this solution design.
So, if you find this dashboard helpful and would like to have the same, you can use this post as a specification, and most data analytics engineers will be able to implement it.
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Bonus: Get operational analytics for your team for free. Our team offers 4 spots each quarter for free operational analytics implementation. So, if you're looking for one, feel free to reach out to us to see if a spot is available.
Before we dive into the solution design details, let’s see what a solution design is.
The goal of the solution design is to answer how to solve the problem and provide a blueprint for implementing the solution.
In the case of operational analytics solution design, the problem is that we can’t measure the performance of the workflow because:
An operational analytics solution answers how to automate operational data extraction, processing, analysis, and visualization to make it easier.
In this post revision, we’ll focus on the last 2 points (analysis and visualization), and in future posts, I’ll share blueprints for data extraction and processing.
So, the solution design below consists of 2 parts.
The first one answers the what:
The second one answers how to automate it. The “HOW” part is more technical as it’s intended to serve as specifications for data and analytics engineers.
To give you a better idea of the final result, we’ve implemented this solution design.
Below, you can see an embedded version of the dashboard.
Here's the link to open the dashboard in a new tab.
1. WHAT
To measure the performance of lead-to-application workflow, we first need to define:
Below is the definition of the lead-to-application workflow that we use for this solution design.
The workflow starts when an LO has the means to contact a borrower.
Event: Borrower lead contact details added
The workflow ends when LO has 6 TRIDA items to start loan processing.
Event: Loan application submitted
The output of the workflow is Submitted Loan Application (Entity).
Generate a loan application that results in a funded loan to profit from the gain on sale or origination.
Event: Loan application funded (Event)
A workflow agent is the person who decides what to do next and when to complete the workflow.
In our case, the person who makes decisions is the Loan Officer (Entity).
To measure lead-to-application workflow performance, we first need to define what performance means for each of the performance aspects:
What is quantity:
Quantity is the total count of work product units produced by the workflow.
In our case, the work product of lead-to-application workflow is the loan application.
So, quantity is the total number of submitted loan applications.
How to measure:
What is volume:
Volume is the total size of the work product produced by the workflow.
In our case, the work product of lead-to-application workflow is the loan application.
The size of the loan application is defined by its dollar value.
So, volume is the total dollar value of the submitted loan applications.
How to measure:
What is speed:
Speed is the time it takes to produce a single unit of work product. The less time needed to produce a single unit, the higher the speed.
In the lead-to-application workflow, speed is the time it takes for a Loan Officer (LO) to get from where they can contact the borrower to the point where the borrower submits an application.
How to measure:
What is quality:
Quality can be defined as the extent to which the product fulfills the purpose for which it was produced. The better the product meets its purpose, the higher the quality.
The purpose of a loan application is to result in a funded loan to make a profit from a gain on sale or origination.
So, the quality of the loan application can be determined by how effectively they result in a closed loan.
How to measure:
What is efficiency:
Efficiency is how well resources are used to achieve the outcome.
The outcome of the lead-to-application workflow is a submitted loan application.
The main resource of the mortgage sales function is the Loan Officers (LO) time.
So, efficiency can be measured by the volume produced per LO.
How to measure:
What is effectiveness:
Effectiveness is how well the workflow achieves the intended outcome.
The outcome of the lead-to-application workflow is a submitted loan application.
So, the effectiveness of the workflow can be defined as the conversion rate from borrower lead to submitted application.
How to measure:
What is experience:
Experience can be defined as the satisfaction and perception of customers throughout the process of achieving a specific outcome.
In the case of lead-to-application workflow, the customer is the borrower.
The outcome is a submitted loan application.
It can be measured by asking the borrower to score their experience after loan application submission.
How to measure:
What is compliance:
Compliance can be defined as the extent to which carried-out operations meet the standards set by regulators, the company, or the market.
An operation is a single instance of moving from borrower lead to submitted application.
Examples of standards for lead-to-application workflow are below:
How to measure:
2. HOW
To understand "What's their performance?" LOs need first to ask the question and then interpret the answer.
To automate this process, we'll create a self-service dashboard with 8 predefined questions (one per performance measure) and an easy-to-understand visualization of the answers.
We’ll use Metabase’s Dashboard feature to achieve that.
Below is a configuration for the dashboard:
mt0-quantity-per-monthmt1-volume-per-monthmt2-speed-per-monthmt3-quality-per-monthmt4-efficiency-per-monthmt5-effectiveness-per-monthmt6-experience-per-monthmt7-compliance-per-month
To provide the answers, the dashboard needs to know how to ask the question.
So, we’ll need to define 8 questions, one for each performance measure broken down by date.
Measures broken down by date are called metrics.
We’ll use Metabase’s Questions feature to define our “metrics”.
Below is a definition of the metrics:
Metric #0
mt0-quantity-per-monthds-mortgage-sales-operationsms4-completed-mortgage-operations-countMetric #1
mt1-volume-per-monthds-mortgage-sales-operationsms1-completed-mortgage-sales-value-sumMetric #2
mt2-speed-per-monthds-mortgage-sales-operationsms2-completed-mortgage-sales-duration-averageMetric #3
mt3-quality-per-monthds-mortgage-sales-operationsms3-funded-mortgage-sales-percentageMetric #4
mt4-efficiency-per-monthds-mortgage-sales-operationsms6-mortgage-sales-efficiencyMetric #5
mt5-effectiveness-per-monthds-mortgage-sales-operationsms7-completed-mortgage-sales-percentageMetric #6
mt6-experience-per-monthds-mortgage-sales-operationsms9-mortgage-operations-experience-averageMetric #7
mt7-compliance-per-monthds-mortgage-sales-operationss11-compliant-mortgage-operations-percentage
Metrics consist of the dataset, measure, and dimension.
To create the metrics defined above, we need to define measures.
We’ll use Metabase’s Modeling features to define our measures.
Bellow definitions of the measures:
Measure #1
ms1-completed-mortgage-sales-value-sumds-mortgage-sales-operationssg-completed-mortgage-sales-operationsMeasure #2
ms2-completed-mortgage-sales-duration-averageds-mortgage-sales-operationssg-completed-mortgage-sales-operationsMeasure #3
ms3-funded-mortgage-sales-percentageds-mortgage-sales-operationsms4-funded-mortgage-operations-countms5-completed-mortgage-operations-countMeasure #4
ms4-funded-mortgage-operations-countds-mortgage-sales-operationssg-funded-mortgage-sales-operationsMeasure #5
ms5-completed-mortgage-operations-countds-mortgage-sales-operationssg-completed-mortgage-sales-operationsMeasure #6
ms6-mortgage-sales-efficiencyds-mortgage-sales-operationsms1-mortgage-sales-volume / Count distinct Workflow operations [Loan Officer]Measure #7
ms7-completed-mortgage-sales-percentageds-mortgage-sales-operationsms4-completed-mortgage-operations-countms8-mortgage-operations-countMeasure #8
ms8-mortgage-operations-countds-mortgage-sales-operationsMeasure #9
ms9-mortgage-operations-experience-averageds-mortgage-sales-operationssg-completed-mortgage-sales-operationsMeasure #10
ms10-compliant-mortgage-operations-countds-mortgage-sales-operationssg-compliant-mortgage-sales-operationsMeasure #11
ms11-compliant-mortgage-operations-percentageds-mortgage-sales-operationssg-completed-mortgage-sales-operationsms10-compliant-mortgage-operations-countms8-mortgage-operations-count
The measures defined above rely on measuring a specific sub-segment of the dataset.
To define these segments, we’ll use Metabase’s Segments feature.
Below is a definition of the segments:
Segment #1
sg-completed-mortgage-sales-operationsds-mortgage-sales-operationsSegment #2
sg-funded-mortgage-sales-operationsds-mortgage-sales-operationsSegment #3
sg-compliant-mortgage-sales-operationsds-mortgage-sales-operations
To measure the metrics defined above, we need the data.
Below is a definition of the data model used to measure the metrics above.
This is a derived table from the lead-to-application events.
To define the model, we used Metabase’s Model feature.
Below is the definition of the model:
Dataset #1
ds-mortgage-sales-operationsI hope this post gave you insight into how you can automate performance measurement of the lead-to-application workflow.
Also, if you’d like to stay on top of the latest mortgage technology and see how it can be applied to mortgage operations, consider signing up for our mortgage technology newsletter.
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Bonus: Get operational analytics for your team for free. Our team offers 4 spots each quarter for free operational analytics implementation. So, if you're looking for one, feel free to reach out to us to see if a spot is available.
I’m a software consultant with background in software engineering. Currently, I run a mortgage software consulting and development company that builds custom tools and automation solutions for mortgage lenders.
