Pepper Money CEO on the importance of conversion
Conversion is important for the whole lending ecosystem, according to Pepper Money CEO Mario Rehayem. As a former broker himself, Rehayem has a special appreciation for the importance of loan conversions.
Rehayem recently chatted with MPA about the importance of conversions.
“I’ve spent over two decades working alongside brokers, and in my recent broker interviews it became apparent that broker pain points haven’t changed much at all,” he said. “The fundamental challenge of conversion still exists.”
Rehayem said that when customers spend hours with a broker, only to find out they are not successful in obtaining a loan, it can be a frustrating experience.
“As you can imagine, for the customer, there’s a bit of excitement that they’re taking this significant step, applying for a loan – one of the largest investments they’ll ever make – only to [sometimes] find out later that they are not successful,” he said. “We see this as a very poor experience for the customer; we consider it the point when the customer may begin to doubt their broker’s capabilities of recommending a suitable product.”
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That also puts pressure on the broker, Rehayem said.
“That’s a couple of hours they have put into an investment and got no return – it actually makes bad business sense to continually not convert loans,” he said. “The customer gets a poor experience, and the broker isn’t getting paid. There are ultimately no winners. … Conversion is key, because it’s fundamentally synonymous with delivering a great experience, and delivering on the value of a broker as the expert.”
Rehayem said that Pepper Money continues to invest in technology and processes to boost conversion.
“It makes business sense [for brokers] to try to align their understandings with lenders that are going to convert or have a higher probability of ‘yes’ on every application,” he said. “That’s where Pepper Money has spent a lot of time focusing on better understanding the constraints, the pain points of the customer and the broker, and trying to find better ways to service those customers and brokers to get a higher probability of yes.”
