We connected with AmeriSave’s President of Wholesale Lending, Michael Brenning, to get his opinion on the partnership between Capacity and AmeriSave. In his role, he’s responsible for building a technology-focused and service-driven wholesale lending platform to partner with America’s independent mortgage broker community in new and exciting ways. We’re happy to report that our product is helping him and his team do their best work.
Q. Why did you specifically choose to work with Capacity?
A. I had the pleasure of being a second-time customer. I used Capacity at a former organization before AmeriSave, so I already knew its power and capabilities. When I started working at AmeriSave, I knew Capacity’s automation would be helpful.
At AmeriSave, we wanted to create a persona. We were impressed with Capacity’s speed and learning capabilities, so we implemented Capacity as the backbone of our persona. Personas resonate with consumers, so we wanted to create an identity to stand out in a crowded market. We believed the best way to bring this persona to life was to give it a personality and the ability to answer questions. Now our chatbot, Aussie, exudes our brand’s personality while effectively sharing important documents and information.
Q. What problems were you looking to solve when bringing on Capacity?
A. Leveraging and scaling. The questions in our industry can get very redundant, and when you’ve got tens of thousands of users, it’s likely that they’ll ask the same question multiple times a day.
We understand that no one wants to be stuck on a phone line or wait for an email response. Consumers want immediate gratification, so creating a self-help channel where our customers can access instant and valuable answers was a big undertaking.
Q. Is there anything that Capacity has solved for you that you weren’t initially looking to solve?
A. We originally didn’t plan on having LiveChat. That was a helpful addition for us because it’s another way that our broker partners want to engage with us. Before we knew Capacity offered it, we were out exploring other options, but having it all from one provider has been really helpful and cost-effective.
Another big win for us was adding the ticketing system. Regardless if a question or inquiry comes through the chatbot or not, we’ll get an email or a phone call as well. Our support team that takes the phone calls and responds to emails can create separate tickets from the chatbot and still store them inside of Capacity, which helps our reporting and tracking of incoming tickets and questions.
By offering those products, Capacity solved two major problems for us because we would’ve had to form other vendor relationships, launch separate products, and create disparate integrations. Capacity certainly has saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars by being a one-stop-shop. Now we can offer competitive pricing to our customers, achieve higher margins, or hire more employees to grow. It’s definitely a win for us.
Q. Did you have any fears before choosing Capacity?
A. I used to be one of those skeptics about artificial intelligence (AI) because the only way it had ever been brought to life in the past was in movies. Then I read an article in National Mortgage News where Capacity’s CEO and co-founder, David Karandish, was quoted. It was the first time I’d ever seen AI being referenced in the mortgage industry. Because our industry is typically slow and stodgy, it piqued my interest enough to learn more.
After talking with David about Capacity’s usability, I didn’t really have any fears. David explained how computers learn and fill in blanks. It just comes down to having a wide enough content base and asking questions or inquiries in a variety of ways to train the AI. He was the first person that could explain how AI works to me.
Q. How would you describe our product in your own words?
A. A game-changer. Capacity allows us to meet our customers wherever they want to be met from a customer service standpoint. By providing customers with a self-service platform they can access 24/7, we can differentiate our company.