On Thursday, April 21st, Spark held a webinar, CDFIs: Turn Your Website Into a Lead Generation Tool. We discussed lead generation and the customer decision journey, including how to drive customers to your website, efficiently collect information to qualify them as a lead for your small business loan products and how to provide them with a great customer experience as they move through the loan origination process. View webinar.
A few questions arose at the end of the webinar and I thought it would be helpful to share the answers with you:
Q: Does Spark handle the loan accounting, or is this a separate software need?
A: Our web-based lending platform supports the entire business loan origination process including: pre-qualification (plug-in), loan application, underwriting, packaging and closing, funding, and secondary market sales. At this time, Spark does not handle what some call “loan accounting” or might also be referred to as “loan servicing.”
Q: Are there a range of costs?
A: Yes, pricing is tiered and based on your organization’s needs and small business loan products. Please contact me if you would like to learn more and discuss your particular lending environment.
Q: Can this be adapted for non-CDFI loans?
A: Absolutely. Spark is a configurable tool that can be tailored to meet your organization’s small business lending needs.
Q: Are non-English versions easily available?
A: At this time, Spark does not support multiple languages natively. We understand that this is important for many CDFIs, including CRF, and we are exploring it as a future option. Many web browsers, including Google Chrome, offer translating capability and Spark’s pages are designed to support those web translation features.
Q: Can multiple organizations share a license?
A: The system permits unlimited users within one organization; however, because Spark is configured to be a natural extension of an organization’s brand and existing web presence, multiple organizations cannot share a single license.
If you have any other questions or need further clarification, please send me an email.
