Kristin Shuff on Lightstream and the Loan Experience

Loans have a fascinating cultural property. We might think of ‘loan sharks’ as the present-day manifestation of the ancient pronouncements against taking advantage of people through the giving of loans. More generally, people who handle money in some cultures are seen as ‘unclean.’ So, the topic of loans and lending is by no means a new one.This makes tackling the ‘loan experience’ a unique challenge, and one that the company Lightstream is taking head-on. To learn more, Adam and I chatted with Kristin Shuff, who is the Senior VP of marketing at Lightstream. We hear how Kristin grew up reading Ad Age and early on being captivated by the characters she knew and loved being created by ad agencies. We also discuss how ‘omni-channel’ marketing doesn’t automatically mean ALL channels. Kristin describes how customer and employee centricity are central to mapping a loan experience that correlates for why people are getting loans, and how providing loan information beyond interest rates is a key to their branding efforts.