Norton Finance – an SMS solution Case Study

Business SMS for financial organisations

A ProcessFlows text messaging solution is being used by Norton Finance to enhance their customer engagement process. As a result, lead conversion rates are higher, customer satisfaction is good and they are able to maintain a competitive advantage.

Independent financial advice

Norton Finance is an independent financial broker. Forty years ago, this Rotherham based family owned business provided secured loans and mortgages.

The Norton Group of companies now deal in every aspect of the lending market; sourcing a range of financial products and services specifically tailored to meet the unique requirements of each customer.

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business

In tough economic times, it is ever-more challenging to stay one step ahead of the competition. Norton Finance has addressed this by ensuring they operate efficiently; maximise and nurture every new business lead and maintain good customer service.

Excellent customer service is essential. People like to feel valued, so if you look after customers from the outset, chances are they will remain loyal, which is good for business – Keith Stringer, Director of Norton Finance.

Norton Finance relies on technology to help

The company deals with a huge volume of mortgage and loan applications, many of which are applied for online, plus requests for debt advice, retirement and insurance services. It generates a lot of information, communications and back-end processing.

Norton Finance has invested in technology to help make these processes more efficient. IT systems speed up the loan approval and completion process and SMS technology is being used to enhance communications with customers during that process.

Every enquiry is potential new business

Good communications are an important element of Norton Finance’s customer engagement process and this is reflected in their lead enquiry conversion rate.

There is nothing worse than a post-enquiry or application ‘void’. If no confirmation or communication is received, people will question; has my application been received? Maybe it dropped into an internet ‘black hole’? Do I need to get in touch again?

In order to maximise lead conversion rates and avoid enquiry drop-off, Norton Finance responds to all new customer enquiries on the same working day.

The engagement process begins with a personal call to acknowledge receipt of the customers’ application/enquiry and to gather additional information. Further telephone contact is scheduled at key stages during the processing of applications, to keep customers updated with progress before final notification of completion date.

Contact reinforcements

Norton Finance wanted a text messaging solution that would seamlessly integrate with their incumbent Lead Management and Loan & Mortgage processing systems.

ProcessFlows custom-built and installed a server based SMS software solution to enable two-way text-to-email messaging within the familiar system interfaces used by staff every day.

The SMS system allows Norton Finance to set up automatic, scheduled reminders at key stages during the finance application process to make sure that no customer contact is missed.

It’s simple, but very effective. Customers really appreciate being kept informed. Such diversity enables us to retain excellent communications and this is reflected in our business growth – Jason Weakley, IT Manager of Norton Finance.

Future plans

Having proven the reliability and robustness of the SMS solution and the front-line effectiveness of text as a customer contact reinforcement, Norton Finance are set to build on that and plan to expand use of text within marketing and for customer payment reminders.