Hull based secured loan specialist The Personal Finance Centre (TPFC) have chosen Fintech firm Nivo to implement their app based application process and accelerate and improve customer journeys when arranging mortgages and second charge loans.
The Personal Finance Centre is aiming to double its lending volumes this year and in June relocated to new headquarters in Hull. It sees the digital transformation of its loan application and customer on-boarding processes as key to its success.
The broker had identified that the time taken to collect relevant information from customers, especially if sent by post, was creating delays and an unnecessary administrative burden. They estimated that up to half of their time was being spent chasing documents and responses and the added friction created a perception that a high degree of customer effort was required and this led to higher drop offs.
Rather than developing its own solution, which can be both expensive and time consuming, The Personal Finance Centre selected Nivo’s five-star reviewed app to provide a quick, intuitive, and secure way of communicating with customers during a loan application.
The app will streamline and accelerate the application process, reduce the time and effort expended on administration and reduce The Personal Finance Centre’s use of email and post for communications, moving instead to a smooth and easy to use mobile experience built on secure instant messaging with higher levels of security and ease of use than that provided by email.
The Personal Finance Centre customers are also able to use the Nivo app to provide biometric ID verification, E-signatures and share documents such as bank statements and payslips with the broker simply and securely. The Personal Finance Centre is also employing smart message ‘bots’ which can assist customers 24 hours a day, automating and accelerating the application process.
The Personal Finance Centre has identified considerable benefits of the digitalisation of its business including substantially reduced time for staff spent chasing customers and in completing repetitive tasks and cutting the sales journey time to less than three days. It also estimates a reduction in the average application to completion time to less than 20 days, reducing case drop offs and increasing revenue.
Announcing the partnership, Mark Cooke, managing director of The Personal Finance Centre, commented: “The digital transformation of our business is key to our growth plans so when we looked for a partner to provide the FinTech solution we needed, Nivo were able to provide everything we wanted very quickly and avoiding the expense of in-house development.
“Nivo’s app improves and accelerates the customer journey and should drastically reduce the amount of time our team spends on boring administrative tasks, freeing up resource to add value with our service. In addition, the secure messenger system enables us to communicate with customers quickly and far more securely than with email which is an important factor when dealing with sensitive financial documents.
“With our sales process and administration now much quicker and slicker, I’m looking forward to seeing the positive impact Nivo will have on our customers’ experience and ultimately our revenue.”
Zach Thomas (pictured), account executive at Nivo, said: “The Nivo app is a quick and cost-effective way for brokers to reduce application timescales, improve their communication security and provide a smoother and safer journey for their customers. Time is critical in the mortgage sector with conversions improving as application processing times get quicker. We can integrate the Nivo white label app with brokers’ systems in around two weeks and the benefits of digitalising processes such as ID verification and document transfer can be seen almost instantly.
“Consumers are becoming more mobile savvy and these days expect to transact with companies using well designed and intuitive apps. Nivo provides brokers with an impressive and professional solution which gives their customers a great digital experience which complements an excellent personal service.”
