Customer experiences that feel like home with Sovereign Network Group
Published
Sovereign Network Group (SNG) is one of England's top Housing Associations, currently supplying 84,000 accessible and affordable homes (with more being added every year) to people across the South of England. We spoke to Rachel Burton, Sales Operations Manager at SNG about creating customer journeys that feel like home, in the highly governed and litigious property sector.
Feeling at home with Sovereign Network Group
Reduced time to verfiy ID and SoF by one week.
Improved customer experience and feedback.
Enhanced security and confidence for the SNG team.
Driven by the vision of improving the quality of life of their customers and respective communities for generations to come, SNG provides thousands of affordable homes across Southern England, but their impact reaches far beyond bricks and mortar.
Building communities starts with people and SNG is focused on providing positive experiences for every single one of their customers, from initial contact, to handing over the keys and beyond. This dedication to customer experience is not without its challenges, especially for a charitable organisation working in a tightly regulated industry.
SNG is dedicated to designing processes that ensure that those accessing their services and resources feel comfortable, informed and cared for throughout the full length of their journey together. They believe the success of their programmes depends on ensuring that every interaction between SNG and its customers is proactive and positive.
"We receive and respond to thousands of enquiries and cases each month, our systems and processes must be robust enough to handle large volumes, but also friendly and welcoming. We don’t just want to get our customers into houses, we want our customers to feel at home with us. In the same way we believe safe homes are the foundations of thriving communities, we believe every interaction builds the foundation of our customer’s experiences.”
Rachel Burton, Sales Operations Manager
To ensure their clients have the best experiences possible, SNG stays focused on their mission; maintaining high standards through training and working with suppliers that can mirror their commitment to exceptional service.
"Our customer’s experiences with Thirdfort are 100% aligned with the high level of customer experience we provide. It’s important our entire team and the businesses we work with are on board with us when it comes to our customers.”
Rachel Burton, Sales Operations Manager
Thoughtfulness at every touchpoint
The journey of getting into a new home is notoriously lengthy and involves a large volume of administration for all parties involved. At SNG, the number of touchpoints throughout the property transaction process are necessary and thoughtfully designed to accommodate a wide spectrum of individual needs and accessibility requirements. To ensure SNG is delivering excellence to such a varied range of customers, they rely heavily on feedback to shape their programmes, including identity and financial verification.
"We are always looking for insights into how we can do things better for our customers and one of the main pieces of feedback we received was that going to the post office, and completing ID verification manually felt inaccessible and overwhelming for our customers, so we decided to make a change.”
Rachel Burton, Sales Operations Manager
Since implementing Thirdfort, Rachel has received significantly more positive feedback from customers who appreciate the accessibility and simplicity of remote, digital verification. The SNG team have also reported positive outcomes in terms of efficiency, reducing the time it takes to get customers verified by a week.
"Using Thirdfort for Identity and Source of Funds has reduced our verification processes by one week. This is a huge improvement in such a heavily regulated environment. We are a charitable organisation, so for us ensuring resources are managed effectively is paramount.”
Rachel Burton, Sales Operations Manager
While their systems are built to handle high quantities of enquiries, SNG understands that each case and customer is unique. To ensure the SNG get the information they need to be compliant and prevent financial crime while preventing their customers from having to perform superfluous tasks, SNG tailors each verification using Thirdfort.
"Being able to customise our process based on what each customer needs means everyone is getting the best experience possible. Our costs are lower, our team’s time is spent more effectively and our customers don’t have to provide information we don’t need.”
Rachel Burton, Sales Operations Manager
Building communities with confidence
Housing Associations like SNG exist to get as many people into homes as possible. The impact they have on the communities they serve is insurmountable and the work they do helps hundreds of thousands of people each year. Unfortunately, whenever there is money involved, risks arise. Security is taken seriously at SNG to ensure the resources are distributed fairly in line with government-approved policies, and ID verification plays a crucial role in this.
"We need to ensure we are giving opportunities to the right people, our access to AML resources are limited and it's vital we have the confidence in our verification processes.”
Rachel Burton, Sales Operations Manager
Identity and financial verification is more than just a box-ticking exercise for SNG. To drive the best outcomes within the communities they work with, SNG need to be sure they are allocating their resources responsibly and effectively.
"Thirdfort checks for us are not just for checking IDs and making sure we are compliant. They give us the confidence to know we are providing opportunities to those who really need them. The data Thirdfort provides us helps us to ensure we are getting the right people into homes and no one is taking advantage of the system”
Rachel Burton, Sales Operations Manager
Reinforced with the confidence that Thirdfort’s ID verification products bring, the team at SNG are able to keep focus on their mission, delivering a positive impact to the communities they serve.
"For us, the benefits really outweigh the costs. Our mission is to keep the customer at the heart of what we do and get as many people as possible into high-quality homes. Thirdfort enables us to do that while providing great experiences for our customers It really has transformed us. It’s better for us, the business, our customers and the whole landscape. It has had a massive impact”
Rachel Burton, Sales Operations Manager
For more information on how Thirdfort can help you transform your ID and Source of Funds verification processes, contact our team today.
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