In the world of business, first impressions matter. The experience a customer has while being onboarded sets the foundation for the entire relationship that follows. This article is about why effective onboarding is a strategic advantage, how it paves the way for great customer experience overall, and how it can be significantly improved by automating the collection of official company data using a single access point.
The role of technology in streamlining onboarding
A smooth and efficient onboarding process boosts customer satisfaction by giving them a pleasant and straightforward experience. It’s about making customers feel valued and ensuring that they understand the products or services being offered. This positive start can lead to increased customer loyalty and a higher likelihood of repeat business.
Technology plays a key role in optimising the onboarding process. Automation and digital tools can help streamline complex tasks, reduce the potential for human error, and speed up the time it takes for customers to start enjoying a product or service. Businesses that leverage technology effectively in their onboarding processes can gain a significant competitive advantage.
A critical aspect of customer onboarding, especially in sectors like finance and legal services, is the collection and verification of customer data. Accurate data collection is vital not only for business operations but also for compliance with regulations. Automating the collection of customer data using a single access point greatly speeds up this part of the process, and ensures the data is accurate, up-to-date, and securely stored.
The Sonovate example
Sonovate is on a mission to reshape the future of work through its finance and payment solutions. It has lent over £2.75 billion to more than 3,300 businesses in 40 countries to ensure over 30,000 people are paid in full and on time for the services they provide. It has become a market leader by outmanoeuvring traditional financial institutions and providing a better customer experience.
Before onboarding a customer, Sonovate needs to carry out Know Your Customer (KYC) checks – which often start with verifying a company’s key details from the relevant company register. For companies registered outside the UK, Sonovate’s risk team used to have to manually consult the appropriate register each time – which slowed the process down. Sonovate’s product team realised the need for a solution they could integrate into their product to provide company data from around the world at scale.
An integrated solution
Sonovate integrated the OpenCorporates API directly into their platform to help solve these challenges more efficiently by automating the collection of global company data.
Sonovate chose this approach for 3 main reasons:
- Global coverage: Sonovate’s product team identified it as the most efficient option to integrate global company data into their platform.
- Data that’s easy to work with: As it arranges the inconsistent data collected from over 140 jurisdictions into a harmonised schema with open identifiers, the data is easy to integrate into Sonovate’s processes and speeds up their ability to improve their customer experience.
- Access at scale via an API: By ingesting data via an API, Sonovate’s team can simply type a company’s name into their platform and relevant data is immediately retrieved.
Impressive results
Bob Strudwick, the CTO of Sonovate stated that their integrated solution “saves our risk team many hours when onboarding new customers”. Instead of needing to manually look up each company in its respective registry each time, they simply call that data via the API, effectively automating the identification and verification process. This frees up their team to analyse and manage risk, as well as focus on overall customer experience, rather than spending lots of time aggregating information.
It has also improved the overall quality of the data in their systems, as standardised data is now delivered automatically, rather than through manual processes.
Conclusion
Effective customer onboarding is more than a mere administrative task; it’s a strategic opportunity to set the tone for a long-lasting customer relationship.
Businesses that prioritise and continuously improve their onboarding processes stand to gain not just in terms of customer satisfaction, but also in operational efficiency, data accuracy, and regulatory compliance.
Automating the onboarding process with the collection of official company data from a single access point, such as the OpenCorporates API, frees up your team so they can focus on overall customer experience and risk management.
No matter what industry you’re competing in, exceptional customer onboarding can become your secret weapon, giving you that one thing everyone wants yet so few manage to get – a true competitive advantage.
For more information
Visit the OpenCorporates website: https://opencorporates.com/
Or contact our sales team: sales@opencorporates.com
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