Walsh explains the company can only take this approach thanks to technology.
“Tech is everything to us. Our model is all about helping customers save on their home loan. We don’t have branches, bankers and overheads. We generate cost savings through technology and pass them through to our customers as lower interest rates.
“Athena has also built Australia’s best mortgage experience and Salesforce is the backbone of that. It enables our home loan experts to deliver outstanding customer service and makes the process of applying for a home loan surprisingly simple.”
Digital tools enable Athena to move at speed. “We have been the first in the nation in passing through RBA rate cuts in full to all our customers. We’ve done that five times in the two years since our launch. Having the right technology allows us to listen, learn and innovate for customers and develop great products,” Walsh says.
Athena manages all its interactions with customers through Salesforce, from acquiring new business, through to originating loan documents and making credit decisions. It’s also the platform through which mortgages are managed and the business is funded.
“That view creates efficiencies and the ability to see the customer’s situation holistically, which in turn allows us to provide much better customer service. It’s the foundation of our strategy,” Walsh adds.
He attributes Athena’s success not just to modern technology and design thinking, but also to a fundamental rethink of the standard home loan business models to allow it to better serve customers and the community.
It’s a philosophy with which Deloitte partner and digital customer lead Claire Gillies agrees.
“In today’s hyper-competitive environment, it’s critical to take a human-centred approach and focus on the quality of the customer experience and their needs,” Gillies says. “This journey often starts with a process called service design.
“We engage with customers and end users to put them at the centre of a process to understand what they want and where issues arise in a customer journey. This can include a blend of interviews, interactive workshops or observing how the technology is being used to drive improved insights.”
As a cloud-based technology platform, Gillies says Salesforce makes it easy to take an agile approach to continuously enhance customer processes and see where improvements can be made. Working with a technology that enables clients to quickly share new products, services and processes with customers allows them to remain competitive.
“We spend time defining the customer journey, while also considering how this can be managed in an operationally-efficient way. Stakeholders can visualise any changes to the customer engagement experience and make decisions about how to improve it based on seeing it within the platform.”
This is increasingly important as customer expectations have expanded. Says Gillies: “It’s so important to ensure your customer needs are at the centre of everything you do. Growth is essential for any organisation looking to survive in a competitive environment.
“This means acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers by delivering an exceptional customer experience and introducing them to additional products and services. We’ll continue to see customer expectations and demands rise. The businesses that put this stakeholder group at the centre of their operations are the ones that are likely to be successful.”
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