A better, tightly integrated and more cost effective SMS solution

The Challenge

John Charcol is a leading independent mortgage advisor in the UK, with offices in London, Southampton, Birmingham and Newcastle. During day to day communication with customers, their mortgage advisors regularly take advantage of SMS. Off the shelf solutions tend to focus on a helpdesk style workflow rather than enabling each advisor to have one-to-one communication with each of their customers. With ~170 advisors and client relationship managers, John Charcol send a lot of messages each month and requires a large number of licenses.

Building on their recent Electronic ID app, John Charcol wanted to create a more cost effective SMS tool that would also be easier for their advisors to use.

The Solution

A bespoke SMS platform integrated within their existing backend web app built on Twilio’s programmable text service. Each advisor is provisioned with a unique UK SMS number and is able to have conversations with all the customers they are managing.

To make for a smoother onboarding process for users, familiar messaging patterns from apps such as Mac Messages and WhatsApp were used within the UI.

All inbound and outbound messages are also synchronized with the open case and customer record within Pipedrive. We also implemented a bespoke Pipedrive App Action, enabling advisors to instigate an SMS conversation from within Pipedrive.

The Results

• Reduced SMS operating costs by 86%
• 3 month ROI
• Greater integration with other digital tools