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Aussie wins another major industry award
Australia's largest non-bank lender, Aussie Home Loans, has been presented the Australian Banking and Finance Award for the Best Non-Bank Financial Institution 2002.
The award is recognition of the fact that Aussie has re-focused many facets of its business around customer service, expanding its product and service offering to customers and creating greater efficiencies in its operations through technological investment.
Aussie’s customers are already seeing the benefits of this exercise, which has increased access to and efficiency in the way in which they manage their home loan accounts.
The company’s investment in technology has seen the delivery of a sophisticated customer management system, enabling more personal and efficient customer service, while a data warehouse was built to enable targeted delivery of products, services and communication with its customers.
Aussie’s new website has created an additional channel for customers to deal with Aussie, also offering added value services such as the Aussie Valuer tool, through an exclusive arrangement with property valuations business Residex. This service offers buyers and sellers the ability to correctly value their properties free of charge, including trends in prices paid over the last five years for homes and apartments in every suburb and town in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Since its launch in November, the site has doubled its visitors and has just added an online application capability, supported by Aussie’s contact centre.
John Symond commented "These initiatives were necessary to stay ahead of the game in a very competitive and changing environment, where service has replaced price as a key influencer of customers’ home loan decisions. They also set a platform for further customer service initiatives and automation in our sales processes".
Over 2001 and 2002, the brand’s outward appearance also saw re-invigoration, with an expanded product range, including the addition of sub-prime loans, a new marketing campaign re-inforcing Aussie’s savings proposition and refinements to the group’s corporate identity.
John Symond concluded, "Aussie is constantly looking to maintain its leadership position and remain innovative. These initiatives have provided strong foundations for us to assist even more customers in the future. The group expects to take advantage of the ongoing rationalisation of the non-bank sector over the coming years and will continue to look at new product and distribution opportunities."