Close Brothers accelerates customer experiences via Docusign eSignature

Close Brothers Motor Finance has been providing flexible vehicle finance for over 30 years. It works with a close network of over 8,000 trusted partners to help spread the cost of purchasing a vehicle.

As part of its digital transformation, Close Brothers identified the need to launch a remote e-sign solution for its customers. Using Docusign eSignature has enabled Close Brothers to streamline its customer experiences, making the sharing and accessing of financial agreements, contracts and documentation, easier, faster and less time consuming.

Defining a need for Docusign eSignature

Vehicle finance has traditionally revolved around in-person experiences. Customers typically visit a dealership, choose a car, van, or motorbike to purchase and only then arrange the finance. Close Brothers has strong relationships with its network of dealers,  ensuring that customers receive the necessary funds ahead of time so that purchases are as seamless as possible.

Close Brothers Motor Finance always puts dealers and customers and the heart of its processes, and the COVID-19 pandemic meant there was a need to accelerate all aspects of the digital transformation journey. 

Partnering with Docusign drives business growth 

Through buyer research and consultation with its dealers, Close Brothers recognised that a combination of real-world and virtual experiences was required.  

Close Brothers therefore enabled customers to access financial quotes and apply for finance online. Docusign eSignature played an essential and central role in this process, streamlining the finance practice by allowing consumers to apply for support regardless of time or location.

Close Brothers opted to deploy an API-driven approach to connecting digitally with its partner dealers. The organisation found that Docusign enabled them to deliver tighter digital integration with their partners, whether in the form of Codeweavers,  a software sales solutions provider for the automotive industry delivering its showroom system, or other vehicle platform providers such as Auto Convert or iVendi. 

Close Brothers has seen remarkable success through the adoption of Docusign eSignature. Within the first two months of offering remote financing, over 80% of agreement communications were digital. Currently, 88% of contracts go live via Docusign. Furthermore, 30% of interactions to date have been through customer devices and not showroom terminals, highlighting the effectiveness of the service with people being able to apply for finance as and when they require. 

Close Brothers has found that the certificate of completion element of eSignature gives customers peace of mind that a finance agreement is in place, while giving dealers a clear audit trail of when and where the customer signed. 

Additionally, the storing of documents electronically has clear benefits to end users as well as the business. 

“Many of our finance agreements can run up to five years in length, so enabling customers to dip back in and check any details without having to find paperwork is a fantastic feature we all appreciate,” says Griffin. “Docusign means they always have access to their documentation.”

Close Brothers is a regulated finance business, as such documentation and the ability to audit agreements is a necessary part of the process. Docusign eSignature enables the organisation to meet its legal requirements while adding greater oversight to the customer journey. 

The organisation has also deployed Docusign eWitness into its standard business customer workflow. This enables the business to assign a witness or guarantor quickly and digitally to any agreement. 

 Shaping sharper digital workflows with Docusign

Building on its digital transformation of enabling customers to finance and buy vehicles wherever and however they prefer, Close Brothers is working on several digital enhancements that will make the purchasing process even easier for consumers. Furthermore, the next stage of the organisation’s digital evolution will be to offer the same level of service to its dealer partners looking to stock their forecourts.

“We’re looking to apply Docusign eSignature to speed up the on-boarding process of our Dealer Funding Product,” says Griffin. “It will offer the same benefits and in-life management tools, as well as digital documentation, as the customer version, but will really help our dealer partners from an operational sense.”