Salesforce Revolutionizes Student Loan Servicing for a Company in the Financial Services Industry

The Challenges

Our client in the Financial Services Industry faced many challenges with their decade-old Salesforce org. As a service company that specializes in consumer finance, telecommunications, and servicing student loans, our client needed to streamline their operational processes.

Our client had a large amount of technical debt and was operating out of silos. They had multiple business units that were working independently from one another and leveraging external systems in their tech stack that didn’t integrate. Our client was struggling to bridge the gap between their multiple business units because they lacked a single, comprehensive system to work from.

Before working with Kelley Austin, our client had gone through three different partners in six months. Our team was able to build strong relationships with key stakeholders at the company by focussing on trust and communication.

After meeting with their team to address operational challenges and pain points for their business, we were able to develop a strategic roadmap for their Salesforce org in several key areas: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Marketing Cloud. 

The Solution

We worked with our client to gather extensive knowledge of how each Business Unit was currently utilizing Salesforce. Over 65 Discovery Sessions were conducted with Kelley Austin and our client’s business divisions to gain insight into their processes, pain points, and desired outcome with Salesforce.

Because Kelley Austin acts as an extension of our client’s team, we’re able to not only maintain and enhance their system, but also participate in larger strategic initiatives that run in parallel. 

By focusing on the long-term strategy and vision for our client’s Salesforce org, our team serves as the Salesforce Center of Excellence for our client. This allows our team to act as experts across the multiple Salesforce products used by each Business Unit.

Because Kelley Austin acts as an extension of our client’s team, we’re able to not only maintain and enhance their system, but also participate in larger strategic initiatives that run in parallel. While working with our client, we helped provide strategic recommendations and enhancements in each of the following areas:

Sales Cloud 

What made this project challenging was that there were two Sales Cloud deployments — one for our client’s existing legacy org and one for their new org. Our team was able to provide maintenance for their existing org with more than 800 users and multiple Business Units while also working alongside their team to implement their new org with the goal of slowly rolling out each new Business Unit.

We built custom objects and automation to track progression of contract documents on open cases to monitor their team’s Service-Level Agreements as well as response times. We also worked with our client to cleanup data related to Contracts. This helped prevent errors and duplication of data as well as improve efficiency by removing many of the manual processes in place. 

Our team also implemented Sales Engagement, formerly known as High Velocity Sales. With Sales Engagement our client’s sales reps can now work from a single platform to reach quality leads, convert leads, and create new opportunities. Sales Engagement gives sales reps access to automation and AI-powered tools so they can make data-driven decisions and sell faster from a single screen.

Service Cloud 

We worked closely with our client to create Knowledge Articles in Service Cloud. These Knowledge Articles are used to help train internal users on how to best utilize Salesforce. This process also involved our team resolving cases reported by users as well as miscellaneous end user requests and issues.

Our team was able to close 35 Salesforce support cases in just 14 days and provide comprehensive training sessions to demonstrate the value of Salesforce for our client’s internal users. With Service Cloud our client has been able to reduce costs and deflect cases by helping customers help themselves. 

Experience Cloud

We utilized Experience Cloud to build a custom internal site where our client’s employees can leverage Knowledge Articles, submit cases, and use Einstein chatbot to help answer routine tasks. With this new Experience Cloud site, our client has improved their self service efforts by giving their customers access to important data through a branded Help Center.

We also developed a Partner Portal designed for our client’s partners to receive leads from our client as well as send leads directly to our client from a single platform. This custom partner site makes it easier for our client to collaborate with their partners without having to work from multiple systems. 

Marketing Cloud

Our client had a Marketing Cloud instance in place that they weren’t utilizing before working with our team. They needed guidance with all aspects of their Marketing Cloud instance, including help with Marketing Cloud Personalization and Intelligence.

Many of their processes were manual and highly inefficient such as creating reports. We worked closely with their team to develop a custom dashboard with analytics to provide insights into their marketing campaigns and overall strategy. We also built Journeys, custom email templates, and provided training sessions to help our client’s marketing team utilize the product.

Now our client can take full advantage of all of the features and functionality that Marketing Cloud offers and collaborate across departments without having to jump from platform to platform. 

Customer Impact

Before working with Kelley Austin, our client was struggling to maintain a complex Salesforce org. They needed help with strategic guidance and recommendations for maintaining their old org as well as implementing a new, green Salesforce org. 

Our team worked closely with our client’s stakeholders to understand their unique needs as a company with multiple business units and multiple Salesforce products. After many Discovery Sessions, our team was able to gain a deeper understanding of the inner workings of their business.

“Someone taking things off my plate has been a dream of mine for a long time and you’ve helped me realize that goal. Just wanted to tell you and the team that you guys are amazing. We're lucky to have you as a part of our team!” - Director of Marketing Operations

We developed a plan for providing both ongoing maintenance and support as well as enhancements to their current Salesforce products including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Marketing Cloud. 

By providing a strategic roadmap for our client’s Salesforce org, we helped establish a long-term strategy for their org that spans across multiple Business Units. Our client’s team members are no longer operating out of silos and can easily collaborate from a single, highly integrated system. 

With Salesforce, our client has been able to streamline their operations in every area of their business from sales to service to marketing and more.