Salt & Lime was born out of an inherent desire to do good, helping everyday Australians get out—and stay out—of debt.
CEO and Founder, Will Kiln, began his career in retail banking over a decade ago. After gaining experience in multiple areas across a number of the banks, Will recalled a conversation with a friend that spurred him into action.
“A friend of mine asked me to look over a car loan contract for him—and I was astounded by some of the rates, fees, and charges”.”
From there, Salt & Lime was born.
The goal? To deliver socially responsible lending products rooted in education to Australia. Salt&Lime’s financial wellbeing platform allows customers to complete short, online financial education quizzes, lowering their interest rate as they move through the modules, learning more about their finances. There are no fees or penalties for early repayment, and a genuine encouragement for customers to learn the financial skills that will help them get out of debt.
“As an organisation, we’re deeply committed to helping our customers end the cycle of debt, arming them with relevant education and transparent products.Financial stress and the impact it has on people’s mental health is significant—and we wanted to help make an impact.’
Building a company with automation in its DNA
From the very beginning, Will and his business partner Huw Grenfell were passionate about creating a business that was entirely automated.
“We wanted to harness forward-thinking technology that would allow us to scale as a business and deliver our products to as many people as we can. Aligning ourselves with partners that can seamlessly deliver automation is foundational to our business model.”
After seeing the power of DocuSign during his time in other roles, Will knew that DocuSign was the right partner for Salt & Lime to bring automation to life for the business.
“We needed a solution that was digital, simple and familiar to customers. DocuSign was all that and more. We’re now able to have an application submitted, reviewed and signed in a matter of minutes, supported by Docusign
Salt&Lime were able to upgrade from a website-based plan to a commercial contract. The benefit? A dedicated local account manager and the ability to integrate seamlessly with the DocuSign API.
The upgrade also provides Salt & Lime with the ability to customise their account depending on their business needs. This includes the option for local data storage, enhanced security, and additional features and functionality.
“The entire implementation process was completely seamless. The DocuSign team was supportive from our very first meeting. It was clear they really wanted to nurture us as a business and work with us in a way that would help us grow and scale.”
Driving positive business outcomes and creating positive impact
For the team at Salt & Lime, the benefits DocuSign has brought into their business has been immeasurable.
From operating efficiencies and staff productivity to risk, compliance and customer experience, the eSignature solution is a key component to creating a frictionless journey across all touchpoints.
Being able to automate the entire loan process means that the team at Salt & Lime are saving 10,000 hours per year in staff time— equating to five full-time staff members.
“The growth we’ve seen in the last 12 months has been inconceivable. We’re not manually sending thousands of emails a week, which means we can move faster and help more people get on top of their finances.”
“It also frees our team up to spent more time getting to know our customers on a personal level. We’re able to really connect with them and dedicate more time to delivering exceptional customer service and support, which helps to build a deep, trusting relationship.”
Putting the customer at the heart of everything
As a business founded on doing right by customers, those ‘feel good’ moments with everyday people are regular occurrences for Salt & Lime.
“We had one situation where a customer had settled a car loan and they realised they had provided incorrect vehicle details. They were down at the car dealership at the time, ready to pick up their brand new car—so you can imagine that it was a pretty stressful situation for them.”
“With DocuSign, we were able to update the contract on the spot, send it back for signing all within a matter of minutes. We had one very happy customer that was able to drive home with their car that day.”
His advice for other businesses considering automating and digitising their business?
“Honestly, just do it. The benefits are untold. When you move your business into a truly digital and automated model, you’re freeing up so much time to focus on the important stuff.”