In 2020, LFS welcomed Banner Jones Solicitors to the Minerva community. With offices in Chesterfield, Sheffield, Dronfield & Mansfield, Banner Jones provides clear, practical expertise delivered with care and compassion.
We recently spoke to some of the key people at Banner Jones to discuss how clients had reacted to Minerva’s intelligent client onboarding solution, how easy it was to implement into the firm, and what changes they had witnessed since signing up.
Commenting on the client experience, Peter Bains, Marketing Manager at the firm said: “I think clients have reacted really well to using the onboarding process through Minerva. It’s been a real help for getting people signed up quite quickly. I think people appreciate that they can do things in the comfort of their own home”.
Peter described client feedback as “very, very positive” and said that “most are actually quite surprised at just how quick and easy the process is”.
As for implementing the system into the firm, Peter said: “It is quite a scary prospect having to rethink something that you have been doing for such a long time. I would say that the process of actually implementing the new technologies is much more straightforward than you might originally think. Minerva has a key partnership with Advanced Legal (ALB) so our implementation was an easy, smooth process, meaning we can ensure the best quality client data is captured”.
Peter also said that the firm had embraced Minerva as a core part of its marketing strategy, and explained that the firm would have struggled much more during the pandemic without Minerva.
Richard Joy, Head of Residential Property at Banner Jones, added his thoughts on Minerva, stating that:
“I think it is probably a testament to how easy to use the system is that we’ve managed to roll it out to the entire department fairly quickly and without issue”.
Richard is also impressed at how Minerva is helping the firm to win more business, stating that it has opened up conversations with estate agents the firm hadn’t previously had a relationship with. He explained how demonstrating the product highlights how Banner Jones does things differently to many of its competitors.
Richard said there had been “a lot of interest from agents in the speeding up the process at the start.” Richard also explained how the firm could now justify a much higher figure with the ability to sell on service, not price.
He added: “we’re definitely winning more business as a result of implementing Minerva. We’ve been able to go out, sell it to clients. It’s very much part of when we’re talking to clients, giving them quotes, we’re selling the benefits of the system to them”.
Peter agreed, stating that “after two years of using the Minerva product, I think it is definitely fair to say that it has greatly improved the number of enquires we receive from clients and partners like estate agents and mortgage providers. Just having such a strong product that you can demonstrate, encourages people to come to us”.
With a standard turnaround time of 24-48 hours and visibility into what clients are doing and where they are in the buying and selling journey, Richard said a vital benefit of the product was being able to spot if clients were having any problems.
Richard was also impressed with the evolution of the product since its adoption in 2020, the speed of developments, and how LFS considered the needs of clients when making improvement. He said: “we’re heavily involved in looking at the changes they are bringing in and helping influence where the product might go.” Explaining that he was in constant communication with the team, Richard explained that the system has changed for the better with much more features now available.
Richard recommended any firm thinking about using Minerva to book a demonstration.
You can watch Peter and Richard talking about their experience of using Minerva here.
Find out more about Minerva, how it can help you to remotely onboard clients and win more business here.
