In 2003, a group of financial professionals had a revolutionary idea: Provide Main Street business owners with an alternate financing solution to big banks. Now ForwardLine Financial is a nationwide supplier of financing, using technology and nontraditional credit algorithms for the 98% of U.S. businesses that banks consider too small or risky for a business loan.

Busy clients required a streamlined process

ForwardLine clients are busy owners running their salons, boutiques, and professional offices. They need a streamlined, straightforward application process that is available when they are. Unfortunately, traditional paper processes took seven days from application to approval and funding, so migrating from a manual to online application was key to staying competitive in this tight financial market. 

The Salesforce no-code connection

Once ForwardLine discovered that Community Cloud integrates with Sales Cloud out-of-the-box, thanks to both products’ easy customization, the company knew it had found the exact solution it had been looking for. Community Cloud helps ForwardLine capture customer data, which is automatically synced to Sales Cloud without coding or costly integrations. Now ForwardLine can prepopulate application data and cut a six-step loan application process down to a single session.

Growing a business without expanding staff

Because of the scalability that automation affords, applications to ForwardLine increased by 71% within two months of launching. This tripled the company’s business volume but did not require the addition of any team members. And it made customers happier, too. Pending verification, applicants can have a decision within 90 seconds of completing their application, and the entire application process has been slashed from seven days to as quick as five minutes.

Beyond CRM: The new customer experience

With close to 2,000 user members in its customer community, ForwardLine sees the community evolving to a point where small business owners can get on-demand access to industry-related articles and share information and vendor recommendations with one another.

“There are so many different practical applications in terms of leveraging Community Cloud,” Michael Carlson, VP of marketing for ForwardLine said. “The possibilities are amazing.”

See the ForwardLine Community in action

In this webinar, Michael Carlson, VP of marketing, and Steve Critchlow, director of systems and technology, for ForwardLine Financial, and Mike Piehl, solutions architect for Magnet 360, will show you how ForwardLine built its customized online loan application. You’ll see firsthand how easy it was to sync the company’s community with Sales Cloud, with no coding required. And we’ll share all the details about how ForwardLine accelerated its loan application process, increased business volume, and reduced workflow processes.

REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR NOW

ForwardLine Shares How It Tripled Loan Applications with Community Cloud

Tuesday, 10/20/15 at 11:30 a.m. PDT