Interview with Maud Rousseau, Group Marketing & Communications Director at SearchFlow

Today (19th January 2016), SearchFlow launches its new brand. Group Marketing & Communications Director, Maud Rousseau discusses the ethos behind the new brand.

Why is SearchFlow rebranding?

To accurately reflect our position in the market we are delighted to be unveiling our new brand identity. SearchFlow’s rebrand and positioning as the specialist in ‘property intelligence’ is a response to new technological advancements and the changing market needs within the conveyancing and wider property sector.

What message is the rebrand getting across?

We have been the leading authoritative provider of conveyancing searches for decades and we are best positioned to lead the way in the provision of searches and solutions for the conveyancing industry for the future. With our highly knowledgeable and dedicated support team, expertise in big data analysis and progressive technology, we will provide a truly integrated, simplified, trusted and efficient service to the conveyancing industry

What will the rebrand mean for customers?

Quite rightly, our customers are primarily interested in us delivering on our brand promise. Today we have also launched our new website with a new search ordering platform. It is much more intuitive and user-friendly and offers an enhanced risk highlighting system to aid compliance and save time on due diligence. We are dedicated to building new products that use the latest technological advancements. As part of dmgi::land&property group, we have the investment backing and access to unique sources of data that will enable the company to deliver forward-thinking solutions for bespoke reporting.

The logo is very eye-catching and unique, can you explain the concept further?

The logo is a circular image of a turquoise owl on an aubergine background. With magnifying lenses for eyes, the owl surveys the landscape below, embodied in its wings. The all-seeing owl with its ability to skilfully scan the land, its astute senses, and binocular and wide field of vision, was the natural icon to illustrate SearchFlow’s accurate and comprehensive property search and survey solutions. We are delighted with our new icon and we have been really encouraged by the positive response to the brand in the early market testing.

Which design partners did SearchFlow work with on the rebrand?

We worked with Industry, an award winning global brand consultancy. They always deliver outstanding concepts and are experts at understanding how to develop a brand advantage and deliver a compelling proposition to market.

What do you think the rebrand will mean going forward?

Last year, we were leading the way as the first search provider to integrate the Land Registry’s national dataset with our auto-mapping feature. We also launched our enhanced Personal Search service with postcode enabled search and user-friendly reporting designed to help conveyancers quickly pinpoint risks. Going forward, we will be continuing to deliver more solutions and improvements that capitalise on our ability to access comprehensive and unique datasets.

You were recently quoted in the press discussing how the conveyancing industry is set to face the biggest changes in decades, can you explain this and how do you believe search providers will evolve amid the ‘sea change’ you described?

Technology has evolved. Search providers are becoming increasingly more sophisticated in their mapping and identification of areas of risk. In addition, the trend for transparency within the conveyancing sector will continue to drive product releases.

There is a growing sense of anticipation that online estate agencies will achieve their ambition of being ‘highly disruptive in the world of estate agency’. And, this year, the Government will be consulting on alternative business models entering into the legal sector to provide greater choice for consumers. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will also be reviewing their regulatory model.

Conveyancers are a crucial part of the homebuying process but they will have to adapt to the changing sector. We believe search providers will continue to evolve to enable conveyancers to fully embrace the digitalisation of the industry by utilising data and technology to create efficiencies, improve risk protection and customer satisfaction to enable them to compete.

The new brand goes live today, how are you celebrating as a company?

Cakes and champagne but then business as usual. We have a dedicated help team available and detailed webinars scheduled to help our customers through the changes on the website. We will then be looking forward to updating everyone on our forthcoming products throughout the year.

This article was submitted to be published by SearchFlow as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.

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