What a year 2019 has been! With only weeks to go until Christmas, this past year has simply flown past. Before we catch our breath for the New Year, we want to share with you our brief highlights of 2019 - or what we refer to as 'Our Best Year Yet'.
Peer Recognition
The SMM team started this year with a huge accolade - being awarded 3rd place for 'Business of the Year' for the 2018 financial year by NZFSG - the largest Mortgage Advisor Head Group in the country overseeing >1,300 individual Advisors nationwide. Our company was recognised for its high-quality standards in customer service delivery combined with rapid growth over the preceding 12 months. We can't wait to see if we can improve upon this in the New Year!
NZ Direct Marketing Awards
We'd just finished celebrating when our digital Marketing company Vanguard 86 nominated their campaign for SMM at the annual NZDM Awards in late February. Substantiating this prestigious nomination was a growth trajectory that was unsurpassed in our categories, and our Silver medal award managed to beat some heavyweights such as Westpac and Kiwibank in the process. It just goes to show that bigger is not always better if you're extremely focused on providing customers with a top-quality service.
Charity Golf Tournament
Our entire team is passionate about 'giving back' to our communities, and it's even one of our core Values. The annual charity golf tournament was held in February with a record number of entries and sponsors. A glorious day on the Fitzroy Golf Club raised more than $11,000 for our favourite local charity - the Roderique Hope Trust who do fantastic work finding emergency housing for families in need.
NZ Breast Cancer Foundation
Both our Christchurch and Taranaki teams lept at the chance to support the annual Pink Ribbon breakfast appeals with more than 70 invited guests giving generously toward this worthy cause. We'll be adding our Wellington team to this fundraising event later this year.
Charity Noir Blanc Progressive Dinner
Yet another opportunity to raise much-needed funds for the Roderique Hope Trust was our annual Noir Blanc progressive dinner in mid-October. Our biggest and best progressive dinner so far, we had in excess of 100 patrons joining us for a culinary delight at three of New Plymouth's best Restaurants, where we again managed to raise nearly $13,000 to literally house the homeless in Taranaki. This has taken our total fundraising outcomes to over $70,000 so far!
5-Star Google & Facebook Reviews
Perhaps one of the accolades we're most proud of is the constant feedback given to us by our customers. With nearly 150 client reviews to hand and the vast majority of those being 5-Star, we're fiercely proud of our overall 4.9 customer satisfaction rating to date. Nothing helps shape a business more than its customer's feedback, and we listen/respond to every comment made!
New Hawkes Bay Office
We've welcomed our new Advisor in Hawkes Bay, Jodie Dalton, who has quickly settled into her routine of consistently exceeding her client's expectations. This east coast region has long been on our radar, and step by step we're growing to provide wider representation across provincial NZ. Watch this space in the next week or two for yet another announcement of a new Advisor joining our team!
Kiwibank Local Hero Award
As we go to press, Stephanie herself has recently been nominated for the Kiwibank Local Hero Award in recognition of her drive, passion, and determination to use the success of SMM in order to give back to local communities. We were thrilled to learn about this, and it came as a complete surprise to Steph!
To Our Customers
Lastly and certainly not least, we've thoroughly enjoyed helping each and every one of our clients in helping to bring their property ownership dreams into reality! So far, our friendly team of Mortgage Advisors has helped more than 3,500 clients on their homeownership journey, and we genuinely love what we do! We get immense personal satisfaction in helping our clients through the sometimes arduous task of mortgage financing, and that's what keeps us going 24/7! This past year has presented the lowest interest rates in NZ history, and combined with lenders who have been flush with funds, 2019 has indeed been Our Best Year Yet!
We'll be open for business over the festive season ahead, so if you stumble upon a property related matter whilst stretched out on the sun lounger, give any of our friendly Mortgage Advisors at SMM a ring by clicking HERE and we'll be only too pleased to help!