Case Study

From Clunky Compliance to a Seamless Journey

Read on to hear about Kelly Residential's experience with Kotini

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About Kelly Residential

Kelly Residential is an award winning, independent, family-run estate agency based in Newton Mearns. Founded just over four years ago, the business has gone from strength to strength, recently entering its fifth year and opening a new office branch six months ago.

Run by a close-knit family team – a husband-and-wife duo (Jen, middle – Fraser, right) brother/brother-in-law (Finlay, left)- Kelly Residential prides itself on delivering a highly personal service to its clients. As the business grew, however, the team found that some of their internal processes were no longer supporting the level of service they wanted to provide.

What we wanted to achieve

Before using Kotini, Kelly Residential faced ongoing challenges with identity checks and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.

Like many independent estate agencies, the compliance process was:

  • Highly manual

  • Labour-intensive

  • Time-consuming for the team

  • Frustrating and clunky for clients

The team spent significant time manually checking documents and ensuring compliance, which not only slowed down the onboarding process but also took valuable time away from client-facing activities.

As Jen Kelly explains, the process simply wasn’t working:

It was a very admin-heavy, labour-intensive process that we had to go through… time consuming as a team, but also just not a great process for our clients.

Jen Kelly, Operations Director

Integrating with new CRM prompted the change

Kelly Residential first came across Kotini while migrating to a new CRM system. As part of that transition, the team carefully evaluated different tools and integrations that could improve efficiency.

Kotini stood out as a recommended plug-in option, championed internally as:

  • A significant time-saver

  • A much slicker experience for clients

  • A smarter way to handle compliance

The combination of CRM integration and a streamlined compliance workflow made Kotini a natural next step.

Faster, Smoother, and More Client-Focused

Since implementing Kotini, the impact on Kelly Residential’s day-to-day operations has been substantial.

The most immediate benefit was the removal of manual compliance checks. Processes that once required significant staff time now run smoothly in the background, allowing the team to move faster and list properties more quickly.

It’s allowed us to remove a lot of the really manual checking process… and it’s allowed us to move quicker with getting properties listed.

Jen Kelly, Operations Director

Compliance peace of mind

Kotini has also improved the client journey, creating a smoother and more professional onboarding experience. Clients can complete identity checks easily, without unnecessary friction or delays.

From a compliance perspective, the peace of mind has been just as important. Kotini ensures the business remains fully compliant and up to date with regulations – something that can otherwise be a constant worry for independent agencies.

Morven summed it up perfectly:

It takes some of the worry out of being up to date with policy… you’ve almost got an addition to your team there.

[We’ve] been working with [Kotini] now for quite a while, and they are a massive support to our team. They’re quick to respond, super helpful and their online chat is invaluable to our clients. Kotini is straightforward and easy to use and the team are constantly looking for ways to enhance the system and make it smoother for both estate agent and client. Five Stars – thoroughly recommend to any Estate Agent looking to enlist support for their ID/AML challenges.
Morven Nicoll, Transaction Manager

Beyond efficiency and compliance, Kotini has freed up time across the business. With fewer hours spent on admin, the team can focus on what matters most – building relationships and delivering outstanding service.

Advice for independent agents

For Kelly Residential, Kotini has been particularly valuable as an independent agency where the team often has to “do it all”.

Jen’s advice to other estate agents in a similar position is simple: look closely at how much time admin and compliance are really costing you.

You quite often have to shoulder a lot of the administrative tasks, which ultimately isn’t always the best use of your time.

Jen Kelly, Operations Director

By automating compliance and identity checks, Kotini allows estate agents to reclaim that time, focus on clients, and deliver a higher-quality service – without compromising on compliance.

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