Kuflink reveals the secret to customer retention
It is famously easier to retain an existing customer than to attract a new one, but in the competitive peer-to-peer lending landscape, customer retention can be challenging.
However, for Kuflink’s chief executive, Narinder Khattoare (pictured), the secret to keeping his customers happy is very simple. He listens to them.
“In January or February of each year I will pick out about 10 investors at random and make an effort to call them because I want to hear from them myself,” Khattoare says.
“I’d rather talk to them directly and get feedback from them.
“I always ask them what made them come over to us and why they have deployed more money on the platform.
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“But at the heart of it, I want to listen to the people who are investing their money with us. I have even given my mobile number to some investors and they do text me every so often!”
As a former salesman, Khattoare knows better than most the value of customer engagement, and he has made this a priority across the business. He has put together a team of highly engaged customer service professionals, who speak daily with Kuflink’s borrowers and lenders to identify any issues.
“We only recruit the right people for the business,” he says. “We don’t just look at the CV, it’s also about the personality as well. We always ask, does this personality fit with the Kuflink culture?”
Kuflink’s workforce has now grown to over 40, and Khattoare is in the midst of a new hiring spree to help support the platform’s growth. He is currently seeking to build out his underwriting team and he has recently added two new business development managers – one in the Midlands, and one in Manchester – as the platform continues to expand.
Khattoare has made no secret of his ambitions to grow the platform, hopefully reaching £300m invested next year and positioning the company for a possible public listing in the future. But he is careful to ensure that as the company scales up, customer service standards do not drop.
“One of our key values here is being transparent, honest and personable with the people with whom we engage,” says Khattoare.
“We listen. So, when a lender or a borrower says that something isn’t working or we could do this better, we will assess their suggestions and make changes where there is a clear business case. After all, they are the ones investing on the platform and we want to listen to them.”
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As a result, Kuflink’s client retention rate is so high that Khattoare can only think of two account holders who have left the platform.
This level of care has helped Kuflink to attract more than 20,000 individual investors over the years, who have loaned more than £220m through the platform, with no investor losses to date.
The reviews speak for themselves. Kuflink has a 4.7 star rating on Trustpilot, with hundreds of reviews specifically praising the platform for its excellent customer care – a testament to the company’s well-honed listening skills.