The word Kunder means customers in Swedish, as stated by Manuel Ibañez, Commercial Manager of Kunder, a Fintech of Chilean origin that is designed with people in mind. This helps a lot to outline, despite the evolutions what this endeavor has had, what the work they have done since its creation means.
In the six years of history that the company has, its objective has been to help its customers which are companies in the financial industry to reach their clients in a better way.
Nowadays, the focus of Kunder is to provide technological solutions services for the financial industry to companies such as Banco de Chile, Ripley Bank, AFP Habitad, AFP Plan Vital, among others.
It has had a rapid growth, although they have been prudent. Its focus is to offer the highest quality of service to the clients it serves. Its main concern is generating organic growth.
Manuel Ibáñez, Commercial Manager of Kunder, told EbankingNews that the company today totals more than 60 employees whose common interest brought them together in the search for a way to help companies improve their relationship with their customers and explains more about Kunder.
How have you developed this search to improve customer relationships?
Our focus is on the clients of our clients. How to get to them in a better way. That companies in the financial industry, which offer complex services for the bulk of the population, can be simplified. Many of our tools are related to creating experiences that simplify the complexity of a financial product, making it affordable and attractive for those who want to consume it.
Our knowledge is not only technological. It is also financial and the business of our customers. In this sense, we are a partner that can contribute from the technical point of view and from the business. That generates a better experience because it combines the best of both worlds.
Currently what are the services they provide to their clients?
Today we have an ecosystem of solutions that range from the development of digital solutions tailored for our customers, mobile applications, public and private websites, transactional platforms, microservices. The majority of our clients ask us to continue evolving these digital products in order to improve them, add new functionalities. What we do with agile methodologies. Therefore, we accompany clients in the evolution of their digital channels and in the incorporation of new functionalities.
We also offer some softwares and services, to improve the interaction with the client, push notifications or improvement of errors that may be occurring in the applications.
We offer solutions in Chile and Latin America that allow us to better reach customers through personalized videos to the needs of our clients. This with an accompaniment platform that allows advising in real time to clients through chat and video conferences. We are working on the development of other proprietary solutions that we hope to announce soon. We are looking for where the opportunity and the need of our clients are so that they can (at the same time) better serve their clients.
What are the goals for this year?
We want to consolidate ourselves as the best technological company supporting the financial industry. For that we have a strategic plan that we are implementing to grow with the current clients, and new clients of the financial industry. This year we are launching ourselves outside the limits of Chile. We are expanding with the support of ProChile, where we obtained competitive funds. We have been working through different commercial missions that include participation in events that Digital Bank has carried out in Colombia. In March we will be competing in Digital Bank Mexico.
Achieve the internationalization of our company, and local consolidation, maintaining organic growth and achieve the successful launch of our own solutions. So we have an intense year ahead.
What kind of technology do they use to get their customers well?
From the point of view of the use of technology, we are very flexible to adapt to the needs of our clients. We understand that within the financial industry there are a lot of legacy systems that they have, and of which we have to take as a basis. But we have helped companies in the industry that have wanted to be pioneers in the use of cloud technologies to improve the efficiency of their services. We work with Microsoft, Amazon and Google Cloud. In that sense, the migration to the cloud world of the financial industry is something that comes. We are accompanying the leaders who are implementing these solutions.
On the other hand, in custom development we are the only partner in Chile, and one of the three in Latinaomerica, which allows the development of hybrid applications. We have developed applications for the vast majority of our clients. What allows to have an excellent service level, low maintenance cost and that facilitates the scaling of these tools.
How do you ensure that there is cybersecurity in the services offered to your customers?
We have actively participated in the discussion that has been generated around cybersecurity for the financial industry. We understand that it is a fundamental need. It is something that is going to take more and more strength. Our systems are designed to adapt to the highest security standards, either through data encryption, information transfer and code protection. We have some solutions with our partnerships that allow you to protect that code more in different instances. So that our clients are not harmed, our systems are subject to testing by our clients. So far, we have not had disapproval of these tests. We have passed the tests. That makes us maintain a high level of demand because we understand that for our customers it is a critical issue.
How do they define themselves?
It is an excellent question. It has not been easy for us to define ourselves as Fintech. While we know we are in that field, we are a technology company that serves the financial industry. Therefore, we accept that we are in a certain sense a Fintech. But Kunder’s definition is that we are a company of people for people. This marks the internal environment that is experienced within our company. It also translates into that, even though, being dedicated to technology, for us the key lies in the human contact that we generate with our clients, so that they also improve their relationship with their clients.
We are convinced that a client who does not understand the information of the products that are being offered to them is a client that will not end up satisfied. He will not stay in a company. In that sense, we have made great efforts to help our customers simplify and help the information reach its final customers, and that they can make informed decisions.
What advice do you give to people who want to start?
The first thing is to have a great conviction that things can be done and can be achieved. Kunder’s dream at the beginning, and the way we dreamed about the company, probably had little to do with what it is today. But knowing that we could move forward with a joint project, and that we could better serve the financial industry to generate a quality product that would help improve people’s lives, that has been key in times of greatest difficulty. The other thing is to surround yourself with a great team. Believe in people. Trust in the abilities of others and persevere doing things right from the beginning. The success of entrepreneurship has to do with being able to learn in the process. But always with the conviction that things can be done better and you have to try to make them better every day.