This Gurugram Based Startup is Changing the Retail Financial Experience Through Customer Service as a Product

We are publishing an interview of Mr. Vipul Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO at Chqbook.

About the founders
Chqbook Co-founders Rajat Kumar and Vipul Sharma are former bankers, and while the former has worked with Standard Chartered and IndusInd Bank for over 15 years, Vipul was with IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. Rajat and Vipul met while in IndusInd Bank, and decided to form a company together. Chqbook was registered in June 2016, and they started operations with Rajat as the COO and Vipul as the CEO in January 2017.

What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
Chqbook is building the true marketplace for Financial products like Home Loans, Credit Cards and Personal Loans by bringing suppliers (Banks), Distributors (Chqbook Experts) and customers onto 1 platform – both online and offline. Financial Services providers have till now focused on discovery of Financial product for a consumer but are not transaction platforms. Chqbook has made the discovery process simple and intuitive. More importantly, Chqbook controls the entire fulfillment journey to deliver an end to end Magical customer experience for loans and Credit Cards.

Both the founders of Chqbook have more than 15 years of banking experience each and have been observing the online financial services model keenly. Customer expectations for more choice and better customer service has changed exponentially over the last few years. The consumer industry has been nimble to adopt technology to exceed these expectations, but the Financial services industry has not really caught up. A recent 2017 study by Accenture shared data stating that 88% of Indian consumers have changed service providers and more than 60% of consumers who switched cited overall quality of customer experience as the main reason.

What is the uniqueness about your startup?
We are the first company to provide fulfillment services through a scalable model and are able to track fulfillment through our proprietary Lead management system, Chqbook Magic. Our AI system, Tara, is also unique as it chooses the best option by comparing 600 rules across 40 Banks in real time. It also checks over 10 customer variables across the 40 banks on our platform to recommend the best product with the lowest interest rates which will have the highest chance of approval for the customer. Tara AI also pushes customer applications though our application routing engine to the best person suited to fulfill the loan from over 500 Chqbook Experts across 14 cities in the country. It also tracks turnaround times, status updates from our Experts and flags off any activity which is taking longer than usual for a human to intervene, ensuring a seamless end–to–end experience for the customer and magical customer service every time.

What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
The revenue model is through lead generation, our Cutting edge Chqbook Magic system and the unique Chqbook Fulfilment Services – all of which have been developed in house by Chqbook. We do not charge the customer who comes on Chqbook.com to avail a loan or a credit card. In fact we have some great offers for these consumers, from Rs. 1500 Amazon vouchers on all loans and credit cards, to Zero processing fee on Home Loans.

Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
Chqbook has products across 40 banks and NBFCs and hence covers the entire gamut of consumers. Consumers are going to get the largest choice on a single platform as well as a magical customer experience so far lacking in the financial services industry.

What is the big picture of your startup? Will it lead to something bigger? If so, how?
Chqbook understands that financial decisions and products have long term impacts and making the right decision is very important when you are going to use the Loan or the Credit Card for a long time. Our goal is to use AI, Technology and our understanding finance to provide a truly magical customer experience. We believe Chqbook’s superior experience, lowest rates, the best offers and fastest service come together to create a trusted and loved brand.

What is the success story of your startup in your own words?
In India, there are over 20 Lakh Financial Service providers — like Insurance Agents, Direct Selling Agents and Bank executives who help process loans and cards. Chqbook leverages that ecosystem and brings the top 1% of this population to service customers looking for financial services products. This approach has paid off when customers got a call from a Financial Service professional from our network within 2 minutes of applying. In fact, over 70% of the calls to customers happen within 5 minutes of applying — which has been unheard of in this industry! The fintech startup allows customers to search, compare, and get personal finance products such as home loans, personal loans and credit cards, all at one place. Chqbook experts are official authorized by banks to complete documentation for customers, and they ensure that every step in the approval process is made more efficient and hence timesaving. It uses cutting edge technology like Tara AI. Experience it first-hand at www.chqbook.com

Any other information about your startup that you would like to share with us.
The fintech startup allows customers to search, compare, and get personal finance products such as home loans, personal loans and credit cards, all at one place. It also offers the services of loan counselors and connects them with customers looking for financial products. Chqbook experts are officials authorized by banks to complete documentation for customers, and they ensure that every step in the approval process is made more efficient and hence timesaving. It uses cutting edge technology like Tara AI. Experience it first-hand at www.chqbook.com.

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Thanks Vipul. Best of luck!