Feedback is an essential component of how we shape our funding solutions and approach to service as it provides us valuable insights from business owners and our introducer partners. It helps us understand the strengths and weaknesses of our business, which in turn enables us to make informed decisions on how we tailor our solutions and customer journeys.
How we collect feedback
At Ultimate Finance, we have made feedback a core part of how we do business by identifying key events that call for a quick survey of a business owner or an introducer: at the end of an application, after a site visit, or on a facility anniversary for instance. Throughout the year, we run automated surveys to understand how easy we are to do business with and how likely our customers are to refer us to others as a funding partner. Keeping those active throughout the year means we can react quickly to real-time feedback so that we can address any potential pain points, be it at a general level or on a case-by-case basis.
Additionally, we also run research projects each year that help us dive deeper into the minds of introducers and / or business owners, whether it is getting an understanding of their confidence levels, ambitions for the near future, or understanding of the lending landscape, as well as their views on the way we do business with them. These in-depth interviews help us plan for the longer term so that we keep developing funding solutions that meet the current and future needs of businesses.
Why feedback matters
- Enhanced relationships: Feedback helps us build strong relationships with our clients and introducers. By collecting and responding to customer feedback, we look to improve our products and services, ensuring we keep offering access to funding solutions that help keep businesses moving year after year.
- Improved performance: Feedback provides us with valuable insights into our operations, allowing us to identify any areas for improvement. By addressing these issues, we can improve our performance in keeping with our mission to be the funding partner of choice. For example, as part of our latest Net Promoter Score survey last year, valuable feedback helped us identify a communication opportunity to help keep introducers more informed during our underwriting process, which we have already committed to review and action.
- Increased Transparency: Feedback increases transparency with our customers. It allows us to communicate openly with them, providing them with a clear understanding of our processes, goals, and ambitions, which in turn helps build better relationships based on trust and openness.
The funding partner of choice: understanding our Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter Score survey (NPS) is a valuable metric for businesses as it provides insight into customer satisfaction and loyalty. NPS measures customer satisfaction by asking a simple question: “How likely are you to recommend us to others?”, and responses are then scored on a scale of 1 to 10 to help understand customer satisfaction with products and services, and additional feedback can provide valuable insight for making improvements. A high NPS score indicates that customers are satisfied, whilst on the other hand, a low NPS score highlights areas for improvement.
We are very proud to have received great feedback in 2022, with our Net Promoter Score surveys (NPS) seeing us score a 54 from introducers and Working Capital clients awarding us a score of 84, considered world-class, with our overall client NPS score reaching 82, almost double the average score in our industry last year and our highest score so far.
With a vast majority of the feedback praising the support our funding solutions and teams have been offering, describing it as an “excellent personable service”, we were also happy to receive constructive commentary on some isolated incidents which offered us the opportunity to review specific instances to see what can be done to keep always offering a smooth and painless approach to all clients.
Getting involved: sharing your feedback
As the funding partner of choice, we appreciate all feedback, positive and less so, as we understand that we may not get everything right on the first try and that business owners, introducers and members of our teams are all human with varied expectations and opinions, and so we thank all respondents who have not only commended us, but also, and most importantly, have already helped us shape a better service throughout the years.
