Nubank is pioneering the new “digital-first” era of banking with Twilio

Challenge

Nubank needed to deliver an amazing customer experience that lived up to the brand’s reputation, with opportunities for customization, channel diversity, and of course—stability and security. 

Solution

Twilio Flex and SendGrid provided Nubank with a completely customizable and scalable solution to serve customers conveniently no matter which channels they prefer.

Founded in May 2013, Nubank already has great results for a fintech company that has less than 10 years in the market. In less than a year after its launch, fintech presented its first product, the famous purple credit card with the Mastercard brand. After 4 years of this launch, Nubank has achieved unicorn startup status and is today one of the world’s largest digital banking platforms, serving around 54 million customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.

As a company that defines itself as in the technology sector, Nubank leverages data and design to generate an excellent customer experience, thus offering financial services that not only meet user needs but truly differentiate in the sector.

Focusing on a user experience different from other technologies already on the market, Nubank membership is not just for customers who are tired of the bureaucracy of traditional banks. The reality is that the elderly are part of this slice. In 2020, fintech registered a growing membership of people over 60. Between April and June of 2021, the volume of new customers in this range was 50 percent higher than in the same period in 2019.

Given these numbers and to serve its different audiences with mastery, Nubank aims to contribute to a long-term relationship with its users, based mainly on trust, with the concept of “digital-first” being its foundation.

“Customers no longer accept being treated the way they are treated by traditional banks — and that tends to get even stronger over time,” Nubank co-founder Cristina Junqueira said. “It is worth mentioning that Nubank’s service is supported by four pillars: anticipating, solving, caring, and training. In addition to offering practical products and incredible service, we maintain a fully transparent relationship with our customers.”

Innovation is in the DNA

The pandemic further accelerated the digitization that was already being done by Nubank. In the first quarter of 2020, the bank registered an average of 42 thousand new users per day, in addition to offering special refinancing conditions with lower interest rates and extended payment terms to customers.

The purpose of the action was to support them in times of economic instability. However, it was not just customers who received help at that time, employees also had the full support and were one of the first banking teams to adopt the home office model.

Adapting to changes has always been part of Nubank’s DNA as fintech was born in the biggest Brazilian crisis. “My motivation is to keep the promise we made to our millions of customers, offering a transparent, easy-to-understand, and hassle-free banking experience that allows them to be the best financier possible and revolutionize the financial sector in Latin America,” Junqueira emphasized. “This is a region of great inequality, where about 30 percent, 55 percent, and 65 percent of the populations of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, respectively, currently unbanked (as of 2017, according to the World Bank). Being able to contribute significantly to financial inclusion and digitalization throughout Latin America is one of the main drivers of my career and Nubank as a whole.”

The future of communications with Twilio

Faced with this new reality, Twilio became a partner in the bank’s customer engagement strategy. Among the main benefits, it was possible to notice more autonomy, in addition to scaling with more confidence. “We achieved more stability and security in the assistance and more robust contingency plans. The platform is highly customizable and allows us to develop several functionalities over time,” Junqueira said.

Currently, Twilio Flex is used to serve customers through voice channels, emergency calls (ombudsman), sending alerts via SMS, and information and campaigns through Sendgrid.

“We chose Twilio over other platforms because it gave us a huge opportunity for improvement compared to the older platform we were using. Some of the things that caught our attention were the analytical solutions within Flex, the opportunity for customization, and the diversification of channels that Twilio offers—email, SMS, WhatsApp, and VoIP telephone,” said Yuri Cruz, the product manager for Nubank channels.

Another benefit of using Twilio Flex highlighted by fintech was the support service that helped to build the ideal solution for the company. “The support helped us discover out-of-the-box solutions and troubleshoot technical integration issues quickly and effectively,” added Cruz.

Building the solution for the purple

In terms of customer experience and agent effectiveness, even within a short time of use, Nubank is already seeing positive results.

For the end customer, fintech has noticed better call quality, as well as experiencing more flexibility and speed to improve the overall phone experience by quickly turning on and off contingency IVRs and the like. “The analytical and investigative tools helped us to define more effective action plans with our agents to solve connection problems,” Cruz explained.

With thousands of internal agents, supervisors, who were already empowered with analytical tools and resources, Twilio Flex has more details on the data collected. Being able to download call recordings from the tool itself without having to make requests to agents elsewhere is one of the examples of improved productivity. “In terms of usability, it’s very intuitive. The way to build dashboards is very good,” Cruz said.