Harsh Roongta

Started by ex-ICICI stalwarts during the fag end of the dot-com boom, Apnaloan.com has come a long way. The idea was simple to be a vendor-neutral market place for loans and credit cards and give the customer an option of choosing from different brands. Instead of making the customer feel that the service provider (banks or financial institutions) did a favour by giving him a loan, Apnaloan made the entire concept look like the customer was giving the service provider a business opportunity. In addition, the site gives the retail customer the same expertise his corporate counterpart had access to. In a typical scenario, a loan seeker is required to provide basic details like income and amount required for the loan. Based on these factors, Apnaloan selects and displays options available and the customer can make further choices according to his own preferences.

While the concept was unique, pulling it off was a different ball game as almost every dot-com had started off with a similar vision but had somehow faltered along the way. But looking at the failure of other dot-coms, Apnaloan saw what many of its peers did not. While the concept of the Internet and expertise was great it still needed to be backed up by good service.

Says Harsh Roongta, CEO, Apnaloan, “We have always believed that even dot-com players have to have a strong service orientation like traditional players. We can only get a customer interested in our services if we can give him the best service in the shortest available time. As a dot-com, I have to ensure that the customer will get the same attention from my company as a physical company. Hence, in the 10-15 minutes a customer spends on the Apnaloan site, I have to ensure that he stays my customer.” In addition, Apnaloan also assists the consumer in the process of filling up application forms, considered a confusing task by many people. The site also sends automated e-mail triggers that intimate the customer of all developments, while also giving him the facility of online status of application.

Roongta claims that when a customer applies for a credit card on the Net, within fifteen minutes he gets a call from a representative from Apnaloan. The result is that the customer is not only surprised but pleased by the proactive action. Roongta explains that the Web is about nimble-footed players and if Apnaloan is slow to react, it would simply mean a loss business. The intense customer focus has meant that Apnaloan currently processes about 12,000 credit card applications of the estimated 1,75,000 credit card applications processed per month, capturing an impressive 7 percent of market share within a short period.

While credit card submissions contribute over 50 percent of total revenues, the home loan segment is also picking up in a big way. The company has clocked a turnover of Rs 4 crore in the fiscal March 2002 and is targeting a turnover of Rs 10 crore for fiscal 2003. Apnaloan says it will break even this month itself.

Roongta believes that the future is bright as the market is big. And contrary to what people say about the lack of Internet penetration, Roongta has shown that if you give the Indian customer a value proposition, he will surely appreciate it. Going forward, Apnaloan plans to have call centres that would go a long way in strengthening its Web-based model.