GENERAL MANAGER, ALFARDAN EXCHANGE

How have Alfardan Exchange’s services and strategies changed with the demographic evolution of Qatar?

The retail sector is our priority and individuals are our focus. That is why we continue getting closer to our customers throughout diversifying the services channels and locations, and also translating the growing customers’ needs into new products and services.

How is Alfardan Exchange taking advantage of the crisis to grow its digital offering?

The good thing is that we were ready when the pandemic started. Alfardan Exchange already had the digital infrastructure, so the service was there. We did not need a lot of time to build our capacity. It was only a matter of switching some customers over. In April 2020, demand for our digital services doubled. We were fortunate to have our digital app in place when the pandemic happened. We received excellent feedback from our customers, so we launched another application. We keep on adding more value to our apps to improve the overall customer experience. That said, people still like the personalized service we provide, and we do not see that changing. People like to speak to a person, especially because a financial transaction is a sensitive personal matter. And we enjoy providing this personal service to our clients. Plus, some of our services are not suitable to provide online— we cannot send you gold ingots via a WhatsApp message.