Long Before COVID Struck, We Had Made Changes To Make Our Business Processes Completely Digital: Rishab Mehta, GrayQuest

How critical was the last couple of months for your business?  

The last couple of months have been extremely crucial for our business. A key change that has happened is that now parents have really had the time and mind space to carefully explore and consider our offering. While we have seen some parents opt for our facility to gain an additional liquidity boost, most of our new customers are with us because they simply see it as a smarter way of paying fees. 

How is GrayQuest dealing with the disruption being caused by COVID-19? 

We adopted company-wide work from home processes to deal with the lockdown. Thanks to this, we didn’t have to let go of anyone or reduce salaries. What worked in our favour is that long before COVID struck, we had made changes to make our business processes completely digital. Processes that would require 2-3 days to complete and physical interaction with customers were replaced by paperless online processes that get completed in 2-3 minutes. 

Tell us in detail about the zero-interest fee option being provided by GrayQuest? 

Our zero-interest fee option is a win-win for both the customer as well as the educational institution. The institution gets its annual fee upfront at the start of the year while parents get to pay in easy monthly instalments. Due to this educational institutions no longer have to wait till the end of the year to receive their fees and can use this boosted cash flow for purposes such as paying teachers’ salaries and improving infrastructure for students. Parents on the other hand no longer have to worry about 2 to 3 bulk payments in which schools typically collect their fees and can pay in convenient bite-sized installments every month. In addition to the financial convenience of paying fees in installments, parents & students also get access to a host of benefits & rewards by paying their fees through GrayQuest. These include a complimentary insurance cover worth 20 lakh rupees and over 35 curricular and co-curricular rewards from our corporate partners that aid in the holistic growth and development of students. 

What’s your roadmap for reaching the top-notch in your area? 

Our road map is simple - it is to create value for both sets of stakeholders - educational institutions as well as learners. We are a company that invests heavily in customer success. While on one hand, we have our rewards and insurance for our parent & student community, for our partner schools we regularly conduct webinars and info sessions that every stakeholder from the school can benefit from. 

Where do you see your firm after 5 years? 

We see ourselves becoming the primary mode of fee payment for 100 million learners in India.