How Dojo is using customer service to disrupt the card payment solutions market

You may have noticed that this month we’ve been talking about all things fintech – from defining the term, to discussing the future of payments and what’s next for the sector in the South West. This has all been made possible by our wonderful editorial month sponsors, Dojo. 

To close Fintech Month, we spoke to Tech Lead, Leon Kemp and Product Manager, Jessica Morgan, who head up the service intelligence squad together, about working in fintech and life at Dojo. If you want to learn more about what a career in fintech could look like, you can check out the full video interview below. You can also view Dojo’s vacancies on our jobs board here.

Dojo exists within an incredibly competitive market – there are undoubtedly a host of card machines to choose from. Leon tells us he sees this in a positive light as it helps push the team to provide a stellar customer experience through ensuring the tech is functioning at its optimum level, whilst going above and beyond to suit the customers’ real needs. 

He explains, “There has been a recent move towards an emphasis on consumer experience and doing more than just the card payments side of things. There are lots of other products we offer and we are looking to expand onto the market.”

A prime example of this expansion is Dojo’s acquisition of WalkUp, the queue management system that allows restaurants to join a queue for restaurants remotely. This increases revenue for restaurants by decreasing “dead” table time that often occurs with booking systems. Leon says Dojo is working towards, “creating a whole ecosystem to empower businesses to serve their customers better.” He later adds, “That’s something that we strive to do at Dojo. It’s about providing the best features and the best service to the customers.”

Jess echoes this sentiment as she talks about Dojo’s motivations as a business: “It’s actually about how we can really grow and encourage our customers to help their businesses and understand what they could be doing better to get them more opportunities and actually make their lives easier. The push is on the end customer which is really nice; I think it definitely makes it easier to come to work.”

As well as finding job satisfaction and motivation through Dojo’s strong focus on customer service, Jess and Leon tell us a bit about the atmosphere at the fintech company. Jess says, “The people here are just awesome. Everybody is so on it and super intelligent – everyone wants to and is enabled to work towards the same goal. It’s really refreshing because there’s no push back as everyone is trying to get to the same thing. So, it’s a really nice place to work.”

The sense of encouragement towards real innovation keeps things interesting for the team. Leon tells us the flat structure Dojo implements helps them move things forward at a much quicker pace. Leon says, “We do have the power in our squad to do what we think is best which makes everyone just feel more involved in everything we’re building.”

Jess adds, “It’s also a really interesting time to be in fintech as we move out of COVID.” She explains that the debate around creating a cashless society has evidently been great for Dojo as a company, but it has also encouraged the team to experiment with their tech to build solutions that make this a genuine reality, rather than just a conversation. 

Finance doesn’t always evoke exciting connotations, so we were interested in what misconceptions Jess and Leon thought there were when it comes to working in fintech. Leon says, “From my perspective, when I first came into Fintech, I probably had the expectation that I needed to be really good at finance, but you know, I don’t think that’s always the case.

“There’s a tonne of areas inside. We work in the customer service side of things, so it helps to understand the industry, yes, but you don’t have to be an expert or a mathematics genius to work in finance. A lot of the problems are just everyday problems that our customers have and need to solve.”

Jess agrees with this observation, adding that a key misconception people tend to hold is that fintech doesn’t touch their life: “I think sometimes Fintech can feel like ‘well I’m not into finance, I don’t have a financial advisor, what’s that got to do with me?’ But actually, everyone is involved with it.

“If you use a phone, if you have Apple Pay, if you use a credit card, whatever you do, that’s tech and that’s fintech. Everyone is in Fintech, without even realising.”

Thanks to Jess and Leon for taking the time to talk to us about Dojo. You can find out more about Dojo on their website here, and if you’re interested in joining the team, check out all their current Bristol-based vacancies on our jobs board here.