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Sydney broker Nik Nanda (pictured) has seen his focus on customer experience pay off in 2024, with word-of-mouth referrals and Google reviews helping loan book growth in the first full year of his brokerage.
Nanda, who transitioned from a career as a train driver over a number of years into a brokerage with Loan Market in Sydney’s west, has made inroads among first homebuyers and investors in the area.
Lead tracking has shown 87% of his business in the most recent financial year has come through word-of-mouth referrals, Nanda said, as clients turn their good experiences into leads for him.
One deal done for a first-home buyer working at a school within his local area turned into referrals and helping five more teachers within the same school during the calendar year, he said.
“As a one-man show I have been trying to build a quality business rather than a quantity business; I wanted to make sure we over-serviced clients as much as possible,” he said.
First moving into broking as a side hustle while driving trains, followed by fully transitioning from his train driver role, Nanda said he believed getting the customer service right would result in new business.
“The power of word-of-mouth referrals and customer satisfaction has always resonated with me,” he said. “I’m a strong believer in attracting business rather than chasing it. If you go out there and give the client a mind-blowing experience that service will speak volumes.”
Nanda, who bought his first property at 22 and has grown his own investment property portfolio since then, said the service focus stems from an average experience with a broker at that time.
Nanda said that, rather than being guided by the broker, he needed to ask all the questions.
“Now in our meetings with our first time buyers, we go through a series of steps, which involves providing as much information for these first time buyers as possible,” Nanda said.
“They never feel like they are hit with any surprises; from inquiry all the way through to settlement our clients are just really well informed from day dot.”
The business has netted 115 five-star Google reviews from clients, who Nanda said typically write substantial reviews about their positive experiences rather than just leaving the five-star rating.
Nanda also received Loan Market Group’s Customer Champion Award 2024, due to receiving 10 out of 10 on customer feedback surveys after every single deal he completed.
Nanda said he is not focusing on financial goals as much as he is on other client metrics in 2025; for example, he said he wants to help 100 customers this year while achieving a 100% satisfaction rate.
“If you have a simple metric of helping a certain number of clients; if you focus on that side of things with the right mindset of helping people, the business will flow as a result,” he said.
Nanda is also hoping to push his five-star Google reviews above 200 in total by the end of the year.
He will also seek to streamline processes and bed down a new hire to enable the business to scale to the next level, following kaizen sessions with his aggregator and engaging a business coach.
“I work ridiculously long hours seven days a week, which for the long term is not sustainable,” he said. “It was always going to be hard to sustain these numbers with just me, myself and I.
“We added a staff member in November, and this year, I want to ensure that our client service is not compromised while handing on the baton to our staff,” he said.
