Alfiah tells us how Kiidu is a caregiver-providing Service Company based in Thailand for on-demand, full-time, and part-time services. Kiidu has caregivers from different nationalities and skill-sets registered with it. They provide service to ex-pat parents, local parents, and hotel guests. Kiidu wants to be part of the community.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Kiidu.
Alfiah: As the CEO of Kiidu (Thailand), I’m an Indonesian entrepreneur who’s lived in Bangkok for 7 years and a mother of two lovely daughters. Together we have traveled and moved extensively across Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In my quest to find nannies for my own beloved children, I observed pain points in the caregiver industry across the world, which led me to develop Kiidu – a trusted and intelligent matching platform for nannies and caregivers. My experience operating Kiidu also led me, most recently, to launch Kiidu Learning – a community to empower nannies, maids, senior caregivers, and drivers through education & to upskill so that they can find better jobs opportunities.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Alfiah: I personally stay active with fitness activities such as running, yoga, gym, squash, and golf. These are a part of my daily routine because I believe keeping my body in shape results in a sharp mind and even sharper business decisions. I’m also an early riser who wakes up early each day.
My motto is, “No excuses, only action.”
When it comes to interacting with my team, I always build rapport by asking the team what I can do for them because I believe I should be by their side as their greatest supporter & helper. At the same time, I’ve also made it a practice to delegate rather than micromanage or shoulder the workload alone and building a non-judgmental company culture where I want everyone to feel safe contributing ideas is tantamount. Every team member is given a safe environment in which to offer feedback and encouraged to do so.
How does your company market its product/services online?
Alfiah: We place a strong focus on social media and content marketing, blogs and podcasts, and email marketing. We’ve found these are the best ways to reach parents and families that are in the market for a caregiver. We also focus on online word of mouth – it really helps that we have garnered more than 600 Google reviews that show customer satisfaction and over 200 Facebook testimonials. When our potential customers are able to read these positive reviews, it helps to interest them and guide them in making the final decision to use our services.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Alfiah: We work with a marketing agency to handle our ads and newsletters. We’ve found that this is something worth outsourcing because it saves us time and allows us to really focus on our core strengths, which is delivering a satisfying customer experience. Internally as a team, we use Trello to communicate, organize and strategize our work plans.
What is your hiring policy/process?
Alfiah: We always begin by evaluating which positions we need to fill at the moment, and then we write a job description which is then posted as an opening on LinkedIn and other local job platforms. We always do a phone interview prior to the in-person interview, after which, if the individual is accepted for the role, we will send the job offer. On the starting day for a new staff member, we always have an orientation, a welcome by HR, and an introduction to the entire Kiidu team.
How do you retain your employees?
Alfiah: We work to maintain transparency within our company with honesty and communication every step of the way. We do this through regular meetings to keep the communication lines open between employees and
management, activities for employee engagement, and allowing and actively encouraging our staff to provide feedback throughout the workflow and own the day-to-day decision-making processes. We also have an employee recognition program with different rewards and incentives to keep everyone engaged and motivated.
How are you funding your growth?
Alfiah: We fund our growth through our revenue. We’ve been growing at a steady pace since our inception, which has allowed us to gain the funds to expand our operations or start a second platform such as Kiidu Learning.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Alfiah: One of our top competitors is Ayasan Service, an online platform in the Thai market that specializes in maids, babysitters, caregivers, and drivers.
In order to keep our edge and stay competitive, we do deep work every day to strengthen our brand and ensure customer satisfaction so that we can expand our company’s reach in the market and put ourselves out there through word of mouth.
Tell us a customer success story of yours.
Alfiah: We have many stories in our Google reviews and Facebook testimonials.
In one case, we were able to help a family that had to relocate from Hong Kong to Thailand during the pandemic. They needed a new nanny confirmed as soon as possible. Our team was available to answer all their questions promptly on WhatsApp, even outside of office hours, giving them very detailed feedback on the nannies they interviewed. Additionally, we helped sort out health details such as Covid testing. Their feedback was that our commitment enabled them to feel happy in their choice and helped to ease the process at a critical time. They ultimately found a fantastic nanny who works very well with their family.
Another customer shared that they really appreciate our personal interview service, which allows parents to interview potential nanny candidates personally to work through any questions and needs.
One single mother of two had only one week to find a nanny during a very busy time in her professional life. After she called Kiidu and sent her requirements, we provided her with one interview per day until she found the perfect nanny who could start immediately. She received the first profile just a few minutes after her first call, along with references. After each interview, we asked for feedback. According to her, all the persons she met with for the interviews corresponded to the criteria she had
given Kiidu, leaving her impressed with our attention to detail and efficiency.
It’s stories like these that keep us going. We are so happy to be able to make a difference in the lives of the families that we serve because we know just how crucial it is to find a nanny that’s a good fit and how difficult it can be to do so when families find themselves with limited time to look for a new nanny. Our team is always ready to rise to the occasion to support families through times like these.
Your final thoughts?
Alfiah: We’ve been in operation for more than six years and served over 10,000 parents with our nannies. We have also empowered more than 12,000 job seekers. Our mission is to be the best and number one matching platform for parents to discover babysitters, nannies, tutors, maids, senior caregivers, nurses, and drivers in an easy, fast, convenient, and secure way whether on-demand, full-time or part-time.
In the end, we discovered that we could also play a key role in empowering the lives of job-seeking caregivers with Kiidu Learning, and this is now our second mission – to build a robust and skilled workforce of caregivers so that they can be ready to tap into the opportunities that await in the caregiver job market and achieve better pay. We believe in approaching the market with a holistic approach. We can solve this second pain point, which is the lack of skilled caregivers in the market, and enhance the lives of everyone involved, from families to caregivers.
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