How Revolut built a thriving community with Discourse

Every day, customers are building, growing, and managing successful communities powered by Discourse. Today, we're highlighting the Revolut Community, a remarkable success story inspired by true Revolut fans who organically emerged on social media. With consumers at the heart of everything they do, Revolut wanted to create a dedicated platform for their customers to share feedback and receive official information.

Who is Revolut?

Revolut, a leading global financial technology company based in London, offers an extensive range of services*. These include currency exchange, prepaid debit cards, credit cards, virtual cards, payment via Apple Pay and Google Pay, interest-bearing savings vaults, personal loans, BNPL (where licensed), stock trading, commodities, and human resources solutions. Revolut launched in 2015. In just one year, the company secured 100,000 customers and chose Discourse to build their online Revolut Community. Today, Revolut serves over 40 million customers across 38 countries, supported by a dedicated team of more than 10,000 employees in 25 countries. We caught up with Revolut Community Manager, Mariana Rodrigues, and Community Specialist, Sangjukta Mandal, to tell us more about how Discourse helped build the Revolut Community.

*Certain products and services are only available in certain jurisdictions and/or for customers of specific Revolut entities. Access to products subject to onboarding and other requirements.

Why Discourse?

When Revolut decided to establish an online community, it needed a platform that wasn’t only dynamic and adaptable, but also capable of supporting a diverse and growing customer base. “Discourse's contemporary interface, extensive features, and versatility in hosting and integration made it a leading option for us,” explains Mariana Rodrigues. 

Some of the features that stood out to Revolut included Discourse’s seamless integration capabilities, which allowed for single sign-on (SSO) and API integrations. “These features made it easier for our customers to join and stay. Additionally, the user engagement tools, like real-time notifications and customizable categories, ensured that our engagers could effortlessly follow and contribute to topics of interest covered in our community posts.”

The value of a dedicated online support community

Mariana Rodrigues explained, “The Revolut Community is a lively and welcoming platform where customers can participate in engaging discussions, share their personal experiences, and support one another. By fostering these connections, our community encourages collaboration, provides quick solutions, and enhances the overall Revolut customer experience. Our mission is to offer a secure space for our customers to connect and share freely.”

She continued, “Customer service plays a major role behind any company’s success, and building brand loyalty is a result of our strong community management. Our personalized interactions create a sense of belonging for our customers, who feel understood and valued within a community that shares their values and interests, ultimately driving more engagement with Revolut.” 

“Gathering feedback from our customers on our products and services through this platform plays a crucial role in helping our company see the bigger picture,” adds Rodrigues.

A pivot to a proactive and strategic management style 

Transitioning from a reactive to a proactive community was key for Revolut. Mandal shared, “Initially, our community management efforts were more informal and ad-hoc. As the community grew, we implemented a more structured approach, creating dedicated tasks and processes to handle various aspects of management, such as moderation, content creation, and customer support.” 

Discourse’s comprehensive moderation tools have allowed Revolut to maintain a respectful and safe environment. “Automated moderation features, such as spam detection and user flagging, help manage the community efficiently, allowing the team to focus on strategic engagement activities,” says Mandal. “Discourse has been a cornerstone of our community strategy, providing the tools and capabilities necessary to foster a thriving, engaged, and supportive customer base,” she concludes.

Impressive growth and engagement metrics

With ‌growth from 100,000 customers to 40 million, today, Revolut ‌needed an online community platform that could grow with them. “Discourse has scaled effortlessly to accommodate our surge in new customers and interactions. The open-source nature of the platform has allowed us to customize and expand our functionalities to meet their evolving needs,” notes Rodrigues. “The built-in analytics tools have given us valuable insights into customer behavior, engagement patterns, and content popularity, adds Mandal. “Discourse’s data-driven approach has helped the team make informed decisions to further nurture community growth and satisfaction.”

The Revolut Community boasts impressive metrics, reflecting its active and engaged customer base. 

While managing a growing community, it’s inevitable you’ll encounter various obstacles along the way. For Revolut, they’ve tackled problems by creating dedicated spaces in the community to support new languages, customer feedback, and a comprehensive FAQ-style knowledge base. 

Future plans and vision

With a clear vision for the future and a staunch commitment to continuous improvement, Revolut plans to introduce new features and tools that facilitate more meaningful interactions and provide valuable resources to its members. “We aim to expand our Revolut Community globally by offering localized content and support to attract diverse customer bases,” Mandal reveals. “The team is also committed to fostering an inclusive and safe environment by refining moderation practices and community guidelines.”

Revolut's strategic use of Discourse has not only facilitated impressive growth, but has also significantly enhanced customer engagement and satisfaction. With such plans in the pipeline, Revolut is poised to continue leading in the financial technology space while nurturing a dynamic and supportive online community.