The Genesis

5 years ago we heard the cries of frustration of customers in India. One victim actually remarked "Jo kasht se mare, usey customer kehte hain." That was a moment of truth for us at AGC. And with that moment of truth came the genesis of this movement to encourage Customer Responsiveness in India!

Customers : who are they? Aren't they the ones who actually own our businesses and pay our salaries, aren't they the ones who decide who wins in the market and who loses, who will thrive and who will go bankrupt?

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome once again to the 4th edition of the Avaya GlobalConnect-ET Awards for companies who hear what their customers are telling them, who believe that the road to success is paved with the satisfaction of their customers.

Just like it is a fact that roads accelerate the economy, it is an undisputable fact that customer responsiveness accelerates commerce. And that's all the more relevant in India, which is poised to become one of the largest consumer markets in the world, with higher disposable incomes and aspirations to match A market that is poised to reap its demographic dividend. And that's why AGC chose to promote and propagate customer responsiveness in India!

The Journey

We embarked on this journey 5 years ago, to evangelize the concept of CR, to co-create a framework and to set benchmarks for Customer Responsiveness along with India Inc. The initiative has met with resounding success over the last five years with more than 100 companies participating each year across industries. The award has seen the crème de la crème of India Inc. gunning for the award, and the winners quoting it in print, on the web and in their annual reports. We also introduced the concept of the reader's poll in order to induct the end-consumer in the process. The reader's poll count has grown from just 4000 in Dec'05 to more than 60,000 as we speak in Apr'10. This is, ladies and gentlemen, a telling comment about the momentum of the CR movement in India

Keeping CR Relevant

The fundamental purpose of the CR movement was to bring the customer and India Inc. together. At a macro level, when we started this movement, India Inc. was in the phase of fast paced growth and at the heart of it was customer acquisition. We wanted to make sure 'responsiveness' got the importance we felt it deserved amidst the customer acquisition fever.

As we stand today, we realize that the contours and linkages of the relationship between India Inc. and the Customer have changedover last 5 years. Let's understand what has changed around us.

Redefining CR

In the last few years the world has experienced the perils of pursuing heady, mindless growth. We have all experienced the after effects of that, which pushed the global economy into contraction. Growth for the sake of growth has had an adverse impact on the fiscal health of individuals, companies, even nations. We don't need mindless growth. The need of the hour is Profitable Growth. There are ways to define profitable growth and the approach may differ from industry to industry. But that is the way forward. And going forward, this forum will focus more and more on discovering and further exploring the relationship between the consumer and the profitable growth of companies.

Profitable Growth Demands Loyalty

Loyalty implies the customer must stay with you for a long time. It means that the customer knows you create value for them. It means you have established your credibility with the customer. And the customer wants to buy from you and is willing to reward you for it. You have then established a foundation for profitable growth.

But of course, loyalty is very hard to come by. Take Financial Services a recent survey shows that an average consumer has business relationship with at least 5 financial entities in addition to his primary financial institution, maybe the Bank where you have your salary account.

Look at Telecom so many players, falling ARPUs, churning customers and 'Number Portability' just waiting to happen, It's the same with almost any industry you can name. . . FMCG, Automobiles etc. etc.

In a nutshell, our consumer today is more informed, spoilt for choices and this constant churn puts undue pressure, particularly on the incumbent. The path to profitable growth is paved with the satisfaction of loyal customers. Customer loyalty is the next step in this continuum!

The Quest for Loyalty

There are varied approaches to attaining customer loyalty, but look deeper and there is a common thread there. To put this in perspective, allow me to share a short story from 'The Panchatantra'..a story about a King and his Monkey.

Many years ago, there was a King, who was facing increasing threats to his kingdom and to his life from neighboring states. The King's army hired many brave and powerful bodyguards but no one was found reliable and dependable and the King's life remained under constant threat.

Finally, they found a very powerful monkey. A monkey who never slept, had the strength of 10 elephants, capable of running at twice the speed of a horse. He was hired to protect the king 24x7. The monkey was trained to take simple orders...the most elementary one being the King pointing a finger at potential threat. Wherever the King pointed his finger, the Monkey would go ahead and demolish the target.

One day, the King was taking rest in his private chamber and was about to fall asleep. Suddenly a mosquito came and sat on King's nose. The King tried to wave the mosquito away but it just wouldn't budge. It sat on his head and then flew and sat on his chest. Frustrated, the King shouted and pointed a finger at the mosquito.."get this flea out of my way." The ever-responsive monkey pulled out his sword out and swung it down, this way and that. Well, the mosquito flew away and the King was dead!

The Moment of Truth

So what is the lesson here for business?

There was a value equation - the monkey was very useful to the King, providing him security cover round the clock. There was responsiveness too - he just destroyed the targets the king pointed at in a split second.

But there was no real communication during the MOMENT of TRUTH! The monkey didn't know the language that the King spoke.

And that ladies and gentlemen, is just the first step in building customer loyalty which is so essential for your company's financial health.

Let me also clarify this - the Moment of Truth is not only about customer service. It can appear at any touch point - be it sales, be it customer service or be it the product itself.

So the questions are- Do you understand your customer's language? Do you continuously invest in expanding this vocabulary? Do you have communication open 24x7, across channels and all touch-points?

The Moment of Truth can arrive anytime, anywhere. And the organizational ability to understand the customer's language is the first step to building loyalty and of course the key to profitable growth!

Anil Nair