BENGALURU : I strongly believe that the success of every consumer facing organisation lies in building a customer-centric culture that reflects in every decision and the process that one puts in place.
We provide training to employees before they speak with the customers, that involves making them aware of the customer’s needs and the benefits of our product. Customer facing teams also undergo an empathy training so that they can appreciate the context of the customers better. Further we keep on learning from our customer’s feedback, so that helps improve our processes and business.
In order to build a strong relationship with customers, one should have a feedback and net promoter score (NPS) tracking team in place. Every employee should be encouraged to go extra mile for the customer and the ones who do should be recognised within the company. We also create workflows for different kinds of customer queries so that we can serve each of them better.
Investing in a good customer relationship management tool also helps tremendously as several customer engagements can be automated and we can offer more touch points with the customer during their journey with us. - Rashie Jain, CEO and co-founder, Onco.com
I believe customer management is more about developing the ability to proactively put yourself in their shoes and do critical thinking. If you do this regularly, it will help you become customer-obsessed. This obsession will help you build better customer experience at sales level. To start with, listening to your customer’s need is paramount, which helps you develop and deliver a more satisfying customer experience.
I would help customer buy the right product than selling my product. This often makes customer develop trust in your brand/product and in the long run, it will be a key strategy to engage the customer in various demands. A proactive initiation of discussion, seeking feedback and showing an enormous amount of patience when things take a wrong turn is crucial. If your customer faces any unpleasant experience during your product trial, less arguments and more feedback-seeking attitude to reduce the burden of their pain
is important.
Customer is not always right, we know that but, engaging with the customer early in the life cycle and setting right expectations in terms of product features, service quality etc will help manage the relationship better. At all times a standard professional behaviour, communication and willingness to help the customer is more important than the product itself.
- Raghav Belavadi, founder and CEO, HYPE, Luxury Car Rentals
In today’s competitive business world, the survival of any start-up hugely depends on how satisfied their customers are and how these customers can act as references for more customers. The best ways to approach customer service is to listen, educate and engage. Always listen to how your customers perceive your brand and what they expect by staying constantly connected. This helps you to better inform your customers and educate them on how best you can serve them. This reinforces their belief and trust in you as they look to involve themselves with your company and engage further by experiencing our products and services.
As more niche brands come up in the consumer market, there is a need to be more transparent, consumer-first and accountable to the consumer choices towards their investment in your company. We should listen to how our customers perceive us and what they expect from us through one on one interactions via social media or messaging services.
- Shantal Mujumdar, founder, Rasalila India Harvest Edition Company