Message From MD August – 2020

‘Asset Circle’ was a great experience for me. Four continuous weeks. Very intense and touching episodes. I am meeting those gentlemen for the first time. The Thursday evening webinars with prospects named ASSET CIRCLE was really an eye-opener where participants shared their expectations with us. We really need to understand and perform as they believe that our brand can serve their requirements and meet their expectations. Believe me, they have great expectations from you.

Yes, definitely customers need a great product. Yes, they need a competitive price too. But the future belongs to the experience around our product or service, through each stage of their acquisition funnel. Customer satisfaction measures how our product, service, and overall experience either falls short, meets, or exceeds their expectations. In short, companies that prioritize customer satisfaction grow and increase revenue.

In the three-legged stool of organizational design, People, Process, and Technology denotes the three pillars. The weightage of these parameters varies depending on type of business. In a technology-oriented company like Uber and Amazon, expertise is embedded not in the people but in the process and technology. Expertise has to be transferred from people to process and technology in order to scale, to be efficient, and to be cost-effective. In our business, the differentiator is services that are intended to be personal or custom made. So for us, people are indeed the most valuable asset of the business.

If we map out what makes our business unique – is it what we do, how we do it – and does the differentiation lie in the people, the process, or the technology? This will give us an insight on what to cut, what to invest in, and what can be outsourced. When the top-level expertise has not been fully transferred to the next level and people are hired with lower skillsets, we have a recipe for failure in waiting.

I always feel while attending sales meetings that ours is a price-sensitive business so there is not much margin-left for extra service deliverables. People get what they pay for. But Customer satisfaction is our real business. Regardless of the project, engineering, or cost, you must make customer service a priority. That’s true today, and will only increase in importance in the years to come.

What is the key to becoming and being a great customer service person? It’s nothing but self-awareness! Being self-aware helps us see ourselves clearly and understand who we are as a service provider. Equally important, having self-awareness helps us understand how others see us. My advice to our colleagues is to come prepared with the right tool and lens for the situation. Do not be tempted to look at every problem with the same solution. Give yourself the time to step back and consider if you have something new to offer based on a previous project, situation, experience, or lesson learned. If you need a new tool, ask for help. Nothing great is ever done alone. Lean on your team. Ask a mentor for help. Seek inspiration online. Find a way to use the right tool for every single situation.

Can you think of a time when you feel like introspection dramatically changed or improved a situation for you? What has self-awareness and introspection done for you lately? If not start practicing today. It will help you to stand in the shoe of the customer and delight them by providing impartial, improved, immediate, and intelligent services to all.

Wish you wonderful Malayalam year ahead and advanced ONAM wishes.

Warm regards
Sunil Kumar