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Creating a customer-centric enterprise
 The
opportunities and challenges
Internet or no Internet. Notwithstanding the debate about
the success of e-business, one thing that seems to have caught
up in real is the imperative of customer centrism, world over.
There is a sudden spate of survival initiatives directed towards
not only retaining profitable and loyal customers, but also
empowering them to decide how they would like to be served.
Call centers are there, with the promise of playing the role
of specialist customer contact agencies, to handle the burgeoning
demand of discerning customers - both captive as well as third
party. Businesses, small, big and medium, particularly in
the information technology, retail, telecom, hospitality and
financial services segments have begun to realize the need
to institutionalize customer management processes no more
as a fad, but as a competitive compulsion. Some have even
gone ahead to embrace enabling technologies to enable such
customer-facing business processes.
Here is a catch. Like any other business process will technology
alone make things change? Isn't there a need for knowledge,
understanding and above all and attitude - not lip service
alone - that is required to transform the current product
centric scenario to a customer-centric culture? To top it
all, there are skills and competency related issues.
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We are aware of certain stumbling blocks ahead of us,
which we need to recon with and work upon in order to
be in the race.
Some of these challenges are:
- The traditional lack of customer orientation and
customer service culture in India (there are reasons!!!)
- The lack of formal training, experience and proven
track record in customer contact and relationship
management amongst the recruitee managers s
- The prevailing business culture does not support
the typical mindset required for outsourcing as an
extended arm of a remote client (Applicable of BPO)
- Strong affinity to and identification with hi-context
regional culture and
- Lack of readiness and inflexibility to embrace a
global culture.
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