How customer focus is helping Bajaj Auto, ITC cut deeper

Visit any company website, or read any corporate brochure, the words “customer focus” invariably leap at you. What makes this a powerful trend is that it is not only restricted to the FMCG or the services sector.

Now we have cement companies talking directly to end users on primetime television spots. We also have manufacturers of telecom cables and water pipes jostling for the customer’s mind space alongside cola majors. The foregone conclusion: customer focus is the new-age mantra for long-term success.

Are you really focused on the customer?
It sounds deceptively simple. However, efforts at achieving real customer focus need to become a part of the corporate DNA to be truly effective. For the most part, companies lackadaisically invest in training programmes that aim for cosmetic improvements. Needless to say, these efforts fail.

Here are some reasons why firms lose focus:
Several small and medium sized companies begin with a strong customer focus. However, as they grow in numbers and business, layers of processes and protocol set in to make everyone more preoccupied with internal systems.

Companies that are suddenly deluged with business want to satisfy everyone. 

There is little or no information on customers or their needs. At best, the top management satisfies itself with an annual survey where only positive feedback is documented. Vital negative information is ignored, suppressed or booted out.

All initiatives aimed at improving customer focus emerge out of what the top management considers appropriate. This makes all new product development myopic. Marketing has the unenviable job of pushing these onto a reluctant and often unwilling audience.

All excitement surrounds the acquisition of new customers, while efforts at retaining existing customers are poor.

Industry best practices
It is clear the degree of customer focus will determine future industry leaders. What would set these companies apart? Here are some key characteristics:

Customer focused companies constantly seek and document feedback, through all sources of interaction. They have a system to analyse and feed this information back into the loop so that response is immediate and not an annual feat.

A strong customer orientation also demands that these companies treat customer complaints positively. They not only make toll-free numbers and helpdesks available, but also staff it with knowledgeable people who do not read excuses off a screen. Moreover, they get back to these customers within an acceptable timeframe. 

 Finally, a customer-focused company would not pass on the job of tracking customer satisfaction to the marketing or customer response cell —- placed on par with tracking financial metrics. It would be a job that merits the attention of the top brass.

Globally, companies like Dell, AT&T and IBM have reaped rich rewards by being customer focused. In India, Microsoft aims to “become relevant” to the country’s one billion population. It has made a start with introducing the Windows 2000 and Office 2000 range, which supports Hindi/ Devanagari and Tamil. In 2001, it launched the Office XP and Windows XP, which supported 11 Indian languages. It also launched Project Bhasha, a collaborative programme to promote local language computing, in 2003.

The rural marketing initiatives of some of the leading FMCG and auto companies not only show customer focus, but also a keen discernment of segmentation.  Even as C K Prahalad spoke of the vast fortune at the bottom of the pyramid and co-creation of value, some Indian companies unfolded plans to tap this potential by making inroads into rural markets. Bajaj Auto has a clear agenda of tapping rural markets where its penetration is low currently. ITC’s e-choupal leverages the internet to create a knowledge pool and understand its customers better. A useful by-product is the marketing of its products through the site.

Customer focus generates immediate and obvious results. However, it needs a significant change in mindset and approach to formulation of business strategy. At its core, it requires CEOs and marketers to accept the verdict of the humble customer.