CAMP 06 - Customer Orientation

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Customer Orientation
Dr. Partha Pratim Das
Head of Engineering
Camp 06 Maturing Minds
July 2006
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Agenda

• Who is a Customer?
• What is Customer Orientation?
• What is Brand Equity?
• Brand Interra
• Customer Interactions in Interra Business Models
• Tips in Customer Orientation

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Audience Speak
Who is a Customer?
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Who is a Customer?

• Someone who pays for goods or services.
• The persons or group that are the direct
  beneficiaries of a project or service the
  people for whom the project is being undertaken.
• Customer can be
• External
• Internal

5
Audience Speak
Who is a Vendor?
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Who is a Vendor?

• A supplier of goods or services (in exchange of
  money / favor)

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Examples of Customers

• You are a customer to the grocer.
• You are a customer to the bank.
• You are a customer to the restaurant.
• A patient is a customer to the doctor.
• A student is a customer to the teacher.
• The public is the customer to the minister.
• A manager is a customer to the reportee.
• Kids are customers to their parents.
• Engineering is a customer to the G A.
• Concorde is a customer to Cheetah.

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Audience Speak
What is Customer Orientation?
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Customers Orientation

• Being sensitive to customers requirements
• Being focused on servicing them

Keeping the Customer at the Center of the Business
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Some Experiences

• Looking for a credit card.
• Allahabad Bank
• Citibank
• ANZ Grindlays Bank

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Some Experiences

• Opening a bank account.
• Punjab National Bank
• HDFC Bank

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Some Experiences

• Buying a digital music player.
• SONY Showroom
• MP3 Shop

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Some Experiences

• The car company who fixed the ice-cream.

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Some Experiences

• Shyamal _at_ Elixent Support

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Audience Speak
Why do we need Customer Orientation?
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Customers Orientation Quotes

• A customer is not an outsider to our business. He
  is a definite part of it.
• A customer is not an interruption of our work. He
  is the purpose of it.
• A customer is doing us a favor by letting us
  serve him. We are not doing him any favor.
• A customer is not a cold statistic he is a flesh
  and blood human being with feelings and emotions
  like our own.

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Customers Orientation Quotes

• A customer is not someone to argue or match wits
  with. He deserves courteous and attentive
  treatment.
• A customer is not dependent on us. We are
  dependent on him.
• A customer brings us his wants. It is our job to
  handle them properly and profitably both to him
  and us.
• A customer makes it possible to pay our salary,
  whether we are a driver, plant or office employ

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Audience Speak
What is Brand Equity?
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Brand Equity Company Value

• Car
• Maruti Fiat
• Processor
• Pentium Celeron
• GSM Mobile Handset
• Nokia Samsung
• Air Travel
• Jet Airways Air Sahara

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Brand Equity Company Value

• Management Studies
• IIM XLRI
• TV News Channel
• NDTV DD News
• Actor
• Amitabh Bachchan Salman Khan

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Customer Orientation Foundation for Brand Equity
Customer Orientation Goals

• Think through our unique differences define them
  and establish them in customers terms
• Manage our image and identity with the same level
  of care as our other Corporate assets

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Brand PPD

• Technically Competent
• Does not compromise with Quality
• Responsive
• Trustworthy
• Helpful
• Maintains a high ethical standard
• Demanding
• Fun Loving

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Brand Interra

• Technically Competent
• Does only a few things does them well
• Extremely responsive
• Very sensitive to customers needs
• Good quality of people

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Behind Brand Interra

• In Interra, we work to build a bond of trust with
  our customers
• The trust between what we promise and what we
  deliver
• This trust is earned through a culture of
  customer orientation.
• It is nurtured by consistency and performance
  over time

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Understanding Interras Business from Customer
Orientation Perspectives
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Interra Business Model

• Sale of IPs
• On-site services
• Off-shore Services
• Turnkey Services
• Extended RD Team

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IP Sale Scenario

• Loosely coupled relationship
• Key Players from Interra
• Sales
• Customer View about Interra based on
• Quality of the IP
• Sales Negotiation Process
• After Sales Support Service, if required

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On-Site Services

• Very tightly coupled
• Customer controlled
• Key Players from Interra
• On-site Engineer
• Relationship and Account Manager
• Dominantly controlled by the on-site engineer
• Customer View about Interra based on
• Face-to-face interactions with on-site engineer
• Processes followed on-site
• Quality of work delivered
• Delivery timeliness

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Off-shore Services

• Typical Engagement
• Pilot Project
• One of the several projects in an extended
  relationship
• Key Players from Interra
• Account Manager
• Off-shore Engineers
• Customer View about Interra based on
• Quality of work delivered
• Delivery timeliness
• Processes followed off-shore
• Project Management Tracking
• Remote interactions with engineer

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Tips on Customer Orientation
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Customer Categories

• They come in all shapes sizes
• The Over enthusiastic (Magma/Cheetah)
• The non-responsive (TI-Asha)
• The ever complaining Variety (0-In/Concorde)
• Control Freak (NFT/Japan)
• With a Im holier than thou attitude
  (0-In/Concorde)
• Hands-off Type (TI-Library Management)
• Sometimes you do get the perfect variety (Elixent
  / Concorde)
• We do NOT have an option of choosing our customer

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PRACTICE

• Promptness
• prepared and willing to be of service
• Reliability
• trusting or deserving of complete confidence
• Accuracy
• the ability to observe and act with precision
• Courtesy
• the ability to be gracious, obliging and polite
• Tactfulness
• the ability to say the right thing without
  offence
• Information
• the communication of knowledge or education
• Competence
• the ability and capacity to carry out a task
• Empathy
• emotional or intellectual identification with the
  other person.

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Promptness

• Phone and email responded to with minimum delay
• All deliverables delivered on as per timeline
• Queries or complaints are handled with eagerness
  and enthusiasm.
• Have 'Yes 1 can' attitude and mean it

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Reliability

• Reliability conveyed through action, not by
  promises
• If you are unable to service, try to find an
  acceptable alternative.
• You will rarely get a second chance to
  demonstrate reliability.

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Accuracy

• Ensure all information sent to customer is
  accurate, complete, and up to date.
• Note all relevant facts of the customer's
  queries, particularly names
• When mistakes are made, accept responsibility and
  solve the problem
• Avoid slang or jargon and communicate on the
  customer's wavelength.

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Courtesy

• Identify yourself, be polite, respond when
  appropriate, and listen.
• Give the customer your undivided attention and
  use his or her name often.
• Be yourself Falseness breeds mistrust and
  insincerity.
• Courtesy is contagious, as are aggression and bad
  manners.
• Mind your tone and manners

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Tactfulness

• If a request cannot be granted, explain and avoid
  excuses
• Disregard insults don't get 'personally'
  involved
• Maintain voice control and speak with conviction
  and sincerity
• Be as friendly and as good humored as the
  situation allows
• Always allow customers to save face avoid 'You
  are mistaken'

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Information

• Customers expect you to have detailed knowledge
  of your company.
• Keep the customer informed of your progress
• Keep the customer informed of any new
  circumstances that affect him or her.
• Don't act on hearsay ensure all information is
  accurate and complete.

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Competence

• Convince the customer that you can solve his or
  her problem.
• Avoid 'I will try', 'I think', 'Maybe', or 'It
  should be'.
• Don't pass on the blame to someone else this
  angers the customers
• Speak in a manner that suggests maturity,
  knowledge and action.
• If you have a solution, explain what you will do,
  and do it.

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Empathy

• Listen carefully to the customer's requirements
  and never interrupt.
• Put yourself in the customer's place do you
  really understand?
• Encourage customers to bring complaints to you,
  not to your rivals
• Don't expect the customers to be reasonable
  complaints provoke emotion.
• Express regret for queries, be warm and take
  immediate action.

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Mantra of Service

• Customer is ALWAYS right.

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Q A?