Almost all developing economies got impacted one way or other during the opening up of their economy to attract FDI. In turn this phenomenon affects local businesses the most as they are suddenly forced to face totally a new set of competition that is well equipped financially and technologically. Regular loyal customers becoming not so regular and their demand keep on increasing due to their getting better info through Internet and better experience with new found suppliers of goods and services. Customers have large multitude of choices and this affects their behaviours. Their expectation on goods and services has gone up manifold than before. They also expect high quality and low prices. All these expectations need a response from the businesses; otherwise sales will decrease and they will lose profit and market share.
As far as business houses are concerned, it is that frontline customer service staff that make or break the reputation, brand equity and sales growth. Just recall your recent visit to a shopping mall or super store; what is coming to your mind with regard to the front-line staff? Is it any of the following or all?
Non engaged fresh sales staff standing behind counters looking like a miserable pretender to a throne, (or) Staff Staring at vacuum (or) Staff chatting with fellow staff (or) Staff correcting his/her attire (or) Staff looking at their phones every now and then (or) Staff keeping a tired sad face or frowning face (or) Staff struggling with unwilling/difficult customer (or) Not so well groomed staff wearing not so clean washed cloths.
Though huge money is spent by more and more super stores to bring in customers to their stores’ step, sadly very few customers buy merchandise and return happily. Still worse, out of them 80% never return to buy for their future needs. Current customers never come back to complain on quality or price issues but change their loyalty to competition silently. As customer retention is poor, businesses are forced to invest huge chunk of money again and again in the form of various sales promotion activities to bring in new customers whose demand and expectation is ever increasing. Not to mention hefty wage bill and administrative expenses every month. Though this trend is keep on repeating, very few business houses decoded the reasons accurately, addressed the issues systematically and grow consistently. There is no point in blaming the globalisation, global down turn of economy or government policies for poor revenue. Need of the day is to rightly understand the changed environment and change entire process of doing business so as to emerge as new icons.
Gone are the days where an organisation can rest on their laurels taking advantage of the brand equity. Market share of very successful brands are getting eroded in no time by competition/new comers. In such a scenario it is all the more important for every organisation and their executives to excel on continuous basis to sustain their status. Only those organisations and executives who are smart enough and mastered the art of running their businesses can be successful.
