A customer centric approach

How a service is perceived by the customers, is critical for long term sustenance of an organization. There are complexities in handling customers on day to day basis. Minor objections based on standard operating procedures and attitude of person dealing with customers, causes a number of avoidable customer grievances. Appropriate attitude is required to deal with customers on day to day basis. A visitor is not only an important person in the premises, but purpose of a service oriented organization.

Market decides its own course: Fast moving technological advances, improvisation of infrastructure and communication channels, especially the social media platforms, have increased customer awareness, and expectations. This has also prompted the organizations to respond proactively to customer expectations and to the customer needs. Quality at optimum cost is the norm for futuristic businesses. Progressive business entities need to realise that efficiency, quality and time are critical  factors, especially in the service delivery segment, of an organisation.

A number of hotels in a particular area have, recently leased out their businesses to the professional organisations/companies, that are now managing these businesses in a professional manner, effectively. This is an indicator that market demands optimum utilisation of resources. Market also demands professional service delivery, which was not possible in previous few years. The traditional business practices are giving way to the professional organisations. It may be seen that even a brand organization has been facing issues. The issue of time lag- such as delivery of an order. The order gets delayed  owing  to unprofessional working, and causal approach of the team members.

Quality of service delivery also  varies from place to place. Service delivery in the metropolitan cities is quicker, whereas, the same is slightly prolonged at some places, depending upon lifestyle and pace of the city. In hotel industry, quality of food assumes paramount importance, especially to the customers that are repeated visitors. At times some hotels serve stale dishes unknowingly. Kitchen requires frequent deep cleaning. High temperature and humidity make the situation worst. This aspect is not categorically noticed and acted upon by the management. Preparation, storage and delivery of food need to be supervised, professionally.

So what does market want, or how does market operate in today’s world? Market decides its own course, and customer is the strongest player in the market. Cost is another factor, whereas quality being the third one. Customer delight is the norm. Retention and loyalty are equally important aspects. Time of course is critical, and ease of delivery has been duly recognised by the progressive organizations, like Amazon, Flipkart,  Zomato, Swiggy and so on.

Online market is not all the time dependable at customers might have felt that quality compromises are visible here and there. In certain segments, quality is not up to the mark, especially food items delivered through cloud kitchens. Here comes the silver lining for traditional stores and showrooms, who can come forward to offers decent discounts to retain their customers.

State of affairs in the  Government organizations:

Recently, a lot of focus has been laid on the customer grievances. Time bound settlement of grievances is the focus area of the Government organisations. Root cause analysis is also one of the focus areas; being attempted recently. However, it is not possible to have a real time analysis sitting at the boardroom. The entire service delivery mechanism needs to be reviewed in totality and overhauled in the service oriented government organisations. The field offices in the public service delivery  function in a set pattern, where the seniormost official is accountable to higher authorities for day to day activities. The organisations never work at optimum level in the present scenario.

The onus of smooth functioning of the field units lies on the officers being in-charge. However, a lot depends upon grassroots workers and subordinate officers, as well. The real time accountability of everyone has become inevitable, where support of latest technology is imminent. Despite technological advancements, a headway is yet to be made, where real time performance if measured to an extent that compels an individual to perform or perish.

The service delivery depends on multiple factors, especially on the attitude of the grassroots level workers. Real time accountability needs to be ensured. Interpretation of standard operating procedures, rigid mindset, peer pressure,  are the causes of  customer Grievances; ans all this is avoidable.

What EPFO, Jammu does to improve customer satisfaction:

A multipronged approach has been adopted at EPFO Jammu  to address issues faced by customers. A proactive, responsive small team has been constituted to provide handholding to offline and online visitors.  Access to customer has been provided, not only in the office, but through other modes as well. Direct access through WhatsApp, e-mails, telephones and social media is available to the stakeholders.

Personalized attention to each issue has been ensured. A visitor in the office is accorded prompt attention with respect. Facilitation centre tries to resolve the issues in time bound manner within the constrains (shortage of manpower).  Flexi-working has been adopted (with the support of volunteer staff members), who have been contributing in effective service delivery, significantly.

Since the work of entire J&K was being dealt from EPFO, Jammu, there are many instances where members could not get their PF money owing to some technical issues for over one and a half years. Constant communication was being made by these members to me. There are examples where, at times communication with customer with empathy can have a happy ending (without any bitterness between the organisation and the beneficiary).

There are thousands of cases where proactive decision making helped members as their claims which were proposed to be rejected, got settled. Officer needs to interpret rules and provisions towards the fulfilment of an enactment, which has been reasonably done in EPFO, Jammu during previous three years. The office has received two consecutive awards on the Foundation Day of EPFO.

By:Rizwan uddin