BANGALORE, INDIA: Today customers are looking beyond device-based value propositions and are demanding solution-based value propositions, more proactive thought leadership, increased knowledge transfer, tailored offerings, and consistent quality.

Cisco's Customer Advocacy enables it to help customers improve their productivity, reduce operational costs, and get their applications and services to market as quickly as possible, says G B Kumar, senior VP – Customer Advocacy, Cisco India and SAARC.

In an interview with CIOL, Kumar elaborates on Cisco Services and Customer Advocacy.

Excerpts:

CIOL: What is Customer Advocacy? Explain.

Kumar: Globalization and market trends such as personalization are creating the need to deliver highly customised service offerings around the world to customers with diverse capabilities, skill sets, and requirements. Cisco sees Customer Advocacy as partnering with customers, and engaging in a mutual dialogue, to accelerate customer success with Cisco network technology and applications that meet their business needs. Customer Advocacy enables Cisco to help customers improve their productivity, reduce operational costs, and get their applications and services to market as quickly as possible.
 
CIOL: What made Cisco Services offer this service/solution?

Kumar: At Cisco, customer satisfaction has been an essential component of the corporate culture since the company's inception in 1984. Sandy Lerner, one of the founders of Cisco, created "Customer Advocacy" as a unit specifically tasked with ensuring that customers were well provided for. In fact, to ensure all employees are committed to the customer, employee bonuses at Cisco are based on the results of customer satisfaction reports. The Cisco culture seeks to encourage employees to go beyond in-the-box customer service and mandates that Customer Advocacy start with Cisco's people.

Today customers are looking beyond device-based value propositions and are demanding solution-based value propositions, more proactive thought leadership, increased knowledge transfer, tailored offerings, and consistent quality. With the creation of Cisco Services, Cisco has evolved from a product-based to a solution-based offer. In doing so, Cisco is responding to customers' demand for more proactive thought-leadership, increased knowledge transfer, tailored offerings, and consistent quality.

Now, Cisco not only supplies the network, but also provides the support necessary to ensure that customers make the most of their networks. This allows them to build more integrated relationships with their customers and their partners. Uniquely, Cisco also stages annual Customer Advocacy awards for business partners whose performance and behaviour is most aligned with Cisco's advocacy principles.