Customer is not always right; but he's not stupid

BANGALORE, INDIA: The client has got much more educated. And today what can put him off is a service vendor who jumps and says ‘yes’ to everything. He wants the other side to get away from ‘client is always right’ mindset.

As Hari Kumar, MD, Deloitte US in India, explains this new paradigm further in the context of redefined client engagements in the current economic pressures, he stresses that recession or no recession, ‘trust’ is a fundamental that will never change.

“Being a trusted advisor is as important today. If you were doing fine on the upside, downside should be fine too. And today the client is educated enough to appreciate that difference.”

He adds that what’s required for service providers to do in the new times is to address not what the client asks, but what he needs. “When he asks something, don’t jump and say ‘yes’. He doesn’t want a yes-man, but a problem solver.”

Earlier speaking at a session on ‘New rules of client engagement’ at the 11th annual Nasscom BPO Strategy Summit 2009 here, Amitabh Chaudhry, CEO, Infosys BPO, outlined some more ways to re-engage clients.

“At the end of the day, and beyond all buzzwords like innovation and transformation, a client really wants to see cost reduction,” he pointed out adding that they want to share business risks.

“You can go back to clients and talk about shared services model, make international centres more competitive, improve domain and business value, leverage tool deployment and automation, drive insights through analytics and take revenue-growth ideas for clients, and, of course, try the ‘muliplier’ model by blending a lean business with technology,” said Chaudhry.