Top management vital for customer care: study

Most middle level managers face a common hurdle when it comes to delivering customer service.

They fail to sustain top management involvement over a longer period. This is the outcome of a research conducted by Custommerce, a think tank for customer centricity and customer service strategies.

According to it, a powerful ally in the form of top management is required for customer service excellence.

Realising the importance of the customer centricity, managements are now drawing up strategies to achieve customer-driven economy and to lead India towards a truly global economy.

Discussions to gain insights into how the customer-interaction management strategies are implemented worldwide are assuming importance in this scenario.

To address this challenge, Custommerce has organised a one-day ‘Customer Centricity Conclave’ in Mysore on August 29 in association with the SDM Institute for Management Development (SDM-IMD). The Servion Global Solutions, a specialist in the customer-interaction management space, will conduct the programme.

The conclave, to take place at the SDM-IMD campus, will see management professionals from diverse industries. They will focus on understanding how customer centric organizations like Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and Titan maintain sustained commitment, involvement, and affirmative action from top management.

The conclave is based on an interactive format where middle management participants will present papers on ‘Top management buy-in challenges to make organizations customer-centric’, ‘Selling to top management’, and ‘Program and process monitoring for sustained top management involvement’.

‘Customer centricity in State-owned enterprises: winds of change’ and ‘Internalising customer centricity thoughts’ are also among the topics to be discussed. Presentations by senior executives on how they have been successful in garnering top management involvement will follow.

Participants will then discuss and debate on how these best practices can be internalised in their respective organizations.

Established in 2003, Custommerce is India’s only dedicated forum on customer centricity. It has been conducting Custommerce to highlight the benefits organisations can gain by improving and enhancing customer response by identifying challenges faced in customer interaction and possible strategies to achieve a customer-driven economy.

The SDM-IMD has carved a niche as the pioneer of management teaching practices. It is engaged in management education for over a decade with a record 100 per cent placements.