The contemporary business environment at the global level is witnessing an era of supremacy of customer, customer delight, customer-centricity, customer as the king, customer as God, etc. Some others talk of Employee first, Customer second. But that too is an attempt to focus on customer satisfaction through employee involvement and engagement. Almost all organizational vision and mission statements swear customer service in different senses. However, it is important to ask whether allegiance to customer focus is a mere rhetoric or a reality. In other words, where does the customer stand in comparison with the stakeholders’ interest?
The book under review focuses on the above issue. Indian business has had more than two decades of economic freedom since India decided to shift its model of development in 1991. One of the objectives of the reforms was to improve product and service quality, technological upgradation and market accountability of firms so as to operate in a competitive environment, leading to growth on all fronts of the national economy including exports. The book discusses mainly the rhetoric and reality of customer service in Indian context. The author has tried to awaken the reader about a wide gap between the promise and delivery of service to the customer which is way behind the level warranted as per the global standards and leading to what he refers to as organizational schizophrenia. Through an empirical investigation, he has unravelled the causality of a yawning difference between the promise and the actual delivery. He bases his formulations in the book on about 200 interviews of employees, customers and dealers from12 companies, besides attending some review meetings as an observer, reading various relevant documents, his own experiences as part of the senior management team in a customer-focused company. Some of the questions, among others, that he addresses in the book are: how much is the gap; why at all it exists; what is required to deliver the intent to the customer; and how can the situation be remedied. He also gives examples from some good customer service-focused companies some of which are known as leaders in this domain.
The book is divided into four parts, all comprising of 18 chapters. These four parts deal with the promise, performance, the cultural schizophrenia and back to basics. Chapters in the inaugural part deal with the promise of deliverables made by major respondent companies as discernible from their vision and mission statements and other communications. Also examined in this part are their organization structure, operating processes, employee engagement and the extent of customer-centricity in their culture. The three chapters in part II discuss issues of performance based on examples of interactions that the author had with people from seven of the companies. He obtained data on this parameter through stories and narration of respondents’ experiences of poor responsiveness to customer needs. The pith and substance of the author’s principal argument can be found in the 11 chapters that comprise part III, which he has titled: the Cultural Schizophrenia, which focuses on the real disconnect and the cultural turmoil. The last part contains a single chapter that has been titled: the afterthought.
The author realizes the saliency of people-focus and employee engagement in service delivery and has quite competently articulated people issues in this regard quite like the way an enlightened HR professional would do. I would see the soul of this book in chapter 3 which links customer-centricity with employee engagement. This chapter contains five cases (ELGI Equipment Ltd., VIRGOEngineers, Thermax Ltd., K.G. Khosla Compressors and Whirlpool) of exceptional customer service. Especially the first three of these deserve special attention as they underscore the critical concern of the leadership to promote customer care through a high degree of employee engagement. The latter two cases appear a bit inchoate and needed more data about context as well as substantive part. Excellence data in case of the first three cases has shown how customer delight cannot take place without a high degree of employee engagement. These cases, among others, reflect empowerment, transparency, openness, genuineness, forthright communication, authenticity, right to dissent, recognition, employee dignity. This chapter carries very important lessons for all line and HR managers. But it also underscores that if the top management is not visionary enough, HR managers cannot by themselves make the change happen. I feel if the author had added some concluding remarks to the cases and the learning which emanate from them, it would have been still better. Presently, the ending of the chapter appears abrupt.
However, the book is full of examples and interesting small cases on the way business is being done in the Indian business context. The customer service delivery by Indian companies is compared with the customers’ expectations in a globalized world as also with the leading customer service provider in global companies. He has rightly argued that firms are mostly seen maximizing the shareholder returns and do not seriously pursue maximizing customer satisfaction as per their expectations and thus in the process remain only short-termist. These policies lead to messages all around the organization as to what is valued by the management leading to the confused employee behaviour and attitude that need to be demonstrated for realizing the business goals. This exacerbates what in India is referred to as ‘chalta hai’, which proves anti-thetical to customer satisfaction.
Besides the above analysis, the author has also provided meaningful prescriptions for a more disciplined commitment to the core values, objecting to the wrong-doings and respecting customer-centricity at all levels of the organizational working. The book should be an eye opener for all those organizations as well managers who are not able to win customer loyalty despite what they think to have put their best efforts. The book contains some very important messages about what can be done to improve customer service. It has been written in an effective manner and has succeeded in arousing sufficient interest in the reader, which motivated me to read it almost from cover to cover. It is full of insights that would be of great help to the CEOs and senior managers from HR and marketing in resolving the issues of behaviour expected by the customer. It will also help in promoting a better alignment of people strategy with business strategy. It would be of as much interest to HR professionals as it would be to marketing and sales managers and practitioners. On the flip side, the last chapter could have been arranged in a better way by summarizing what comes out from the author’s research and the need for a more holistic treatment of customer service rather than through better motivation of those delivering that service. Overall, however, the book has demonstrated a lot of intensity and concern for uncovering the dynamics of apathy to customer service by Indian companies in general.
Debi S. Saini
Professor & Chairperson
Human Resource Management Area
Management Development Institute
Gurgaon, Haryana 122 007
India