The Voice of Indian Consumers

By Ramesh Hariharan, Executive Director of Defussion Knowledge Solutions

Today’s organized retail sector in India is valued at $7 billion, and within 3 years (by the year 2010) the figure shall be 3.5 times as large at $25 billion. Many Indian and foreign companies are eyeing a piece of the pie in the overall market, and are already investing heavily in infrastructure and brand building. The consumer of today has many choices as far as brands are concerned, and their choices on which retail stores choose are increasing day by day.

More often than not, the retailers in India fail to understand the customer because of the rat race they are in. They tend to ignore the customer servicing, which could be detrimental in the longterm. Yet unbeknownst to many retailers, the impact of a company’s customer servicing will likely be visible in the near future. To stay ahead of the competition, retailers in India need to know their consumers better and should keep them from day one!

Key Questions for Retailers

• How to differentiate to stay ahead?

• How to attract customers and hold on to them?

• How to sell more? How to sell better?

Rethinking Indian Retail: Companies’ Focus on the Consumer

• Know your customers better than competing retailers!

• Know their daily activities!

At the same time, understanding the Indian consumer is one of the most difficult aspects of retailing. One tool used is feedback (comment cards) forms. Even though it tries to understand the consumer, more often than not, it offers little value to companies, because, most feedback forms are:

• Unattended

• Outdated

• All look the same

• Act as mere lip-service

More Effective Retailing in India
Companies in the Retailing market in India should consider doing some of the following in hopes of enhancing their position with consumers:

• Understand customer segments better from demographics and behavioural angles

• Reward existing customers and build loyalty

• Create fresh selling, up-selling and cross selling opportunities

• Have an innovative edge over your competitors

• Give fresh perspective to customer understanding

Understanding consumers (and their competitor’s customers) and catering to their needs has yet to become popular in India. Those retailers who bring in a fresh perspective to customer servicing in the Indian context and those who act along those lines can increase their chances of becoming future leaders. To reach such a position, they need to understand their customers on a daily basis and should hold on to them.

Contributing Company:
Defussion Knowledge Solutions. Bangalore, India. www.defussion.com
Contact: Ramesh Hariharan. [email protected] +91 80 6699 4513.

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