Why Listening to Customers Has Become a Vital Skill for CEOs

Sandip Raichura Says It Is Important to Measure Every Customer Interaction
Why Listening to Customers Has Become a Vital Skill for CEOs
Sandip Raichura, CEO, retail broking and distribution, Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd.

The last couple of years have been an epic test of character and determination for millions of people around the world. In the business context, CEOs have had to cope with extraordinary demands.

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We have witnessed CEOs building their leadership agenda when they first move into the job. In the current scenario, the agendas are being updated to help employees, customers and stakeholders make sense of their actions.

For Sandip Raichura, CEO, retail broking and distribution, at Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd. (PL), the crisis has been an ultimate test of his leadership.

In the last few years, new-age discount brokers have disrupted the industry, making traditional brokers lose market share. The latter are now fighting back with new plans and improved technology. In this conversation, Raichura shares his views on how the organization is adapting to change and gearing up for the challenge, the impact of regulations, and how it is centrally focused on improving customer experience.

Edited excerpts follow:

As CEO, you have a responsibility to hear and respond to the needs of your customers. They need to be at the heart of every decision you make today, even though many of these decisions might be centered around business strategy, risk assessments and technology. How do you plan on moving out of this crisis?

From a business standpoint, the last two years have been a blessing in disguise. One, the fall in the market made it attractive for investors.

The second important aspect is that this period made businesses more responsible. The regulator has taken a lot of actions, which, in turn, has proven to be a boon for our broking business. It started with a KYC circular and the sandboxing arrangement where one can carry out a lot of technology experimentation in-house. Then came the advisory regulations, and how margins are to be collected. All this has also benefitted the customers, not only through the front-end technology, but across the 360 degree of trade cycle.

Today, we are listening to our customers more intently and across a wider media. Customers can interact with us on WhatsApp and escalate their issues or concerns on the platform. Any escalation that is not resolved within 24 hours is automatically brought to the notice of the C-suite, including me. We immediately step in to resolve the issue, find the process gaps, and fix them.

For every resolution of service that we do, we collect a vote from the customers on how they would rate us. This is then mapped to the executive who took the call, the mode through which the complaint or query came in, etc. All this helps us understand the areas of improvement. For CEOs, listening to the needs of the customers is the only reason for their success, and ultimately the success of the business.

It is extremely important to measure every interaction that the customer has with the company in real time. This can generate insights that can be used for developing real-time interventions, and then actions can be tied back to business outcomes.

That is interesting. The spirit of regulation is to establish fairness and transparency, which encourages better participation among innovators and users. In a way, the regulatory frameworks have been drivers of tech adoption at PL.

Absolutely. This backdrop of substantial regulatory accommodation vis-à-vis the customer and the commoditization of technology has allowed us to swivel around and adopt a tech- focused approach.

We now have the ability to understand what gaps we face, what the regulators allow, and what customers demand. All these have been clearly identified.

We work with an ecosystem of technology providers. If I am partnering with tech providers, their technology has to elevate to the level where their solutions can talk to my legacy systems, adhere to the regulatory requirements, etc.

The acquisition engine that we had earlier involved a lot of manual steps. The acquisition cycle would take around a day. We revisited our core technologies, which involved the mobile app used by our customers and the back-office systems that we used to report our transactions.

The other part was putting in place tech-enabled self-service solutions for customers. All of these have been revamped over the last year. Today, we are at par in terms of technology with the largest brokers in the country.

In an industry where one bad experience can turn a customer away from your brand, there is no room for error when it comes to customer experience (CX). How are you looking to enable CX outcomes for your customers?

We are moving from what we call technology interventions toward "experience interventions."

The days of mass personalization are over. CX has always been a battleground, but more so in today's environment. We are devising a string of things that we want to accomplish using technology and create hyperpersonalized experiences for our customers across the life cycle.

It is widely accepted now that the vast amounts of data that companies generate represent a tremendous repository of potential value. How are you looking to implement a resilient data and analytics strategy for an AI-/ML-ready, customer-centric organization?

We have been using analytics for statistical regression, analysis, and some bit of forecasting in our core broking operations for a certain kind of visualization. We are now moving toward predictive analytics that can help us make improved business decisions.

We have also built sophisticated machine learning models that guide our fund management team. Some projects have already been rolled out, and they have proven that we can deliver a substantial alpha by maximizing returns per asset class. Moving ahead, we will look to blend these two areas to deliver hyperpersonalized experiences.

Being a legacy player in the market, is there a fear of losing out to new-age companies that have more customers on their platforms than the traditional ones?

I wouldn't call it fear, but yes, there is a large amount of competitiveness. As a broker, if we don't execute with a clear strategy around the customer segments that we wish to target, we would then just be a commodity and will be swept away.

Customers today can exit from a brand in no time and opt for another, as they have multiple options.

There is a need for us to build teams that are able to understand the evolution of the market and keep us ahead. The availability of the right resources or skills is an area of grave concern.

This article was previously published on the DynamicCIO website on April 7, 2022.


About the Author

Ashwani Mishra

Ashwani Mishra

Executive Editor, ISMG

Mishra has worked with print and online media companies over the last 17 years and has focused on various editorial and marketing-led initiatives from concept to execution. Prior to joining ISMG, he worked with UBM India, The Economic Times and 9.9 Media.




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