By Dipali Goenka
Customer centricity, simply defined, is putting your customer first – understanding and meeting their needs, enhancing their experience, creating value for them, and, as a result, creating happy customers who will stay connected to the brand. The concept is, however, not new; in 1954, Peter F. Drucker, management consultant and author, famously and rightly said: “It is the customer who determines what a business is, what it produces, and whether it will prosper.” This continues to hold true even today.
As organizations innovate to modernize their infrastructure and capabilities, technology will continue to play a crucial role in helping them optimize their customer-centric processes and goals. For businesses looking to leverage the use of digital technology to achieve customer centricity, the first step is to set up robust internal processes, to meet their specific goals towards becoming a customer-oriented organization. The seemingly-simple things can be crucial too – automation for customer communication and presence on social media platforms. These steps work towards making a business visible and accessible for existing as well as potential customers.
Customer centricity at Welspun India
As with everything else, the Textile industry in India has undergone a digital transformation, and we too have been focusing on augmenting the use of technology to drive customer centricity. WEL-TRAK is a patented Welspun invention that enables consumers to track raw materials and find the source of the final product. This unique use of technology helps build trust among customers by being transparent about our products.
An organization cannot be customer-centric without listening to the customer. This also helps companies, particularly those manufacturing home textiles and similar retail goods, to understand what consumers love in their products and what needs to be improved. With that in mind, we set in place the Welspun Braintrust – an online portal for customers to be able to share their feedback and help us make continual enhancements across our products.
An example of ‘Technology in practice’ at Welspun, would be our Python based CV algorithms which were built in-house – extensively leveraged on GPU servers for the purpose of counting towels. The vision based AI/ML Algorithm system was integrated with Camera SDK, Network ecosystem, SAP system, counting and tracking algorithms, and actionable insights were given as part of analytics and reporting with PowerBI capabilities. This Towel counting application was built, tested and evaluated in shadow mode for a period of 9 months to ensure accuracy and address failure cases, making this system robust. We are proud that our application is custom-built internally and one of its kind in the Textile industry.
The role of business leaders
Leaders have considerable impact on a company’s culture and goals. I strongly believe that leaders should be proactive in their approach to customer centricity. These can be a few ways to leverage technology towards providing an improved customer experience:
Bring in the expertise – Set up a team of experienced professionals to innovate, adapt to new technological advancements and also combat any problems that might arise.
Analyze, adopt, adapt – Leverage insights from data and use reliable analytics tools to get a complete view and thereby optimize processes and products. Adopt social listening practices to understand what the customer is saying about your brand and products. Adapt to fit customer needs.
Don’t over-promise – Promise only what you can deliver to your customers, as failure to do so can impact loyalty towards the brand. Look for the right technologies that suit your specific goals, help you connect to your customers and get effective solutions.
Engage and empower – Empower your customers to say what they want through the use of digital platforms. Responding and offering quick resolutions are equally important. Keeping customer engagement rates high can ensure a smooth end-to-end experience.
At the end of the day, the simple rule is – Place customer experience at the centre of your business plans and processes. Every customer wants to be regarded as important and want to find what they need, fast and hassle-free; and it is our job to give them what they want. Technological advancements and Innovation can help businesses achieve this faster.
Welspun wins big at the prestigious TEXPROCIL Export Awards
Welspun Global Brands Limited, global leader in Home textiles, recently won Platinum Trophy for the Highest Global Exports in Cotton Textiles and a Gold Trophy for Special Achievement Award in Sustainability in export of Cotton Madeups during 2020-21 at TEXPROCIL Export Awards. The home textiles giant has bagged ‘Highest Global Exports’ award for 12th consecutive year. The awards, which are well-known and coveted in the industry, are bestowed by the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, popularly known as ‘TEXPROCIL’.
Keeping consumer well-being at the core, the company has made significant investments in consumer research to monitor changing consumer patterns and stay ahead of the curve. Welspun firmly believes in creating shared value and pursuing the path of inclusive growth, with circularity embedded across the entire value chain. With set benchmarks for the industry through its differentiated efforts in all areas of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Welspun is aligned with global best practices to enable a sustainable approach across operations.
Dipali Goenka, CEO & MD, Welspun India Limited, said, “On behalf of all of us at Welspun, I can say with great delight and pride that we are honoured to receive these accolades. This is a huge acknowledgement and credit to the hard work team has been putting in to partner our customers globally.”
Keyur Parekh, President, Global Business, Welspun Global Brands Limited said, “TEXPROCIL awards reaffirm that Welspun is the preferred choice of customers globally with its Farm to Shelf capabilities, global distribution network and state-of-the-art vertically integrated manufacturing facilities with ESG as core”.