Need for Customer Focus in emerging Competitive Scenario

Customer is God - this saying has been there for long, but in today's cutthroat competitive business environment, it assumes a far greater significance. Today, unless the customer is treated as God and pleased with good service, he can get angry and shift loyalties - which is not desirable by any company. With multitude of companies with similar capabilities vying for the market share, it is the quality of product and customer service that tell the leader apart.

Customer Focus is not just a fancy term to be discussed in boardrooms- it is a way of professional life. It should be engraved in the psyche of each and every worker. A customer is the main reason and cause of the existence of a company. Each and every action of the company and its workers should be inspired by the idea of giving maximum satisfaction to the customers. Customers should be at the forefront while making important business decisions. When such a policy is adopted, the rewards naturally follow.

Understanding customer needs fully is the first step towards full customer satisfaction. Not doing so can lead to expensive changes and delayed schedules at a later stage. Knowing for what job the customer is going to use the product finally, is also an important consideration. To meet this end, properly trained and expert people should be employed whose sole job is to listen to and interact with the customer to understand the requirements in minute detail, prepare a draft of the same, finalize it between both the parties and then publicize it among work-group members. Proper surveys/studies should be done to gauge the customers' demands. An internal discussion should be held to clarify the specifications fully so that each person involved with the project is aware of the task at hand. Past experiences with the customers should be taken into account in dealing with them. Proper communication with the customer should also be maintained throughout the manufacturing cycle of the product so that the doubts are cleared in time. Latest communication methods like e-mail, fax should be employed for this. Unless the company and its customers are on the same wavelength, all actions are futile.

The various departments of the company should keep the other departments - which are their internal customers - satisfies with on-time and quality work. For example, the performance of the production department should be satisfactory to the engineering department and vice versa. If there is harmony among various departments of the company, the manufacturing time will be less and product will be exactly as per specifications. For this, there should be effective communication setup among all the departments and the respective managers should be well versed in modern communication method like e-mail, fax etc. Training programmes should be organized periodically for that purpose. The whole machinery of the company has to work in unison to successfully to complete the project to the minutest details of the customer's specifications.

Proper, full and easy to understand documentation (manuals etc.) should be shipped with every product so that the users are able to easily use the product and proper customer care services should be in place to handle the complaints and these should be manned with appropriately trained, polite people so that the grievances are addressed promptly. Vendors should always know that their customers might not be technically as sound as them. The product should also be aesthetically pleasing to the end user - it makes a huge difference. Adopting the latest techniques/mediums like the World Wide Web, which can increase customer convenience to see the product, buy it and troubleshoot it also score lot of customer points.

A strong and efficient public Relations system and good, truthful publicity should be used to project a strong image of the company to potential customers. If the service is not at par with the publicity, the customers will be disgruntled and the company's image will suffer. In today's environment, brand building is an important part of every company's budget and should be given its due importance, but half-truths and total lies should not be used to attract a customer. It may be good for short term, but in the long term it can prove disastrous and deter prospective customers.

One more contributor towards customer satisfaction is employee satisfaction. Discontented employees cannot make contented customers.The employees should be adequately compensated for their efforts. The employees should have a positive image of the company and should be involved in the decision making process. They should be kept abreast of the contexts of the decisions made by the company. They should have a clear idea of the company's vision and objectives and should feel that they are moving towads those objectives.

It is rightly said that the best publicity is through word-of-mouth. If a customer is satisfied and happy with the company's performance, the word will spread and the company will reap the rewards.

My Role in Preserving the Invaluable Nature

Pollution, Global Warming - these word elicit in us, anger against big industries emitting black smoke and money hungry corporations felling hundreds of trees .We, however, absolve ourselves of the responsibility that we, as inhabitants of this beautiful green planet have towards Mother Nature.

Human beings have been on this planet for a long time, but at no time in history have such massive climate changes - rising of global temperatures, melting of polar ice caps and Mountain glaciers been observed. It is known that there is more Carbon dioxide in the air now than at any time in the last 600000 years. Warming in this century is projected to be between 1.4 and 5.8 Deg C. Global warming can lead to severe disruption in rainfall patterns and ocean currents, which can have grave consequences for populations.

This climate change is linked to many natural calamities like hurricanes, and massive floods causing loss of life and property. The habitats of many wildlife species are getting endangered. Indiscriminate dumping of toxic chemicals and pollutants into the rivers by large corporations and the melting of glacial sources of many rivers due to global warming, are posing grave danger to their existence, and which in turn is posing threat to millions of people who have been living off these rivers for thousands of years. Due to pollution of CFCs and like molecules, there is now hole in the earth’s protective ozone layer, which lets sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays reach earth and cause multitudes of skin cancers. Delicate ecosystems like the Poles, which are barometers of climatic change, are showing never before seen patterns, indicating imminent danger to our environment. Polar ice sheets are melting and glaciers are breaking up. - never before seen occurrences in history. As sea levels rise, due to the melting ice, the inhabitants of many low-lying areas are facing inundation. In the past 100 years, global sea level rose only between 1 and 2 millimeters a year. But since 1992 this rate has increased to about 3 millimeters a year, mainly due to the thermal expansion of warming oceans and freshwater flowing into the oceans from melting ice. The effect of climate change is more prominent in the lives of tribal and poor people, whose lives are closely intertwined with nature and who depend on agriculture for subsistence. Continents like Africa and Asia will be worst hit. All these recent occurrences are telling us that the threat to nature is very real and humanity is heading for disaster if it does not change its ways immediately.

This pollution is the result of rapid industrialization and population increase that has taken place since the later half of the 20^th century. The world economies are dependent on industries for their growth but this kind of economic growth is proving bad for the nature. All this is the result of the selfish nature of man, who is only focused on his short-term gains and is not able to see or is deliberately ignoring the looming danger to humanity. This race for the so-called progress has made him blind to the fact that what he calls his progress will in fact spell doom for his future generations, who will not be able to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and eat unadulterated, hygienic food and who will long for a quiet, green, clean place to spend their vacations and marvel at the beauty of nature.

Among all the causes of pollution and global warming the most worrisome is the burning of fossil fuels. Today, all the major power plants use coal as fuel, and generate power to light our homes, but at a great cost to environment. All the major industries also burn fossil fuels for their energy and other requirements. Their chimneys spew huge amounts of toxic gases into the environment, including gases like Carbon dioxide and Methane, which are Greenhouse gases, which trap sun’s heat and lead to global warming. Similarly, the airline industry burns tonnes of fuel for transporting people, which is also a major cause of pollution, in addition to the fuel burnt by road and rail transport.

Corporations can do their bit to ease pressure on the environment by being responsible and properly disposing the industrial wastes and by adhering to environmental standards like ISO 14001. Also renewable sources of energy like hydropower, wind power, solar power, geothermal power, and wave power should be promoted and researched upon as they are pollution free and are freely and abundantly available on earth. Research for the generation of energy by hydrogen fusion should be given impetus, as it promises to be an abundant and clean source of energy.

Government can help by making environment friendly legislations, strictly policing the industries for unacceptable pollution, by giving incentives to clean industries. The corruption in the system needs to be rooted out for these steps to be effective. , Govt. should promote various innovative concepts like the concept of carbon emission trading, in which a kind of pollution tax is levied on industries, which then is used for the environmental causes like planting trees, public environment awareness campaigns and the like It should make the general public more aware of the environmental causes. Treaties like the Kyoto Protocol, which aim at reducing the Global emissions of greenhouse gases, should be promoted and adhered to. The whole world has to be united to face the problem. Serious political will is required to save the environment, and some motivated politicians have to lead the way.

But the real change will come from grassroots, people like you and me. We have to be united and open a front against pollution. We have to be the catalyst for the change that we want in the system. We have to be responsible and understand the connection of our lives with these polluting factors. Everything is interconnected and interdependent. Power plants are operating because we need light in our homes. Industries are there, because we need the goods, Airplanes, and other vehicles pollute because we need to travel. So ultimately, it all seeps down to the individual.

Steps like the following can go a long way in reducing pollution:

• Switching off lights, fans, appliances when not needed.

• Setting the air-conditioner to an optimum temperature. Turning the heating thermostat down, and the air-conditioning up, by 1.5 deg C (3 deg F) saves around 1 tonne of CO2 (Carbon dioxide) a year.

• Enabling “Standby” feature in PC and switching off the monitor when not needed.

• Using fluorescent lights in place of light bulbs.

• Using devices that are not very power hungry like latest energy efficient air conditioners, refrigerators, geysers, monitors.

• Making use of natural lighting in house design.

• Using solar energy for water heating, cooking etc.

• In villages, instead of burning wood for cooking food, using biogas and solar cookers

• Trying to use more and more recycled products like recycled paper, recycled bags etc.

• Rejecting the products of industries, which are known to disobey environmental norms.

• Traveling less often in flights unless it is very important.

• Walking instead of using vehicle whenever possible.

• Making a carpool.

• Using public modes of transport like buses more often.

• Checking and tuning the vehicle for pollution control regularly.

• Not using air conditioner in vehicle when not required.

• Trees reduce the greenhouse effect by absorbing Carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and in addition, they also give out life giving oxygen. We can help nature and help ourselves by planting more and more trees, which are the lungs of the environment.

• Making use of bio-degradable materials like jute. Saying no to plastics and polythene bags. These plastics stay in the environment almost forever and cause pollution.

• Making less and efficient use of paper. Using both sides of paper and recycling it can save 2.5 kg of greenhouse gases for every kilogram of paper used.

• Not leaving wastage during picnics, trekkings etc.
  

The drive to protect and preserve nature has to start from me – the individual. Then it will become a mass movement that will give the biggest gift to our future generations- the gift of pristine nature.