Ensuring consumer experience in country's transformation is critical

The demonetization move by our Hon’ble Prime Minister to curb corruption and black money in India is commendable. It will play an important part in addressing numerous political and economic issues in the country. However India is a huge country with several policy, and infrastructural challenges. To bring about any socio-political changes or to implement any path-breaking idea swiftly and efficiently it requires enormous effort. If preparedness is not made in the right direction in advance, it can also result in inconvenience for consumers/citizens of the country.

For example in case of demonetization, huge queues in front ATMs and banks, till midnight in case of ATMs, is a common phenomenon even after three weeks of the promulgation. And even after the long queues sometimes several people are having to go without any cash. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had said that it may take up to 3 weeks for all the 2 lakh ATMs to operate normally as each one has to be calibrated individually to dispense the Rs. 2000 and the Rs. 500 notes besides the Rs. 100 notes. Now imagine if the recalibration could have been done in a couple of days’ time, it could have saved so much hassle for the citizens. This is just one of the scenarios. There are several times when critical decisions needs to be taken for long term benefit of citizens but in the short term can result in unpleasant experience.

The Indian government is looking at mammoth country transformation programme. 100 smart cities are expected to be transformed, new e Education initiatives are being planned, and several entrepreneurial opportunities are being created. None of these is an overnight journey. To automate several processes, changes will need to be made in the normal functioning of the systems. Initiatives such as smart cities, financial inclusion, e healthcare, in the short term can cause temporary disruption of usual services resulting in discomfort for the citizens. If the government and industry stakeholders can come together to find out solution which can increase preparedness for urgent situations, it will result in significant benefits without impacting customer experience.

We all acknowledge the role ICT can play in ensuring the success of digital India but it can actually do much beyond. It can help put together customised solutions as per requirement, which can speed up the efficiency of new processes tremendously. Such solutions are already being implemented across some sectors, but a lot has yet to be achieved.

For example given that India is a mobile first country, a mobile based technology solution can go a long way in enabling quick response to different situations and enhancing customer experience. Not surprisingly mobile is also becoming the solution to challenges arising out of demonetisation. In fact it is redefining considerably how consumers and businesses relate to each other. With this in view, at Avaya our focus is also to build scalable platforms that seamlessly combine mobile, messaging, voice, video, content, transactions and business workflows to enable frictionless customer journeys across different industries - healthcare, banking, e commerce etc.

Furthermore, the mobile messaging paradigm also makes it particularly suitable for implementing next-generation automation based on bots, powered by AI and machine learning. This early-stage technology holds the promise of great leaps, both in terms of customer experience as well as reduced operational costs for businesses.

The transformation towards digital India isn't an easy journey and it's the responsibility of every corporate to make sure that relevant infrastructure and solutions are deployed to reach that goal. These are the basic principles of turning the digital India dream into a reality. Building an ecosystem that is agile and flexible to deal with the change is imperative, for that will lay the foundations of a great consumer experience. If the experience of citizens is not good then implementing any new programme will reduce its significance.

(The article is authored by Vishal Agrawal, MD, India and SAARC, Avaya)


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