Brand Building

[Brand Consciousness - Customer Angle]

I-N-F O-rmation S-Y-S-tems is an inseparable part(ner) of Infosys which facilitates its operational efficiency and thus helps its client experience customer delight. Given the importance a business enabling function in any industry in any sphere holds, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to call it the pith-and-marrow of this fast-becoming multinational technology conglomerate.

Yes, we don’t bring business. No objection, milord. But to the contestation that we are not the bread winner, I emphatically retort we enable the business execution smoothly. We provide the DNAs ampersand RNAs which helps our company announce a healthier below-the-line figure every quarter and an expanding reach every year. In every progressive step that Infy decisively takes, in every milestone that it industriously achieves and in every accolade that it deservedly earns, there is an invisible but undeniable hand of IS. We are the heart which provides Infy the confidence to dream big!

One crucial and self-contradictory myth which we, perchance unwittingly, live-with is that our’s is not a client facing PU. On the contrary the verity is that we live amidst our client, akin to the syllogism ‘it’s not the space that exists in the room rather it’s the room that exists in the space’. Every Infoscion, in a way, is our client. Whether it’s a greenhorn receiving his 1st sal-slip, or one of the Directors analysing the financial numbers, each one of them is our customer. And so what does it mean to leave with one’s customer? It demands an inherent professionalism and an ever-ready customer friendly attitude. On top of it the reality that ‘Infosys is one of the fastest growing corporations’ necessitates upon us ‘Kuiq Service’. We perform in one of the most challenging environments and face one of the most demanding customers. It’s only when we start treating our client the way they would like to be treated that the latter will value our service. In what ever way we engage them, the impression delivered ought to be suffused with interest, understanding and care.

When Vignesh (onsite, EMEA) faces a problem with ‘ILITE’ he naturally asks me to help him out. Now being a BSD4ian I am understandably unaware of the technicalities and so can easily excuse myself and let the poor soul struggle. But if I nudge myself a bit, and try to mull over the reason which gave him the expectation to seek my help, it dawns upon me the fact that ‘I represent my PU’ here and so it behoves on me to help ‘my client’ in what ever way I can. So, what do I do? I promptly call up my erst-for-a-while colleague for the person in-charge of the concerned system, and forward the details to the needy. I agree that I did not move the atlas, but credit-me-or-not, I certainly gave him a comfort feeling and in doing so, has definitely a-bit lightened up the image of an ISian. Whether we believe it or not, whether we realise it or not, whether we appreciate it or not, each one of us is an AMBASSADOR of IS. And rightly so, it entails upon us to act like a consummate professional that will reflect credit on IS and us. It is an irrefutable truism that in services sector, nothing can improve a service provider’s brand than the opinion of its customer. The sooner we realise it the better we are.

It is upon us now to give our client the reason to make IS a brand that speaks for itself. It’s time to become conscious of and to value the brand IS, and strive in what ever little way, to contribute to it. Only then we warrant an attitude of “Better show some respect to the brand, eh?” J:)

Courtesy: An ISian.

Epilogue: This article was written for IS Brand building while I was in UK (WGC) and posted to ISTeam on 17th Feb 06.