In a world full of artificiality can anything be authentic? More than ever before, we live in a world filled with fake news, counterfeit products, phony friendship, transactional relationships & constant transitions. Expecting genuineness in business affairs, therefore, seems a flight of fantasy. Yet, any seasoned business professional would be the first to acknowledge that the underlying bedrock of his success is the fact that he built strong, resilient & lasting bonds with his business associates. The same principles apply to strong & enduring institutional relationships.

Let us revisit the principles as they deserve reiteration:

1. Be clear about your offerings: what is your firm's capability and what products, or services, are you making available to the customer? Funny as it seems, business development executives readily accept every request from the customer in the quest for winning a competitive bid, even when they know that it will create problems for their firm when they return home with the order. Contorting yourself into a supplicant position is a sure-fire recipe for disaster as either the firm cannot add those bells and whistles to the product which the Salesman has promised or the execution cost is prohibitive. The need for assertive conversation with the customer cannot be over-stated. Be clear what you can do - and also where do you do draw the line on what your firm cannot do. Ambiguity during negotiation will lead to errors in setting expectations and these are expensive misjudgments for any firm.

2. Fulfill your commitment & live your promise. Trust is an essential component for building a durable business relationship (as in personal life). It begins with living up to your commitment. However, the number of firms that fail to get this into their employees' psyche is legion. Haven't we all suffered from the product that fails to operate as smoothly as advertised or the company that supplies a badly written manual which accompanies a DIY product? Let me not attribute criminal negligence in either case, it is usually callousness or myopia that has prevented the manufacturer from viewing his product from the user's perspective. The product exists for the consumer - regrettably this basic axiom has been forgotten by many businesses who are too high on their own Kool-Aid. Similarly, fixing inconsistency in service is under-rated. Nostalgia may bring back a customer but even a happy customer will regret returning to you a second time if he finds that you have slipped in your service offering. The law of diminishing returns has a way of impacting all relationships and service businesses have to be extra alert to delay this as long as possible.

3. Attend to deviations promptly. Mistakes will happen in every business but how soon will you rectify it, is the question. Every firm has stumbled at some time or the other in its life - even the legendary Mercedes-Benz has had product recalls. The manner in which you address these deviations from the norm is an indicator of your customer commitment. Prevarications and delays in owning up - or worse, tying things up in legal quibble - is not worth it. Faith lost by customers is difficult to regain & sometimes goes beyond one firm to tarring the whole sector. The Banking Sector is an example & Bankers as a breed are still viewed with suspicion, post the 2008 global financial crisis. Volkswagen, likewise, has tarnished the entire automobile industry and awkward questions continue to be asked of all firms who make emission claims. Another well-known scandal is the current mess that Johnson & Johnson (J&J) finds itself in (both with the talcum powder & its faulty implants cases). It is going to take quite a while for J&J to live down this gross omission & its cherished halo of living by its legendary credo has taken a huge beating with echoes of the tylenol case of the '80s. Being proactive in divulging acts of omission are rare - and an expensive option. Mea culpa is a dangerous game and is often seen as a public relations exercise. But it has been done - and companies have survived to tell the tale, even thrived later. The sincerity in accepting their fault - and the earnestness and alacrity with which it attempts to remedy the errors - will be crucial in receiving the forgiveness of its customers. Customers do forgive and forget, and later lavish their attention back to you, as many businesses have learned. Nestle, in India, is a recent case in point.

4. Do a little more than you are expected to deliver. While this one seems more applicable to services delivery, variations can apply to products businesses too. Who doesn't love a deal? For years companies have won market share through special offers and seasonal discounts. In the professional services sector firms tend to operate more often through a time & effort model. Even here clients are happy to receive the unexpected from them, at no additional cost. Being there for them when you are needed most helps you not just to be a trusted advisor but when you are not seen as someone who is a mercenary raising an invoice after every action, creates a different perception & adds to your value for the client. Once again, this is a fine line to tread where you should be mindful that you are not taken for granted. Professionals like lawyers, doctors, consultants, etc. are often wary of being expected to deliver free advice even at social settings - and often feel compelled to do so in the face of an aggressive customer who is quick to take offence if rebuffed in such settings. As I mentioned before, being assertive in communication is an important skill and operating from a base of fear is not healthy in any relationship. It is out of your strength that you can offer more value to a relationship and doing that extra bit will raise your profile in the eyes of a client & thereby lead to a healthier relationship.

5. Keep innovating: every year there has to be something new that you offer to the client. Never stay the same as it not only exposes you to the danger of obsolescence but inherently marks you out as too lazy to reinvent. No product or service can remain the same and expect to have unlimited loyalty of a customer. Further, by staying unchanged over many years you also run the risk of customer fatigue & boredom. Just as personal relationships need novelty to keep the spark alive between parties so also between firms & customers. In the face of multiple competitors wooing your customer, you must have the extra oomph for the customer to justify staying with you. Remember that as a business development professional you have to be alive to the fact that your buyer at the customer's end also has a shelf life. Therefore, not only do you have to embed your product or service deep into the customer's operations but also in the psyche of the customer who sees you as integral to his business. And, since individual users (or buyers) also see career movement inside the firm, you have to be alert to the needs of the new users or buyers so that you can fulfil their changed requirement (be it in terms of features, benefits or any other way due to environmental factors). Hence, product revisions or service upgrades are de rigueur to keep relationships fresh.

There are obviously many other steps that are necessary to build authenticity in a business relationship. With shifting paradigms in a fast-paced world, firms do find it difficult to stay in tune with the customer. However, if your house is built on the right bedrock, you can bear the seismic waves - and succeed - as the customer is willing to provide you with the benefit of doubt even when he is riding the rollercoaster of change. The essence is a cultural one - are you genuine in your desire to be authentic? If yes, then play fair - while also playing smart - and then you will succeed in winning the competitive game of securing the customer's wallet-share.

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Chetan Shetty is the Chief Operating Officer at Extentia Information Technology, an iconic software services company in the areas of Mobile Application Development, Salesforce.com and SAP Cloud Platform development - and User Experience Design. Chetan has an MBA from Ecole des Ponts in Paris, France and over 25 years of experience in managing technology start-ups and SMEs. He is an enthusiastic storyteller over the weekends.

CA: How does one build long lasting relationships with customers in the services sector, specifically in the software business?
 

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's newest addition to his Incerto collection, Skin in the Game, is an interesting read. Like the books preceding it, Skin in the Game is filled with powerful and intensely voiced arguments by an author who knows his audience doesn't want to hear such things. But, are these arguments true and valid, or are they more of Taleb's ideas that seem self-critical and lacking in true introspection? Unfortunately, I am inclined to choose the latter. While an interesting read, Skin in the Game seems to be a bit muddled in its ideas, which is a shame as it does detract from its central theme, a novel and powerful idea.

Skin in the Game is Taleb's fourth book in the series but rather than being a direct sequel, it plays off certain ideas from his previous works like Black Swan and Antifragile. This standalone title revolves around a core theme that he constantly references throughout the book - symmetry. Taleb believes that for progress to be made in any field, sacrifices or risks must be taken aka symmetry in effort and reward. Reward without sacrifice causes an imbalance, and true progress is only made by those individuals bold enough to take risks, to have skin in the game. This idea forms the basis of many of his chapters, each distilling what he believes to be the issue with the American and global landscape. Other concepts, like the IYI (intellectual yet idiot), underlie Taleb's more right-wing ideas regarding the American economic landscape but are bolstered by his commanding voice about how he believes the system needs to be shaken up.

The book however is not without faults. Taleb often treads a fine line between being forceful in his presentation of ideas and being outright aggressive, and it is that hostility that occasionally bubbles up through the book that might leave some readers disappointed. Taleb is known to be a challenging individual, but his utter disregard for certain people and ideas is surprising. His counters to them are also lacking at times, often refuting the very ideas he proposes. This leaves a certain uncertainty regarding what he truly believes and what he is saying. His demeanor towards academia is curt, often belittling the idea that academia relies on theory and that academics often have no skin in the game, but at the same time praises economic theories and hypothesizes changes to the system that seem impractical if implemented. Overall, these issues do bog down a book that does raise good points at times and may leave the reader unhappy.

Skin in the Game is an interesting book, to say the least. Its core idea is valid and Taleb does a good job of explaining it in his usual erudite fashion, but this book is not for everyone. Its presentation could have been done is a less patronizing way, but it is true to Taleb's own style. If you enjoyed his other works then I would recommend reading it, but if you are looking for a book that will provide you with a good time, then I would tell you to prepare yourself before you embark on this journey.

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