Friday, March 29, 2024

Business

How Microsoft is helping small businesses build better relationship with customers

July 04, 2019 04:13 PM

The country’s small and medium-sized businesses are pivotal to achieving the dream of becoming a 5 trillion dollar economy. SMEs/MSMEs have always been the drivers of the world economy, accounting for over 50% of the global GDP, providing job opportunities to billions across the world. In India, micro and small businesses are only second to the agriculture sector in terms of employment. The 50+ million SMBs account for nearly 8% of the country’s GDP, contributing over 40% of the total manufacturing output and exports.

 Government reports suggest the SMB ecosystem has been steadily growing at a minimum annual rate of 10% rate since 2015. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the SMB/MSME sector growth coincides with the rise of FinTech ecosystem. As the Indian FinTech market is poised to double its evaluation from $1.2 billion to $2.4 billion by 2020, further growth can be expected for the SMBs. The primary growth channel for the MSMEs is tier-II and tier-III cities, i.e., the breeding ground of small businesses and startups owing to the presence of powerful accelerators & incubators combined with the relatively untapped market and ease of investment.

Despite the meteoric rise of India’s SMB space, less than 2% of the 50 million businesses operate online. The majority of the SMB market still depend on offline channels for promotion and commerce. Those that have set up an online portal yet don’t have a platform to engage the customers or acquire new ones. Maintaining a healthy connect with the consumers is crucial for MSMEs as it proves far more productive growth hack than spending huge on marketing and promotional efforts. It is observed that an engaged customer is worth 23% more in terms of revenue compared to an average lead. The smaller businesses hence require customer engagement tools that are easy to set up, and maintain. Microsoft’s new customer engagement solution aims to resolve the relationship management problem plaguing SMBs.

(MOREPIC1)

The solution comes free for every Office 365 user. Instead of splurging on a marketing website or an app, it is economical to set up a customer engagement group on Microsoft Kaizala app. The group features involve providing ratings, raising issues, and sending business inquiries. Businesses can upload brochures, contact details, and terms & conditions. The set up takes only 5 minutes, and the company can be made discoverable up to 500 Kms to reach untapped user base.

SMEs/MSMEs can resolve issues raised and collate customer feedback for actionable insights. Latest product launch and policy updates can be communicated. The smaller businesses can benefit from the real-time customer feedback and insights to make improvements into their service/product line. Upon successful and timely resolution of queries, companies can expect newer acquisitions owing to the referrals from satisfied users.

The ease of set up and actionable features will drive adoption across micro and small businesses that are hesitant to digitization and continue the substantial and sustained growth of the SMB sector.

Have something to say? Post your comment