For startups, customer is king and consultant

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Prabhjeet Singh, president of Uber India and South Asia, will be swapping his comfortable corner office for the driver’s seat — quite literally.

Singh will be driving customers around, a move he says will offer valuable insights into their points of view.

Elevate Your Tech Prowess with High-Value Skill Courses

Singh and other company leaders are part of an Uber initiative to ferry customers across cities, as the US cab aggregator completes a decade of operations in India.

Leaders across ecommerce startups such as Licious, Red-Health, Captain Fresh, Pilgrim and Razorpay are walking the talk to enhance customer connect, not just to improve products and services and prioritise customer satisfaction, but also evolve with changing market dynamics.

Experts say this has become even more crucial in the current business scenario, when building consistency and trust is critical for standing out in a competitive market, as startups and investors sharpen their focus on profitability.

“Founders’ understanding of the customer pulse is fundamental to the business as reliance on second-hand information can be misinterpreted or misunderstood, and ends up becoming more expensive for the business,” said Vikram Gupta, managing partner of venture capital fund, IvyCap Ventures.


«There’s nothing like firsthand experience that allows us to gather unfiltered feedback while also fostering empathy and respect for the work our drivers do,” Uber’s Singh told ET.

At