Ep 17- Navigating Business Communication Challenges ft. Abhimanyu Khanna.

[00:00:09] Welcome to another episode of Tata Tele Services Do Big Podcast. We have with us today Abhimanyu Khanna, who is Director and Lead Enterprise GTN Global Markets at Truecaller. He brings with him experience from previous roles at Truecaller, Blackberry, Shend, Micro and HP.

[00:00:26] With a robust skill set that includes account management, business analysis, CRM, new business development and much more, we know that our conversation with Abhimanyu will bring you valuable insights. During our conversation today, welcome Abhimanyu to the Tata Tele Services Do Big Podcast.

[00:00:44] It's a pleasure having you here with us today. Right, thank you, Shritu, for having me here. Glad to be part of this and kind of discuss on a very, very buzzing topic today. Yes, it is absolutely. I think, you know, Abhimanyu with so many things changing so quickly,

[00:01:01] navigating SME communications is a challenge for a lot of our MSNs. And one of the big questions for everyone is that as the landscape is changing and as digital technologies are changing, what do you think is happening in the space of business communications?

[00:01:22] You know, given that all of us are tackling new digital technologies on a daily basis now. Right. So I think, you know, when you kind of look at the way communication has changed, especially, you know, we had a break in our lives due to COVID.

[00:01:40] Digital transformation in technologies has taken over, you know, the way the landscape of business communication today is. Today, everything is more, you know, digital centric as well as there are approaches that have been identified by businesses which are more and more personalized.

[00:01:57] Right. And finally, the word only channel has kind of come across very, very strongly into the market, which includes use of various mediums, right? Whether it's email, social media, etc.

[00:02:09] Right. But however, if you look at, you know, all these channels voice and voice is a form of communication is always, you know, going to be an integral part of any of the digital channels.

[00:02:22] Right. For a lot of instances, for example, many businesses today use a combination of various things, various forms of reaching out to their customers, right? But artificial intelligence kind of came in across and that's made a lot of discussions around

[00:02:39] customer interactions, whether it's around support or whether it's just around predictive analytics. So that's where technology has kind of come in and multiple ways and forms and channels are getting integrated today.

[00:02:52] And that's how things are kind of moving ahead. Right. And then when a lot of digital channels do come in, which offer various kinds of, you know, services, features, etc.,

[00:03:04] there is a need of scalability. There is a need of, you know, having or offering a very convenient channel of communication. And that's where voice kind of, you know, adds on to that part of it, right? And that personal touch that we talk about.

[00:03:21] So that's where I think a lot of things that we also do at True Call of Business, you know, supports into identifying and, you know, kind of being the channel where end customers and end users today can identify kind of who's calling them.

[00:03:36] And as well as, you know, making sure the effectiveness of voice communication in the digital age way, you know, is kind of remains in the right way. So that is where I think the landscape of

[00:03:47] communication is evolved over a period of time. But what we are seeing is that people are looking in more and more and effective ways of digital channels, you know, stitched in together. And that's how a lot of, you know, whether it's SMEs,

[00:04:02] mid-market organizations are kind of going across and adopting these channels, but all in together and creating a very distinct customer experience out of it. You know, I mean, one of the big challenges that happen for MSMEs especially is they are doing

[00:04:21] the bits of business communication that they want to do. But there are pain points that businesses encounter when they're trying to connect with their customers in the digital age. And there are quite a few challenges, right?

[00:04:34] Because sometimes the audience that you're trying to connect with may not be on the platforms that you're kind of looking at, etc. What are these common pain points that businesses encounter when trying to connect with their customers in the digital age?

[00:04:48] Okay, so as you said, right, an earlier at the start we said that multiple channels of communication now are available. And that's where a lot of these customers are having, you know, they're getting a communication overload,

[00:05:03] right, with multiple channels. And that's where a lot of these customers feel overwhelmed with the volume of communication. So that's, I think I would say communication overload is one of the pain points and challenges

[00:05:14] that a lot of, you know, end users face. And that's also something that businesses are taking a note of. But when you look at, you know, the various pain points that, you know, in the digital age, there's a lot going on about spam and fraudulent communication, right?

[00:05:30] Businesses struggle a lot of times with a lot of fraudulent calls, messages being sent which in turn damages their reputation and trust with customers, right? And then some of the large examples of that would be, you know, you would have heard a lot of scams around,

[00:05:48] you know, messages and, you know, kind of claiming things around your pan or your ad hoc card verification or whether it's the FedEx scam that is going on, which is regarding an undelivered package, which requires a lot of personal information. There are scams around

[00:06:04] electricity bills, a lot of things going around. So I think one very, very strong point that prevails today is a lot of fraudulent communication and how do you trust between a genuine communication from

[00:06:16] a brand or a business and a fraudulent one, right? And that's where a lot of these calls that businesses today make kind of go unnoticed and it's not answered because in the today's

[00:06:29] world of digital age, building trust has become a very, very important part where customers kind of need to know who are they interacting with, right? So that is where a lot of these challenges come

[00:06:42] into play, which is more around, you know, fraudulent conversations that they may kind of indulge into if the right brand is not kind of visible when the communication is happening or the trust is not kind of identified. And that's where I think we guys,

[00:06:58] as to call for business also play a very, very important part where verifications of business calls identity kind of happens, which helps the end users and customers identify that great, this is a call from a trusted source. The call is legitimate, right? And then at the same

[00:07:16] point of time that that becomes very, very vital for businesses as well as customers to rebuild the trust if that's been lost earlier, right? So again, while new and new channels technologies

[00:07:28] make a lot of things efficient, a lot of things, you know, very, very fast, but a big, big challenge of fraudulent communication and spam is something that prevails into the market. And that's where identity brand awareness, creating the right touch point between the business and the customer

[00:07:49] becomes very, very important. Okay. When you, you know, you spoke about a very, very interesting thing which is called trust because a lot of us depend on, you know, when we receive

[00:08:01] calls on our phones, etc. We're constantly looking for is this a spam message or not a spam message or is this something that I should take or not take as a call? But often, you know, when

[00:08:12] you think something is spam, but it's a, you know, it's for example, a spooky guy getting in touch with you or it's somebody else trying to get in touch with you. It's very interesting that

[00:08:21] you talk about trust, but how does a business manage this part of it, right? Where it ensures that it is connecting with the customers for the reasons that they should be connecting with

[00:08:32] the customer and not getting tagged as spam. As you kind of correctly said, right, with a lot of, I would say a lot of noise into, into the everyone's words today, you know, the ways businesses are reaching out is very, very important that building trust becomes,

[00:08:49] you know, very, very important. And that's where, you know, fraudulent calls or messages can severely damage a reputation as well as, you know, the trust building process between businesses and their customers, right? And then when customers today receive a communication

[00:09:03] that appears to be a bit of fraudulent, right? And that's where, you know, that kind of leads to a lot of erosion of trust and a lot leads to a lot of decrease in customer engagement,

[00:09:15] loyalty, harming the reputation, right? So that's where, you know, a lot of these in the digital age, a lot of personal interactions are getting replaced by virtual ones, right? And still building trust becomes very, very important. Customers need to feel confident

[00:09:32] that their interactions with businesses are secure and genuine, right? And as competition increases, you know, trust becomes a key differentiator that can drive customer attention, as well as, you know, make sure that they are repetitive buyers, etc. Right? So that's where I

[00:09:47] think we work very, very closely with a lot of, you know, businesses today where we help them deliver the right brand value, right brand representation and also making sure that, you know, things like contextualization of calls or making a very distinct calling experience

[00:10:06] is something that we work very, very closely with a lot of businesses, right? So it is very, very important that you in any discussion in any communication, it is that you kind of display the

[00:10:16] right and correct brand value identity when you talk to any of your end users. You do a lot of advocacy. Advocacy is a great word that we use in our daily lives at Truecaller today,

[00:10:29] where we work with a lot of businesses and we go back and say that how do you make sure that your customers, your end users are able to identify between a genuine business

[00:10:39] and a fraudulent one. So that's something that helps them to kind of create that brand recall as well as try to tell them, hey guys, you're in safe hands. Right? So that's where

[00:10:52] a lot of effort goes on. But I think two nutshell points one is making sure that the right brand identity is visible every time you speak to your customer. Second, a customer should know how to differentiate between a genuine and a fraudulent communication from the respective brand

[00:11:10] and that's where the great word called advocacy comes in. So I think those are a few things that anyone could do to kind of, you know, sit down and help them build that trust on their own

[00:11:20] brand. It is related to any form of communication that today a customer uses, where authentic connections is very, very essential. Right? And that's where Truecaller for business kind of comes into play where authenticity which kind of fosters trust loyalty, lock on relationships,

[00:11:38] customers are more likely to engage with and support businesses. Right? So that's where Truecaller for business plays a very, very significant role in facilitating, you know, these authentic connections by providing a platform where business can identify their identities. Now this

[00:11:53] verification helps, you know, customers distinguish between a genuine business call from a fraudulent call. Right? And that's where Truecaller services kind of ensure that businesses can reach out to their customers without the fear of being mistaken, whether it's spam and

[00:12:09] thereby advancing trust and efficiency. Right? So that's where it's a lot related to kind of creating an image in front of a user which is basically you're trying to kind of protect that

[00:12:20] user. And so we are now seen as an identity protection channel. We are seen as a platform which helps them build trust, you know, and there are a lot of these and it's not only

[00:12:33] relevant to call centers or calls today people do check when they get SMSS, people also check certain phone numbers that maybe some other channels would be using, right? To reaching out

[00:12:46] in terms of some IP based messaging, etc. Right? So today we've become a kind of a platform or a channel where businesses use us to identify a finding who is reaching out to them, right? And

[00:12:59] that's where it helps businesses to kind of deliver an image which is very user centric and helps them kind of, you know, show their focus towards customer protection by being transparent. Right? And finally, with the clear and honest communication which helps them to stand

[00:13:17] out from their competitors as businesses in this crowded market, the platform has been kind of a differentiated up to a lot of businesses in terms of, you know, kind of delivering the right messaging. And in the meantime, also making sure that the right trust value, right brand

[00:13:34] value is kind of delivered and making sure that it gives a very, very customer friendly customer centric security privacy driven, you know, interaction points. So the platform today has evolved and it kind of helps, I would say it helps all the businesses to deliver

[00:13:55] and prioritize authentic connections, you know, with their own end users in the digital age. And that's where true colorful business serves at that platform to help people identify the right brand values and identity, while any form of communication. I think if you,

[00:14:12] what we when we kind of started off, you know, working with a lot of businesses on this, the one one of the very, very core fundamentals of doing what we do was to make it seamless,

[00:14:24] make it very, very fast, plug-and-play kind of kind of service, right? And that's where we've seen the scale that we've achieved, you know, in the last three years of our existence. So today, it's very, very easy for any of our SME organizations to, you know, get verified

[00:14:41] on true color. It's a very simple process. You can get this, you know, the service through our trusted telephony partners like Tarateli, etc. It's a very simple signup process which most of our partners have which works around, you know, providing necessary business information

[00:14:59] as to, which is more around your KYC details that there's a verification process that we follow. And finally, post approval, etc. There is the assignment of the verified badge plus the other features that are part of the whole communication suite that we offer. And

[00:15:15] as I said earlier, it's a plug-and-play solution. We try to, most of our SME or business customers get activated within 24 hours of signing up for this service. And that's how we've kept it because communication happens every minute. And if you make a service

[00:15:33] which is more around authenticity, identity, brand, etc., the respective business active immediately because today we impact a user communication from this next minute once the service is activated. So it's a very, very fast process through our channel partners.

[00:15:50] And we are a very channel focused organization and that's where we work very closely with organizations like Tarateli, which helps us to establish the customer relationship on the platform within 24 hours. So it's a seamless plug-and-play process and max it takes

[00:16:09] about 24 hours to get activated. Avingwanyu, we spoke about the landscape and we spoke about how business communications is evolving. Just wanted to get a sense of when we talk about MSMEs and we talk about industries, which industries and specific do you think or believe would benefit

[00:16:27] the most when you look at solutions from business communications and digital technologies? When you look at the overall communication landscape today, today everyone is trying to reach out to their end users. They may be from

[00:16:41] various sectors but what we've seen over the period of time is that yes, banking financial services do fall into the largest communicators to their end users. So that is always the largest pie. But this means you see a lot of emerging healthcare, fintech, edtech, educational

[00:17:00] institutes, colleges, universities who are now focusing on adding grand-based identity-based communication. So I think everyone and anyone who makes a call or uses voice to reach out to their customers as a medium or as a channel of communication is going to be focusing on

[00:17:22] using multiple digital technologies in the coming era and that's where safety, identity, and trust comes in a very, very important part. And I just kind of say this to a lot of people.

[00:17:34] Anyone who makes a call to their end user today for any purpose whether it's for sales, service, grievance, redressal, satisfaction, feedback etc. We kind of play a very, very important part in that

[00:17:49] and that's where we are seeing if you look at a pie of our customers who use our services today, we have a mix of everyone from the largest of the bank to a smallest maybe a coaching

[00:18:00] institute running in some part of Delhi. So that's how the scale and that's where the identity and safety and trust is coming on for your end user communication. Avivan, you spoke about the fact that it's fairly easy for SMEs because it's a plug-and-play.

[00:18:18] It's easy for SMEs to get onto TrueCaller. The fact that it takes only about 24 hours to set it up. Can you share some success stories or data that highlight the positive effects of a

[00:18:31] verified business call on customer engagement? Yeah, so I think over the period of time as I said today we help about 3000 plus active customers across banking, financial services, tech, fintech, everyone who uses calling as a part of communication strategy where we are covering

[00:18:49] use cases around support, logistics, delivery, fraud management and these are some of the large customers that we work very closely with like SGFC Bank, Delivery, Swiggy, Zeroda, Uber to name a few. What we've kind of delivered as a value add is that due to the business verification

[00:19:12] services the calling efficiency has gotten better and when I say calling efficiency it means things around yes call pickups, getting enhance, reduction in users not marking your numbers as spam call duration getting more streamlined because now people are very clear as to why you are calling

[00:19:34] them due to our contextualization features also that we kind of give it. So over the period of time a lot of businesses that work with us have improved their call efficiency. It has also helped businesses to kind of develop a brand identity around their communication, their calling

[00:19:53] processes with confidence, context and credibility. These are three strong pillars of the solution with this green screens verification badges that you get on TrueCaller which is that proof they can kind of make their calls more possible as well as democratic for a lot of these customers

[00:20:11] right and that's how I think the value of verification in fostering trust and enhancing communication efficiency that's something that we kind of you know closely deliver and finally I think the bedrock of the solution is around three I would say three letters which we call

[00:20:30] this SIT which is around safety identity and trust and finally making things more efficient. So these would be the four strong pillars that each and every business gets as a value add and our 3000 plus active recurring customers is kind of speak itself about what value the solution

[00:20:51] is providing them on a day-to-day basis. Are we going to use spoke about the fact that it improves the efficiency of calls now what I'm trying to understand is beyond that are there

[00:21:03] other KPIs that one looks at when you think about you know using your services how do consumers or your customers measure efficiencies of working with TrueCaller and the second question for you is

[00:21:19] that you know when a consumer receives a verified business call how do they react to it. Right so I think as I kind of clearly said right today green is the color that everyone associates with verified businesses calling them which helps them building trust identity around

[00:21:40] the communication. So today if it's not green it's not clean right that those are the kind of campaigns and words that we run around with when we kind of speak about those respective you know calling campaigns that everyone does which is revolving around safety identity and

[00:21:58] trust but at the same point of time I think there's a lot that businesses do today with us to educate their customers about the importance of you know the trust and the measures and the identity

[00:22:11] around communication and due to that a lot of users have kind of you know kind of come back and said that yes this is something that we've been looking as a value add where we can

[00:22:22] differentiate between a genuine call and a fraudulent call from a respective business. So I think there's been a great response see at True Caller whatever we make is we keep the user base

[00:22:34] in mind and you know what is what is something that you know that they will get some benefit out of it right and and that's where you know we focused a lot around adding capabilities on the

[00:22:46] True Caller platform which is around feedback mechanisms which is around intent of answering the call or not answering the call right and and giving that information back to the business as well

[00:22:58] as giving giving kind of ammunition to end users which are ideally today common users of the of the business as well as True Caller to kind of given a dent back to businesses whether they want

[00:23:10] to be called again or is there any feedback group that we could add on right so over the period of time I would say that businesses are getting values around brand identity better communication efficiency at the same point of time users you know get a trustworthy source

[00:23:28] which kind of helps them save time save money not put them in a situation where they can be financially defrauded right and and finally also kind of make sure that they're like talking to the right business which is which is relevant to their own requirement right so

[00:23:46] over the period of time I think what we what we've seen is that you know there's there's a lot of education that has happened over the period of time from True Caller as well as

[00:23:54] businesses in the importance of trust and and you know how can communication be more safer and that's where today users are getting that value which in in turn helps them being efficient by receiving calls right and that's that's a great great value add

[00:24:12] their verified identity and True Caller has been bringing into their life and before we wrap up today's session and be my new any last thoughts that you want to share with our MSME audiences because you've spoken extensively about the importance of creating trust

[00:24:30] you've spoken extensively about the fact that True Caller helps you know businesses ensure that transactions are authentic they're secure they're all of that any last thoughts for that you want to leave behind with how to MSME audiences well I think a few things that you know

[00:24:48] everyone needs to be very very I think aware of today is first we cannot have a communication overload which I think I was one of the first things that I spoke about as there are multiple

[00:24:58] channels that are available today customers often feel overwhelmed with the volume of communication that they kind of get in right so make your communication to your end users stand out

[00:25:10] right it has to be a distinct one it has to be very very crisp right but at the same point of time make sure that you add you know you add the safety element you add the identity and the trust

[00:25:22] building element around it so I think that's where I think we play a very very important part and I would urge a lot of SMEs to talk to partners like Taratelli but you know who kind

[00:25:33] of offer the True Caller business solutions so because what that kind of overall will help them was one is yes it will make their call efficiency you know much much better make the communication overload lesser for customers but at the same part of time also provide an additional

[00:25:49] layer of trust and security and that helps them you know stand out as in front of their competitors also gives a very very authentic you know feel to their end users that this

[00:26:01] and finally that what are we all working for and what are we all reaching out to our customers for right so that our engagement goes up our our revenues go up a customer is happy etc

[00:26:12] and and all this you know combined with keeping in mind that we are building a safe and an efficient way of reaching out to our customers helps them to kind of create how I would say a

[00:26:23] credible entity in the digital landscape so that's where I think a lot of SMEs us are moving into that direction but I think two three things one is you know just to end

[00:26:34] of summarize three things is what I would kind of you know request all the SMEs to walk out of this session is one reduce the clutter of communication it can't be an overload that

[00:26:45] is one second how do we use the right digital channel to make our communication efficient and third how do we add safety identity and trust in our daily dose of communication to our

[00:26:57] customers I mean one of that was you know really really insightful and I'm sure all of our MSMEs are going to be reaching out to both because if they don't I think you know there is so

[00:27:09] much loss to business that can happen and to business and brand like you mentioned but a lot of it is to do with your brand it's to do with the authentication and the

[00:27:20] the trust that you build with your customers so thank you so much for being on this episode of the Dubic podcast it was absolutely insightful thank you so much for your time once again

[00:27:31] yeah it was a pleasure thank you thank you thank you for tuning in to the Dubic podcast a podcast that is dedicated to providing insights strategies and success stories of smart digital solutions for SMEs we believe that behind every successful business there's a strong

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