Survival is the biggest success

In the year 2020 when COVID-19 attacked India nobody could imagine how it would impact the life of Indians in general and business in particular. Initially we thought we would not be affected so much and within a few weeks everything would be normal. When the first spell of lockdown was imposed, we did not feel the impact so much but soon we realized it was going to stay for a while. First thing which came to our mind was how we would sustain and support our employees. News was pouring in from all over India regarding the plight of the labourers and wage earners who lost their jobs suddenly and a wave of flight from metro cities started. Panic was all-around and each and every business house was in the grip of the panic.

We were all experiencing an unexpected downfall in the businesses as COVID-19 introduced new challenges everywhere. During our deliberations with our team we realized that a lot of possibilities had emerged, especially in the telecom sector. In addition, the healthcare sector which was lacking badly in our country needed a boost to cope with the requirement that had arisen during the pandemic. The government. had already taken note of this but there was a lot for the private sector to do. We decided to go all out to retain our market share and if possible increase it in the telecom sector and explore the possibilities in the healthcare sector to the extent possible with the help of present infrastructure and manpower. Few of the enthusiasts came forward and we launched a new vertical named SAVCO Care to serve humanity with our advanced solutions from machines to medicines. Active marketing was not a viable option during the lockdown so we shifted our focus to e-commerce business.

As the period of gradual relaxation in lockdown began, we started focusing on our regular customers who were also in disarray by reassuring them of our support through certain incentive schemes such as COVID care scheme, buyback scheme, free-service camps, summer carnival etc. This helped us in regaining the confidence of the customers who were feeling delinked due to lockdown and pandemic situation. In these trying times also, we have been able to post a remarkable growth which is only attributable to all-round efforts of our front line executives with wonderful support from the back-end benches.

We soon realized that the infrastructure and develop­mental sector was a different ball game altogether and needed to be managed differently even during this pandemic. This included the telecom sector also, which suddenly became a vital sector to manage the affairs affected by the worldwide pandemic. For example, the technical sector responsible to keep pace with changing scenarios caused by the present pandemic be it digitization, telecommunication, or application development had to move in a different manner. In fact, this pandemic situation opened up opportunities for a few such sectors including telecommunications. All the activities taking place from a distance are taking help from the telecom sector to provide them ways and means to fulfill the job. For the first time there is a realization that many of the activities performed in the past have become redundant as contactless activities are possible to perform the job with the same efficiency and with the same outcome.

Marketing activities instead of losing heart have to innovate in such a manner that opportunities are not lost. Keeping in place all the basic theory of marketing, one has to just tap the opportunities with the best solutions and quality. If one can keep these two factors in mind, winning the race becomes easier. Keeping the pandemic in mind, which in any case is likely to wither away within a few months, one has to strengthen the customer support and not give any excuse for poor customer support. A winner has to have a different approach and just cannot hide behind lame excuses. In Savitri Group our approach is simple. We remember the very basic tenets of marketing, Customer is always right.

In a country like India, where the population at large has a price conscious approach, it becomes difficult to push a high quality product as it always costs more. This makes our work difficult, particularly in the retail sector, where users are very price conscious. We have to make a lot of efforts to win such customers and our after sales service and support comes handy in winning such customers. We always try to establish long lasting relationships with our customers and try to be at their side and whenever they need our presence.

COVID is impacting human lives, both professionally and personally. This is a really tough time for every organisation and country. In these tough times our focus is not growth. And our philosophy in this pandemic is Survival is the biggest success. We are putting all our efforts for survival.