Customer Service Tactics to Guide Covid19 Business Decisions
AgriBusiness Global Interview
Q. In what ways is your company stepping up to continue to serve your clients?
A. We have been fully supporting our partner-distributors and their customers during the Covid-19 lockdown. While a large number of our office staff are working from home, we have ensured our customer / partners are kept supplied with all material, samples and all technical and commercial support. Now with relaxation of the lockdown, we are available with full vigour to support our clients.
Q. In what ways do you anticipate the supply chain will be impacted by the current pandemic?
A. While the supply chain was certainly disrupted during the lockdown, but we made special efforts to support our international clients and took special permission for exports. In some cases the despatches were delayed, but we have understood and perfected the system for supplies during disturbed times, so that our clients continue to get supplies and service.
Q. Describe your corporate culture. How does this culture reflect the way you conduct business?
A. Our Corporate Culture is driven by our 5 Value Propositions – Quality, Customer First, Long Term, Ethics, and Ownership. In the current difficult times, we have kept the customer first by going out of the way to meet all his requirements. This is our commitment to the long term, and demonstrates our ethics and quality in everything we do, and particularly our products.
Q. What products and/or services do you offer?
A. We are the global leaders in biological products for agriculture since 1994 and provide solutions for soil health, plant nutrition, disease management and pest control. Our products range covers Bio-insecticides, Bio-fungicides, Bio-nematicides, Bio-fertilizers, Growth Promoters, and Biological Seed treatment. We have the widest range of products for all types of crops (cereals, fruits, vegetables, flowers, cash crops like tea, coffee, cocoa, spices etc.) for all types of requirements from nutrition management, disease management, to pest control, and even seed treatment. Our products are used extensively in preventive as well as curative applications. We have an excellent range of highly effective consortium products also.
Q. How do you compete on price, service, or both?
A. Our products are of the highest quality, and have very high efficacy in the field – ensuring for the farmer not only low input cost per hectare, but also produce of better quality that commands higher price in the market. Even though our products command a premium in the market over competitors’ products, but being of better quality and higher efficacy, they turn out more economical to the farmer.
Q. How do you differentiate yourselves from your competitors?
A. Quality, innovation, 100% focus & dedication to biological products and continuously developing new and better solution for our customers differentiates us from our competitors. We are committed to providing a solution to all our customer problems. We have a very large Development Team which is dedicated to analysing farmer problems and providing specific solutions, training farmers in best practices, and conducting demos.
Q. What is your forecast for biologica agri-inputs?
A. Chemical agri-inputs have the problems of Residue and Resistance; but biological products have no such issue, and in-fact provide superior nutrition and crop protection. Customers no longer want food products to have any chemical residue. Governments are legislating stricter norms for chemical residue levels. Chemicals have caused cancer and genetic defects among farmers, wiped out friendly insects like bees, destroyed useful biosome in the soil, and poisoned the ground water. The safest and most efficient substitute are biological agri products, which are growing at a cagr of over 20%. This is the next frontier of agriculture!
Q. What else would you like our audience to know right now?
A. We have successfully developed a range of consortium products which provide even better results and are proving very beneficial to the farmers, both as preventive sprays and also are curative sprays. They provide nutrition / protection over a wide number of areas. In addition, we are coming up with biological seed coating products which going to be a game changer for seed companies / grower.