After the successful Jaipur and Bhopal editions of the FE Emerging Business Growth Workshops — a multi-city initiative by FE Aspire focusing on regional MSMEs – the Surat edition took place on April 25th. The half-day event, powered by WhatsApp, focused on the digital transformation of MSMEs in the diamond city of India.
As the adoption of digital technology has often been considered one of the key levers for the country to transform its industry and make way for ground-level impact in cities and towns beyond metros and tier 1 cities, the Surat workshop helped MSMEs understand and adopt the next level in digital technology adoption when it comes to engaging with their customers, accelerating sales and driving overall better customer support outcomes.
The workshop witnessed a packed gathering of MSME entrepreneurs listening to the biggest MSME voices from Surat on how technological solutions can elevate not just their business profile but also customer trust, decision-making, cost efficiency and more.
Meaningful Customer Conversations
The programme kickstarted with a keynote address on how the WhatsApp Business app can help MSMEs make their customer conversations more impactful in business.
In his keynote address, Rohant Shyam Rammohan who leads business messaging for WhatsApp India, explained how chat-based interactions have gained significance among brands and are a key tool for business growth.
“A lot of us (customers) have started interacting with businesses on chat. For instance, banks have started with simple banking solutions like checking balance, ordering new cheque book etc., through a few messages on WhatsApp,” said Rammohan.
“For customers, on the other hand, especially post-COVID, it has become very important to talk to the company before they make a purchase in terms of trust building. This is where WhatsApp for business comes into play. It works as effectively as a website or any other platform that businesses otherwise would be using to establish trust with your customer,” he added.
As customers get familiar with and comfortable talking to a business on WhatsApp the way they interact with their family and friends, businesses need to ensure replies to customers without delay.
While for customers, it is convenient to use the WhatsApp Business app as they are familiar with WhatsApp, “the business app is a fairly simple platform for MSMEs with cost savings in comparison to building their app or a website which could be expensive,” said Rammohan.
Driving Business Transformation
The keynote was followed by a panel discussion on the ‘role of technology in driving business transformation’. The panel included Gourav Sethi, Vice President, Surat Diamond Association; Punit Gajera, Vice President, South Gujarat Innovation & Technology Council and CEO, Kuberjee.com; Ramesh Vaghasia, President, The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and Sanjay Punjabi, Founder President, TiE Surat.
Vaghasia in his remarks noted that as India marches towards becoming the third largest economy, it needs to be a digitised economy.
“When online activity and e-commerce are progressing, every business needs to have awareness and education about it along with training. They must adopt them in their business processes at various stages. Technology can be used in different processes to make it smooth, efficient and result-oriented,” said Vaghasia.
Gajera, on the other hand, called for technology adoption by MSMEs as soon as possible.
“AI (artificial intelligence) is not just a wave; it is a monster wave. If there is no technology in business, there won’t be enough growth and the competitor will eventually benefit from it. It can help you in marketing at reduced cost and with lower manpower. From spending Rs 15,000-20,000 on digital marketing, if MSME focuses on AI, they will be able to do better digital marketing. Eventually, your overall profit margin will also go up,” said Gajera.
Much like any other sector, the diamond sector has also been a long beneficiary of technology. From cutting to polishing, the process of diamond acquisition involves technology at every stage.
“The diamond industry is completely technology-driven,” said Sethi highlighting the role of blockchain technology in the industry.
“It is easier to fetch a price for high-value diamonds and it gives confidence to customers that the diamond purchased is from legitimate mining,” said Sethi.
Blockchain enhances a diamond’s transparency and authenticity. Businesses can deploy the technology for validation of the origin of the diamond and secure the supply chain from illegal trading.
“The current generation is digital native, and it is easier for today’s entrepreneurs to integrate technology into their businesses seamlessly. For MSMEs, there have been a few technology incidents already; first, digital payments driving the digital economy; second, going omnichannel from offline to online; and third, data integration led by ERP solutions to integrate data in one place. These are the drivers taking MSMEs to the next level in their digital journey,” said Punjabi.
Growing Customer Outreach
The workshop also had a masterclass on ‘Grow Your Business and Customer Outreach with WhatsApp’ by Zain Siddiqui, Lead Trainer, Digital Vidya — the official training partner for Facebook India.
Siddiqui in his masterclass explained the onboarding journey for MSMEs on WhatsApp Business and related benefits. The free app allows users to use it for personal and business purposes without losing their chats.
Businesses can create their profiles with their names, the business category they are into and share their email IDs, working hours, map location, website link, etc., in the app.
Siddiqui also highlighted a few other features including a QR code that businesses can add to their profiles and automating replies to customers when the business is not active on the app.
“If you are away and cannot attend to your customer, WhatsApp Business can send automated replies that you are busy and they can get in touch with, let’s say, your partner on the given contact number,” said Siddiqui.
Other additional features of the app are Quick Replies (through which MSMEs can create shortcuts for the messages such as images and videos they frequently send to their customers), Labels (which allows businesses to organize and quickly find their chats and messages with different colours or names and add them to a message or an entire chat), and Advertise (through which businesses can reach out to customers who may not be on the businesses WhatsApp but are there are on Instagram and Facebook by linking the latter two profiles).
The workshop concluded with a felicitation ceremony for emerging MSME entrepreneurs of Surat who were recognised for their resilience in growing their ventures irrespective of the macro environment along with innovation, risk-taking abilities, value creation, adaptability to change as per market conditions, and market orientation.