Shifting careers from finance to customer servi

Maya Das profiles the journey of VV Balaji, Sr VP, ICICI Prudential Life, whose thirst for constant learning and challenges saw him make a move from a promising finance career to a tough customer service role in a new industry.

They say change always comes bearing gifts. For V V Balaji, Sr. Vice President, Customer service and Central operations, ICICI Prudential Life, change definitely came with good tidings. His professional change was not the run-of-the mill job-hopping from one company to another in search of better prospects, but it was a tangential shift of core competence. After dabbling with numbers for 16 years, Balaji bid adieu to finance and shook hands with customer service. He jettisoned himself from the quiet cabin of a finance manager to the action packed customer service.

I became more involved in customer service and took to it like fish to water, so when I was offered Head - Customer Service Delivery (CSD), Broadband and Fixed line, I grabbed it,” Balaji recalls. “The rules of debit credit will never change nor will the principles of accounting, but the customer’s preference, expectations and demands change by the day. So why remain in a mundane role when excitement beckons

The first 16 years of his career, which spans over 18 years, followed the regular pattern of any finance professional. Armed with B.Com, AICWA, Balaji joined Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd as Finance officer. He soon moved up the ladder and became Dy. Manager Finance before he parted ways with HAL 4 years later. He joined Eicher Ltd. as Manager Finance and worked his way to DGM Finance, where he headed the Finance & Accounting division for the two-wheeler unit. His stint in Eicher continued for 8 years.

Having spent 12 years, in various functions of finance in the manufacturing industry, Balaji was now keen to traverse industry. That is when telecom took off in a big way in India. He was quick to sense the pulse of the fast growing industry and he joined Bharti Airtel Ltd. as Head — Finance. Though the industry was different, the routine and day-to-day functions and responsibilities were the same. “No doubt it was a larger role in terms of administration and people management, but it was the same credit, debit, balance sheet, profit and loss,” says Balaji. “Somewhere inside me I felt I was capable of more and I could achieve if I stretched and took a risk,” he continues.

Balaji got to test the waters of a different function, Customer Service, when he began handling the billing & collection function, and overseeing customer service projects, while still remaining in the purview of Finance. This required him to directly interact with customers and see a world beyond balance sheets.

“I became more involved in customer service and took to it like fish to water, so when I was offered Head - Customer Service Delivery (CSD), Broadband and Fixed line, I grabbed it,” Balaji recalls. “The rules of debit credit will never change nor will the principles of accounting, but the customer’s preference, expectations and demands change by the day. So why remain in a mundane role when excitement beckons,” reminisces he.

Thus Balaji transitioned from a quantitative to a qualitative role, only he did it with a difference. The difference was he did not completely forget his old mates — numbers. He used it effectively in this new role. The logical accountant in him always wanted data to back customer preference, complaints and satisfaction. This was something new to his colleagues at Airtel who were not used to quantifying service. “He infused life into the department with his quantitative and logical approach. We learnt service was not always soft skills and it was measurable,” opines a former colleague at Airtel.

Balaji remembers, “The initial few days were difficult as being from a finance background I was judged every minute, by bosses, peers and juniors. Being a willing learner helped immensely. I believe one stops growing if you stop learning and adding value to self. Gradually I developed my own style by infusing my expertise (finance) in to the newly acquired knowledge (service). This was appreciated not only by the company but also by customers. Somewhere they connected to a logical finance guy who quantified things.”

After a successful stint at Bharti Airtel, Balaji worked with Reliance Communications for a brief period in CSD before joining ICICI Pru Life. This time it was the industry not the role that acted as the catalyst for the move. Telecom was fairly stabilised in terms of service and operations and Insurance promised to be the next boom. For Balaji it was time to take on a new challenge.

The initial few days were difficult as being from a finance background I was judged every minute, by bosses, peers and juniors. Being a willing learner helped immensely. I believe one stops growing if you stop learning and adding value to self. Gradually I developed my own style by infusing my expertise (finance) in to the newly acquired knowledge (service). This was appreciated not only by the company but also by customers. Somewhere they connected to a logical finance guy who quantified things.

It has been 16 months in ICICI Pru Life and that is enough time for Balaji to get his teeth in to the nitty-gritty of life insurance. “Transitioning from an industry where customers paid for a service to an industry where a customer has invested his life earnings with you, proved to be a huge learning curve. Quite naturally, soft skills are top of the agenda,” says Balaji.

Ashis Rao, V.P Customer Service at ICICI Pru says, ‘Balaji has brought in a holistic perspective to the function with his analytical mind. The one thing I have learnt from him is ‘Management by Matrix’. He understands the process, notes the key metrices and tracks them regularly. He steps in only when there is a deviation. This helps his team grow professionally and personally.”

Having crossed floors not only sector wise but also functionally, Balaji recalls the common thread that keeps them together — customer. “Be it automobile, communication or insurance, the customer cannot be taken for granted. More often than not he is benchmarking your service not with competition but across sectors. For e.g. an airline customer may benchmark the airline’s bad service with the exemplary service his telecom operator provides. So it is important to have your ear to the ground and know your customer. Be ahead of the customer before he gets ahead of you”

While Balaji is not tending to the needs of his customers, he is tending to the needs of his family. Weekends are strictly for family and his favourite pastime, reading. “I love to read and I catch up on books while traveling,” says Balaji.

He hopes to get opportunities to crack other functions and pad himself with necessary skills before settling on to his final goal.