Some counterintuitive customer-centric lessons from Zerodha

Some counterintuitive customer-centric lessons from Zerodha – the Bengaluru-based retail broker that has embarrassed many ‘Bombaiya’ brokers:

1. Zerodha claims that no employee carries a revenue target. Targets are good but they lead to pressure and disruptive behaviour (read that as mis-selling). Happy, non-pressurised and well-supervised salesmen sell more!

2. If you call their customer service number, you will feel like you are talking with tech-support and not a B2C helpdesk. They wouldn’t score the highest in knowledge or empathy, but they are top-notch in helpfulness and not over-selling someone on anything. This is definitely alright for a DIY Stock Investor.

3. They have 1 million clients & add 50K new clients every month.

4. Zerodha doesn’t hire IIT or IIM graduates. They hire non-branded graduates, treat them well and ensure they have a reason to stick on. The process is so good that you don’t need nerds to run it.

5. They are completely driven by promoter’s equity. Despite getting attractive valuations, they haven’t taken VC money. So, there is no pressure for hockey-stick growth!