Hello

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'Learn new things and adapt to the changes for only change is inevitable'- believes Mr. Arbaaz Khan. Working as an Assistant Manager in a Japanese MNC Mr. Khan has his share of experience while adapting to the 'New Normal' in this pandemic. It’s not too long that the pandemic has made the otherwise optional work from home mode of working an essential part of our daily routine. However tough it may be but we all had to adapt to this new normal and move on with our lives with a strong mind and a positive approach. 

 

QMM Lifestories features Mr. Arbaaz Khan who shares his experiences on balancing work life while adapting to the transition of remote working and still being productive. Starting his career from a job in a call center generating leads for IBM storage server to today being an Assistant Manager, Mr. Khan has come a long way with his hard work & dedication. Sharing the experience of his first job of a call center employee, Mr. Khan explains “On a phone call your voice is your personality and you have to make the person on the other side listen to you and buy your products/services”. Within 6 months of his work he received the best employee award twice for his performance. On completing his Masters in Business Administration he joined a Japanese MNC and had a tough job on hand of selling a particular printer model that was not a fast moving product. With guidance from colleagues and his hard work the sales for the product started rolling. Gradually while working for this company he has handled few important zones like Pune, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka & currently Mumbai region as the Assistant Manager of the company. So, what is that one thing that makes him passionate about his job? “My Job never lets me get comfortable, which helps me to be competitive and going,” says Mr. Khan. 

 

From being an intern to an Assistant Manager in a MNC, he believes that meeting

people with different linguistic, cultural & business backgrounds has taught him to

be more polite, reasonable & optimistic. While sharing his experience of dealing

with his customer he says “When customer comes with an issue, he expects to be

heard and given a solution for it. Being into sales, one must be a good listener to

understand the issue and give solution. After all a satisfied customer is the best asset.” 

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We asked him about his experience of working during the lockdown and how did he cope up with the new work from home arrangements.

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During lockdown phases how did you reach to your customers and keep them in loop?

Since most of the customers were at home, we thought this was the right time to empower them with our product knowledge and so we conducted multiple online trainings & product briefings for our partners and customers. 

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How did you adapt to the work from home environment during the pandemic phase? 

Well, initial days were about planning and figuring out ways so that I can be more focused and productive. There were challenges in the early days as during my virtual meeting sessions I faced a lot of interruptions as being at home you tend to ease out a bit and the atmosphere is completely different as compared to working in the office. For instance, my daughter is just 2 years old and she used to enter my room and start accessing my laptop, or whenever I had video call meetings her voice would be clearly audible in the background. Eventually, I had to explain to her that I am busy working & cannot play with her during these certain hours. Keeping yourself focused and taking little extra efforts was much needed and I realised this quickly so I had setup my work desk in a different room so I could work without external interruptions. I made a personal work schedule that I follow (for breaks and working hours) which helps me to keep going without being dull.

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How do you keep your team together and motivated during the lockdown phase?

This was more from my company's side. They made sure to assure all employees that they care for them and that there will be no salary cuts & job loss. In tough times like the ongoing pandemic this assurance kept everyone motivated and together. Job assurance for employees in these times is a very big deal I believe!

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During this remote working did you use any creative ideas in your work?

Since my company is into dealing with projectors as well, we thought this was the right time to showcase our products and services to our potential customers. My team and I made multiple product demo videos, customer testimonials & videos demonstrating the use of our products in the new normal. We also setup a virtual demo zone where customers can have a virtual tour for all our products. We targeted the home projector market and promoted the use of projectors for study from home for kids so that they can study on a big screen rather than a small laptop screen. We also gave solution for schools to use interactive projectors for teaching online in which instead of only sharing PPT & explaining it, they could write on the content and explain it better as they used to explain on a blackboard. 

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From Physical client meetings to online video calls – how have things changed for you in these two years? How do you deal with the new normal?

Being in sales physical client meeting is very important and there is no replacement for it. But with changing times we had to go through the virtual way adapting the new normal way of working. So we complete all the initial meetings on video calls to qualify the requirement, followed by a final meeting in person to close the requirement if needed.

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With brands betting big on digital, how important do you think

Digital Marketing has become in the last 6 months?

As customers are getting digitally advanced, there is a shift in

businesses towards the virtual way i.e. Websites, Facebook,

Instagram to promote their services. From big to small, almost

everyone such as gym trainers, teachers, retail stores,

grocery stores, even service providers like electrical appliance

repair/hair dressers/SPA etc., are all moving towards digital

stores and marketing techniques to promote & reach maximum

users. I feel digital marketing is the future of almost all businesses

and every business owner gradually will have to adapt to this

new normal transition as well.

 

Any message for our readers on how to be motivated and keep up to the demand of the industry post Covid-19?

Don’t limit yourself to anything, be diversified with knowledge, keep learning and upgrading your knowledge, because ‘Change is Inevitable’.

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As it turns out that the companies did a very good job of taking care of safety, stability, and security during the pandemic but in reality, the same has changed the entire corporate world and the mode of working. The office working hours have been replaced with a hybrid model with work from home making the employees reimagine their lives after Covid-19. Amongst all the odds the most significant thing that has come out is the new age resilient managers like Mr. Arbaaz Khan, who express empathy and compassion for the human side of the corporate world.