I’ve spent 17 years chasing one north star: how to make customers feel truly seen.
But somewhere along the way, I realized—You can’t build unforgettable customer experiences on the shoulders of forgotten workers.
Behind every “delighted customer” is a blue-collar hero—showing up, holding up, stepping up often without tools, training, or a thank you. And if that doesn’t change, neither will our CX scores.
This article is my love letter to them—and a wake-up call to all of us.
India doesn’t run on coffee. It runs on chai breaks between double shifts, on nimble fingers packaging thousands of parcels, on the quiet resilience of a housekeeper who greets each guest with a smile—even when no one remembers her name.
In all my 17 years across boardrooms and brands, if there’s one truth I’ve come to live by, it’s this:
Customer Experience (CX) isn’t built in pitch decks—it’s built on the shop floor. Yet, we keep
missing the memo
The Real CX Heroes? They Wear Reflective Vests, Not Suits.
Let’s pause and look at some numbers:
- Over 450 million Indians are engaged in blue-collar and grey-collar jobs.
- The Indian gig economy is projected to grow to $455 billion by 2025.
- A Gallup study shows that companies with highly engaged employees see a 23% increase in
profitability, and those with strong CX cultures see 2x customer retention.
And yet, less than 10% of companies in India have structured programs for frontline worker experience.
We’re designing five-star customer journeys—but delivering them through workers stuck in zero-star systems.
CX = WX: The Equation We Need to Talk About
At Meraqui, we work where the action is on the floor, at the front gate, in the vans, warehouses, kitchens, and clinics. We’ve seen the transformation when frontline workers go from feeling used to feeling valued.
Let me say this with absolute conviction:
Worker Experience (WX) is not a back-office HR issue it’s a front-facing growth lever.
A worker who feels seen, heard, and upskilled doesn’t just show up he or she delivers. They represent your brand when your logo fades. And that energy reflects directly into how customers feel and engage with you.
What Happens When You Flip the Script?
We tried it. And the results? More than just anecdotal:
- Workers onboarded with digital dignity (no queues, no paper trails) reported 30% higher
motivation scores. - Clients who co-invested in health benefits for their staff saw a 17% drop in attrition and customer complaints fell by 22%.
- Sites with skilling and upskilling saw CX ratings improve by up to 40%, especially in Tier 2
and 3 markets. These aren’t soft metrics. These are hard returns from human-first design
My Why: Why This Matters to Me, Deeply
When I started out 17 years ago in the customer experience ecosystem, CX was a fancy term with even fancier dashboards. But behind every spike and dip, I saw faces often invisible ones.
The man restocking shelves before sunrise. The woman answering 60 calls a day with grace. The driver navigating potholes with precision. Their experience was never on the CX charts. But it should’ve been.
Because in every brand I’ve helped build, the real magic wasn’t in the campaigns. It was in the
commitment of the first-touch employees those who represent us when we’re not watching.
This article is my way of shining a flashlight into a corner we’ve ignored too long.
What If We Reimagined Growth from the Ground Up?
Instead of designing CX journeys only for the end-user, what if we started one step earlier with the people who power them?
Imagine:
- A digitally empowered warehouse worker who knows the customer’s name.
- A delivery executive who receives tips and training, not just timelines.
- A retail associate with aspirations, not just attendance targets.
When we design with these workers in mind, we don’t just improve customer touchpoints we elevate the entire ecosystem.
A Quiet Revolution Begins
At Meraqui, this isn’t theory it’s our daily practice.
We’re building a future where frontline workers aren’t just part of the supply chain they’re part of the value chain. Where dignity isn’t a perk it’s the baseline.
Where worker experience is tracked, trained, and transformed not as CSR, but as strategy.
Because the next billion-dollar CX leap in India won’t come from Silicon Valley ideas. It’ll come from factory floors, fulfillment centers, and food counters from the people who hold up our brands with calloused, capable hands.
A TED-Worthy Thought to Leave You With:
“If we want customers to feel something extraordinary, we must first ensure our workers experience something human.”
This is the story I want to tell on a TED stage. But more importantly, this is the story we must live every day, in every interaction.
Let’s build businesses that don’t just serve customers well, but treat the hands that serve them even
better!
