The SEWA Customer-Centric Model

By Categories:

đź“— Book: The SEWA Customer-Centric Model
Author: Dr. Rashid Alleem
Published: 2018
Focus: A strategic transformation blueprint for embedding customer-centricity into public sector organizations, with a real-world case study of SEWA’s successful turnaround.

🌍 Purpose of the Book
The book shares Dr. Alleem’s first-hand experience in reshaping Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority (SEWA) into a high-performing, customer-first organization. It offers a detailed model with best practices, philosophies, and real-life stories to help organizations deliver legendary service and foster customer loyalty.

🧱 The Six Imperatives of Customer-Centricity

  1. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) – Use of data and tools to understand and serve customers better.

  2. Customer Focus – Putting the customer at the heart of decisions, with personalized attention.

  3. Customer Experience – Designing meaningful, memorable experiences across all touchpoints.

  4. Customer Excellence – Delivering consistently high service standards.

  5. Customer Engagement – Emotional connection through transparency, trust, and interaction.

  6. Customer Loyalty – Creating long-term bonds through satisfaction, consistency, and service culture.

🧠 Key Concepts & Tools

  • Nine Champions: Dr. Alleem’s elite leadership team, each with a unique functional role (e.g., energizer, advisor, doer, etc.) responsible for driving change.

  • 4P Meetings Framework: Person, Purpose, Process, Product – A structure for running effective meetings.

  • Gist Meetings: Short, focused meetings to align action quickly and cut through inefficiency.

  • Kaikaku & Kaizen: Radical transformation followed by continuous improvement.

  • Yin-Yang Philosophy: Balancing opposites like technology + human touch, structure + freedom.

📢 Vision and Impact

  • Cultural Revolution at SEWA: Shifted from a bureaucratic, product-centric model to a people-first, emotionally intelligent, and agile organization.

  • SEWA Listening Centers: Rebranded call centers focused on empathy, 24/7 accessibility, and high-touch service.

  • Customer Pledge: A documented promise to uphold courtesy, accuracy, transparency, and responsiveness.

  • Omnipresence: Becoming present across platforms and touchpoints to meet customers where they are.

đź’ˇ Success Factors Shared with Team

  • Positive Attitude

  • Clarity of Purpose

  • Tight Process, Strong Product

  • P.U.S.H. (Persist Until Success Happens)

  • Continuous Learning

  • Courage to Share Bad News

🌟 Final Takeaway
This is more than a book—it’s a transformation playbook. Dr. Alleem proves that even a utility company in a monopolistic market can win customer love by putting people before process and experience before efficiency. The model is applicable to both public and private organizations aiming for sustainable, human-centered excellence.

Related Books