The Pant Project

Another weekend, another store opening ?? Store #5 is live at M5 Ecity Mall Bengaluru! With a curved glass facade, immaculate interiors and in a prime Electronic City catchment, I've got high hopes for this one!!

Can I speak to someone who can actually solve my problem? ??That's a common customer care complaint across D2C retail, where frustrated customers ask service reps to escalate to a manager who can actually do something about their problem. I've recently seen CEOs take different approaches to customer complaints, and just wanted to share a little bit about how we think about customer service at The Pant Project... First Touch Resolution: It's frustrating for customers to be bounced from one internal department to another without resolution, so we try to max out on first touch solutions. E.g., unhappy with fit of your pants, fill alterations form and have pants picked up for alteration within 24-48 hours. The longer an issue lingers, the more a customers frustration grows. Try to solve as fast & directly as possible. Don't penalise the 99% for the 1%: India is unfortunately a low trust economy and some customers do try to cheat brands by unfairly returning used products etc. We try to make rules for the 99% honest customers, and might miss catching a few fraudsters in the process, but we believe it's unfair to penalise the mass loyal base of your audience for the few that look for loopholes in how to abuse customer care policies. Empathy, education and expertise: We train our service teams to truly empathise with a customer complaint (put yourself in the customers shoes), and to educate them about our brand (lack of awareness is often a cause of complaints e.g., I didn't know you take 10 days to deliver custom pants) as well as demonstrate expertise in your category (help customers understand more about the right fit and style for their body type), these principles go a long way in building trust for the long term. The real problem is that too many companies view customer service as a cost centre. It's actually one of the biggest pillars of your experience. While we try to embody best in class service, I'm sure some of you would still have had unsatisfactory service experiences. We try to learn from each mistake and improve every day.

Made in India ???? is a great advantage, while China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh may have their place in global fabric and garment manufacturing supply chains, my belief is that there is no better way for Indian brands to grow than to Make in India, for India. What are the advantages of a purely local supply chain? 1. Less Geopolitical Risk - with all that’s happening in the world, specially last year in Sri Lanka, and currently in Bangladesh, global supply chains are in for a shock. Being Made in India, Sold in India insulates us from some of these shocks. Granted, within India, from time to time, you can face supply chain disruptions in some states, so it’s best to have a Pan-India supply chain, avoiding a single point of failure. At The Pant Project we produce across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Daman & Diu, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. 2. Speed to Market - when you manufacture closer to point of sale, you are able to be more nimble in replenishment orders and shorter lead times help you. When you deal with imports (e.g., from China), you have lead times of 3-4 months and that blocks unnecessary cash in working capital, and elongates your order to replenishment cycle. Fabric on the floor at various factories in India, make garments in 30-45 days lead time is the ideal model. 3. Better for Environment - producing locally lowers your carbon footprint as a brand, and while Indian consumers may not be willing to pay for this in the short run, in the long run I firmly believe it will be a must have to be as eco-friendly as you can be as a brand. 4. Employment Generation - textiles is one of the oldest industries in the world, and employs over 4.5 crore (45 million) people in India. So by making locally, if we can contribute even slightly to this economy, we’re happy to play our part! If we go back to Gandhian philosophy, produce and consume locally is how our apparel industry always worked. The charkha (spinning wheel) was a household item, and local tailors were how most garments were stitched. At The Pant Project, while we’re trying to modernize the way people shop for their pants using the Internet, and while we use the latest precision technology to enhance our production processes, we are very much old school in our beliefs of being vocal for local manufacturing! Happy Independence Day, Jai Hind!

What does it mean to be an authority in a category? 1. Thought leadership - you stop looking at what others in your category are doing as a reference point, and innovate from first principles based on what you want to do for your customer, trying to achieve what’s never been done before. You’re not trying to be like A, B, C, you are trying to be the one and only. Tesla is the best example here of leading the way for electric vehicle development. 2. Product leadership - you push the boundaries of what’s possible in your category i.e fabric tech, fit and design innovation for us. Apple is the best example here of doing few things so exceedingly well that it’s products redefine markets (the iPod in 2001, iPhone in 2007, iPad in 2010) 3. Service leadership - your teams have an inherently customer obsessed service culture, and a unique set of ways of servicing customers for delight. Your companies sole definition of winning is consistently making the customer over joyed. The North Star for everyone in the company is “how happy are my customers with every purchase” and the natural consequence is that customers keep coming back for more. Amazon has been a true leader here with customer first initiatives like Prime membership, same day delivery, one click checkout etc. The hard truth is that you only become a Pro by putting in the hard work, over many years, and improving over many tiny iterations. Taking a sports analogy, Federer only became who he did by hitting 1000s of tennis balls a day, and perfecting his form + fitness + mental game. So I tell my team in our weekly team backs, it’s not easy to become #1, and harder to stay #1, but that’s where the fun is at. Doing what seems impossible (whether you succeed or not), makes for a life well lived…

Store #3 opening today! A location very to close to where I grew up, walking distance from my parents house. Glad to be opening up in our neighbourhood, and look forward to having you all visit. Address: Ground Floor, Kohinoor Building, 29, N S Patkar Marg (Hughes Road), Babulnath, Tardeo, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400007 Store timings: 11am to 9pm, every day