The export edge Indian SMEs can’t ignore

This article is authored by Bikram Mazumdar, vice president, Asia, Zendesk.

For many SMEs, the export opportunity is obvious. The harder part is becoming the kind of supplier overseas buyers return to. When businesses cross borders, they don't just bring back revenue; they create employment, drive economic momentum, and raise the country's standing in global trade. Exporting SMEs are also growing steadily, signalling that more Indian businesses are thinking beyond the domestic market. As more Indian SMEs look outward, the real question is less whether they can export, and more how they turn strong products into enduring buyer relationships.

Exports (HT)

Speed and adaptability matter in export markets, but they are not the whole story. Buyers do not evaluate specifications and pricing alone. They assess reliability, responsiveness and whether the supplier feels easy to work with. They notice how fast their queries get answered, how issues are resolved, and whether the relationship feels transactional or trusted. In global markets, customer experience shapes purchasing decisions before a deal is ever signed. The way a business handles those early interactions can tilt a buyer towards trust or away from it.

Research consistently shows that service and customer experience shape how people perceive a company and whether they choose to buy. For export-oriented SMEs, that makes every interaction part of the commercial proposition, not just the transaction.

As buying becomes more distributed across markets and time zones, customer experience has to keep pace. Enquiries, issues and follow-ups do not arrive neatly one at a time; they can land together, from different places and at different hours. For a lean team, that can be challenging. A slow or inconsistent response can weaken confidence long before a formal problem appears.

The solution is not to add AI for the sake of it. It is to apply it where it can preserve context, respond continuously, and make every interaction feel connected. Used thoughtfully, AI can help maintain a clear view of the customer journey across channels, carry context from one interaction to the next, and reduce the gaps that often appear when businesses are serving buyers across markets and time zones. Just as importantly, it can learn over time, so every resolved interaction becomes part of a more consistent and reliable buyer experience.

Winning in export markets also means meeting buyers on their terms. Different markets live on different platforms, and what works in one place can be unavailable or inappropriate in another. WhatsApp is the dominant channel for business communication across much of South Asia, but elsewhere regulatory requirements, platform preferences and local business norms can mean a different approach is needed.

Those serving buyers across borders need a CX approach that works across voice, email, chat, and messaging platforms simultaneously. It should also allow conversations to move seamlessly from one channel to another, even mid-interaction. If a human agent needs to step in, they pick up exactly where the AI left off, with full context. That kind of continuity sends a more powerful signal than speed alone: It shows the buyer that nothing has been lost in translation.

AI undeniably comes with a cost. For smaller businesses, the bigger challenge is often not the headline price, but whether the investment can be justified in practical terms. As AI becomes more embedded in business operations, the need for clarity around what is being paid for and what business value is being created only grows. When AI is treated as a tool to be used without a clear link to customer outcomes, it can quickly become just another expense. For a business running on tight margins, that is a risk few can afford.

The point is not to move away from AI, but to be more disciplined about the value it creates. It's choosing the right AI solutions with a pricing model that makes commercial sense. It comes down to whether businesses are paying for outcomes or activity. CX platforms that come with outcome-based pricing, where businesses only pay for resolved interactions rather than the volume of queries processed, offer a more disciplined approach. It aligns supplier incentives more closely with customer outcomes, giving providers a direct reason to make sure the AI works effectively while giving SMEs a clearer link between spend and value. An SME pays when a customer's problem is actually solved. That resolved interaction is the value, and it is also what sustains the business.

The instinct for some SMEs is to build the product first, crack the export market, then worry about the experience layer. In practice, the product and the experience travel together. Global buyers don't separate the product from the experience of buying it. They evaluate both together, and they return based on both. An SME that delivers an exceptional product but a frustrating experience may secure the first order, but struggle to turn that into durable overseas growth.

Done right, CX is how Indian SMEs turn export opportunities into lasting overseas relationships, not just by satisfying buyers, but by becoming the kind of supplier that global businesses actively prefer to work with, return to, and recommend.

India's SMEs have already proved they can build products the world wants. The next proof point is whether they can make the buying experience match that ambition–one that AI can help make more responsive, consistent and context-rich across markets, channels and time zones.

(The views expressed are personal)

This article is authored by Bikram Mazumdar, vice president, Asia, Zendesk.