Be polite… be delighted, Q commerce may get PRAISED
The quick commerce market in India is valued at almost $3.5 billion and is expected to reach $10 billion by 2030. This is a fast-growing market and has a huge potential. Amazon Now, Flipkart Minutes, BigBasket, Blinkit, Swiggy, Zepto and many others are the brands in the quick commerce market in India.
While speed is of the essence, through hard delivery, many a time, soft skills may get missed out, leaving consumers a little dissatisfied, because of the tone and behaviour of this speedy delivery. If soft skills are married with hard delivery skills and speed, it would be a great combination and would make the quick commerce market grow even faster and become even bigger.
One must recognise that quick commerce is a part of the service industry and, in the service industry, soft skills are as important as quick delivery, as also efficient, hard delivery.
Let us look at what is needed to get praised.
P for Polite
You may do a speedy delivery and be efficient and also be reliable in being able to deliver groceries and other materials but, if you are not polite, you are slowly but surely destroying the brand. One can understand the speed at which deliveries have to be made; also, one can understand that there is pressure for a quick turnaround, but that definitely does not give one a licence to be brash and rude.
Being polite could take just a few seconds and requires soft skill training to these efficient hard delivery soldiers. There will come a time with delivery, speed, efficiency will be parity. Everyone will be doing it. What will differentiate one brand from the other is being polite.
R for Respect
The other element in soft skills, while developing your Q commerce brand, would be respect. Many a time, the consumer ordering products is a senior citizen. In fact, quick commerce for them is not a luxury but could be a necessity in many cases. At that point of time, the interaction between the consumer, young or old, is important.
Listening with respect and speaking with respect and delivering with respect go a long way in building the Q commerce brand and differentiating it from other commoditised offerings. Remember, the next time, the consumer chooses a quick commerce brand, it is not necessarily based on speed and efficiency; it is also based on how polite and respectful the person delivering and serving the consumer was.
Somehow, this has got missed. It is important that the quick commerce brand be perceived as a polite and respectful brand which is endearing and is liked and loved by consumers. Not only depend on the speed of hard delivery. Soft skills also matter.
A for Attitude
While it is understandable that the service provider is in a rush, a calm and positive attitude would definitely help in customer service. It is quite possible that the service delivery provider is in a rush, but you do not have to rush the consumer and give her/him a feeling that everyone is at war. This emergency situation attitude may not be the best way to express your delivery to the consumer.
This requires training, practice, mock calls and an inculcation of pleasant attitude towards the consumer.
I for Integrity
Workplace integrity is about having strong principles and values, which you demonstrate through your conduct in the work environment. A common integrity definition states that people with integrity do the right thing even when nobody is watching. The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles is part of integrity.
In this service of quick commerce, integrity would be playing a major role because the consumer expects honesty, places trust and expects the brand to deliver and serve in a fair and responsible manner. This culture must be imbibed in the service delivery professionals.
Someone could argue that, in such a hard delivery and speedy environment, how could you expect soft skills to be practised? Well, look around, for years together, the simple Dabbawalla, who delivers lunch, does it with full integrity and responsibility.
S for Soft-spoken
While you could make hard deliveries, it makes sense to be soft spoken about in the quick commerce business, if you want to build a strong vibrant brand. Commerce is not based only on tangibles. Intangibles are a major part of the entire delivery experience, where being soft-spoken does help.
As quick commerce is quickly expanding to not only groceries but many other product categories and is able to help and make life easy for the consumer, why should a badly spoken word, or a harsh comment, ruin the hard work of speedy delivery? Being soft-spoken is a good weapon to be had, along with hard delivery. There is always appreciation from the consumer when he comes across this behaviour. In addition, it helps with the image of the brand.
E for Empathy
Empathy is the ability to imagine how another person is feeling and so understand their mood. Having empathy is an important soft skill, which should be used along with hard deliveries in quick commerce.
What is empathy in simple words? Empathy is the ability to see things from another perspective and feel their emotions. Putting yourself in another person’s shoes might lead you to act with compassion and do what you can to improve their situation.
There are many times when the service provider is also having his family or himself or herself, finding themselves in the shoes of a consumer. At that point of time, one can feel and understand what a consumer goes through and should be sensitive as a service provider and bring about empathy.
When do you want to practise empathy? You need to take perspective, stay out of judgement, recognise the emotion in the other person and communicate the understanding of another person’s emotions. This brings about sensitivity and connection which is appreciated by the consumer. And they help in building a Q commerce brand.
D for Delight
When all these elements are implemented, the consumer would be delighted. That is the entire journey from polite to delight would help enhance the brand image of the commerce brand and move it from just being hard delivery to being blended with soft skills.
When the consumer is delighted, repeat purchases take place, the perceived value of the brand goes up, the brand is a preferred brand and is able to grow both in terms of top line and bottom line and also is recommended by consumers to other consumers, through word of mouth.
Hence, it’s important to go through the journey of polite to delight and make sure that apart from delivering products and groceries, excellent customer service gets delivered, which ultimately gets praised!
An Article by Brand Guru Jagdeep Kapoor was published in Business India.
Samsika Marketing Consultants Pvt. Ltd. is owned by Brand Guru Jagdeep Kapoor. Here are some of the most interesting interviews that T-Talk conducted at his home.
Episode 1: WHY BUILD A BRAND?
Episode 2: How To Do Brand Marketing?
Episode 3: How to Build a Successful Brand?
Episode 4: Process for building Winning Brands
Episode 5: 6 Career Mantras
Catch up on your readings with the latest article penned by Mr. Jagdeep Kapoor, Founder & CEO, Samsika Marketing Consultants Pvt Ltd. in his regular column of Business India Magazine.
Title: ‘Soft skills, hard delivery’
Issue dated 8th December 2025 to 21st December 2025
Enjoy reading!
Best regards,
Sangeeta Jagdeep Kapoor
Director, Samsika Marketing Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
