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At Your Service

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DQC News Bureau
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Every vendor knows that service is the most important criteria for doing business. Even then major vendors have failed to provide a satisfactory service to their customers. In a recently conducted survey by IDC (India), it was found that 'value for money' and 'dependable after sales service' as attributes are not associated with any brand. The study also revealed that one of the major factors for selection of brand is "service support offered" as stated by half the PC owners.

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Vendors have not learnt their lessons, but it appears, channel partners surely have realized the importance of providing service. A important highlight that stands out in this year's DQCI Silver Club ranking is the importance that channel partners have given to providing service. The companies that have made it to the top are the ones who concentrated more on providing after-sales service to their customers. Almost every Silver Club member have in some way or the other expanded their service network during 2000-01.

Service is their motto

Ramayan Pandia, National Service Manager of Compuage says, "Service is very important for doing business. Most of our customers are satisfied with our service. But, then not everyone can be satisfied." Compuage has increased it service centers to 14 from 12 in an year. They have announced plans to bring it to 20 in the next few months.

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Compuage has followed the process of providing service through their own service network, unlike few companies who authorize other service centers to provide service on their behalf. "We provide free service to our direct customers for products under warranty. For out-of-warranty products we charge," says Ramayan

According to Maqsood Patel, DGM of Tech Pacific, providing service is a sales enabler. "We are refocusing on our entire service network to make profits out of it." As of now, Tech Pacific has been engaging their services with their existing customer. The company is right now in the process of enhancing the existing service centers rather than expanding it. Tech Pac has got 15 service centers in all. The figure was same last year and has no plans to increase them in the near future.

The company has been servicing products under warranty and providing administration for other principals. In the last four months Tech Pac has started making some profits out of its service centers. "I am looking at providing service as an opportunity rather than a duty," says Maqsood. According to him, Tech Pac will bring in new service-oriented products in the future.

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WHY SERVICE

Efficient after-sales service is a good sales enabler.
Prompt support helps retain customer.
Customers' buying decision depends on the service support offered.
A dependable service network adds value to company's image.
Service as a separate business, has very little risk associated with it.
Efficiency of service personnel contributes greatly to the success of a service center.
A state-of-art service setup helps to build a healthy bottom line.

Priya Ltd, which had 16 service centers in 1999-2000 has increased it network to 20 in 2000-01. According to D B Chokani, National Service Manager of Priya, "Providing service is of highest importance for their business. Cent percent of our sales is motivated by the service we provide." However, unlike Tech Pacific, Chokani is not in favour of making profits as its priority. "Proifit is secondary," says Chokani adding "First thing should be providing good service." He also revealed that the service centers will be increased to 26 by next year.

Mumbai-based distributor SES Technology has set up a subsidiary called Ultima Solutions Pvt Ltd with a primary focus of providing services. It has a direct presence in 16 locations with full fledged state-of-the-art services centers in four major metros. Jayesh Pathak, National Manager - Technical Service, of Ultima Solutions says, "Our mission is to provide effective and prompt support and services to our customer as well as our principle."

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Ultima also provides third party repair/RMA activity for leading distributors and MNC. Ultima's service covers 21 cities of India.

The Best IT World created a new division called The Edge to cater to the service needs of partners. This has helped BITW in becoming authorized service providers (ASP) for vendors. Acer has already signed BITW as its ASP. More sign-ups are expected during the current fiscal especially in the printer segment. The revenue from The Edge was miniscule during 2000-01 mainly because the division was newly created. Sandeep Parasrampuria, Director, expects Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1 crore in the current fiscal from services business.

Visualan Technologies with 11 branches spread country-wide does not have separate service centres but, customer are redressed through their in-house service centres in most of its branches. Kamlesh Mehta, MD of Visualan says, "We never had an opportunity to make after sales service -- as profit center, but with the setting up of Visualan Integrated Technology Solution (VITS) we have this as integral part of our business model. At the same time, after-sales service to channels has helped us get consistent business."

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Visualan has decided to jump in to the service business on a large scale with it recently started division called "V-Care". It is a service provider unit for both Visualan or non-Visualan businesses. "We are talking to couple of MNCs that are distributing their products in India but do not have their service centers to support their product. With stringent and strange rules on export of defective products or importing replacement - many MNC are looking for good service provider. We see definite opportunity in this to leverage our existing network and provide services across the nation." adds

Kamlesh.

Mumbai-based Minicomp has increased its service network to 300 units from 270. According to the company, this will be further increased to 340 next year. Talking about the large service network, Ankur Seth of Minicomp says, "Servicing customers is very important for us that is why we are going on increasing our service network. But we will put a freeze when it touches 350, because, then it will become difficult to manage."

PCS also announced a major initiative of increasing its service network from 55 to 100 all over the country.

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There are some companies in the Silver Club for whom, having service centers is not a primary issue. Instead, they are focusing on keeping their customer happy by immediately providing a replacement to defective products.

Abishek of ACI Computers says, "We do not have any service centers, but we provide immediate replacement to all our customers if the product is found defective under warranty."

Growth Formula

Offering dependable after sales services throws up sales opportunities for the channel business. It is well understood that profitability as well as growth for a channel partners lies in the services area. In fact, many channel partners have looks at providing service as a profitable areas with less risk during times of slowdown. To sum it all, after-sales service is something which cannot be ignored. It is crucial in the channel business.

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