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Service At Any Time - Vilas Bhandarkar of La Plume

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DQC Bureau
New Update

Plotters are his favorites. It is from selling plotters he launched into big time

business. It is from plotters, Vilas Bhandarkar derives the French name of his firm: La

Plume, which means the pen.

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Vilas started selling plotters with Digital Electronics after a short stint at Emco,

which was into distribution of medical equipment. Selling of medical equipment did not

have much attraction to him because his primary interest was in electronics. In fact, he

has a masters degree in electronics from Somaiya College in Mumbai.

If electronics was his academic interest, business kept him going even while he was

studying. He did not hail from a business family--his father was a manager in the finance

department of Godrej. But business was very much in Vilas' blood.

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Lamination business

When Vilas was in college, he got into lamination business as a part-time venture. He

got a contract from Film City and had the privilege of laminating the visiting cards of

film stars. But that was only a temporary phase before getting into a regular job of

selling medical equipment after his post-graduate studies.

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But a routine job, including the one at Digital of selling plotters, did not hold

Vilas' interest for long. In 1992 with Rs 1,000 in his pocket and an additional phone

connection at his elder brother Ramesh's office, he started trading in plotters on his

own.

Vilas found it easy selling plotters to government organizations like BARC, private

design companies and architects. In fact, he found customers asking him for total CAD/CAM

solutions. This provided an opportunity for Vilas to move from selling only plotters to

market complete solutions.

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First showroom of Thane

Marketing of total solutions brought prosperity to Vilas who kept adding new brands to

his offerings not only to CAD/CAM customers but also to reseller segment. He started

marketing Visualan and HP machines from 1996.

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The retail bug bit Vilas in 1998. This resulted in setting up of the first La Plume IT

retail showroom in Thane, the adjoining district of Mumbai. The inspiration to set up a

showroom came to Vilas from his visits abroad where the "go-see-buy" culture was

highly prevalent.

The market reading of Vilas on the need for a retail outlet was on the right track

because walk-ins soon began giving business to La Plume. The showroom offered multi-brands

to customers. "Earlier, people from Thane used to go to Mumbai for their IT

requirements. Now they have retailers at their door step," points out Vilas.

The success with the first showroom boosted Vilas to go for a second one. This time, an

exclusive showroom for HP products. Today, Vilas runs two showrooms and one service center

with 21 employees. "The secret of my success is service. I am willing to offer

service to my clients at any time of the day or night," he says.

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The satisfactory service offered by Vilas is reaffirmed by his clients. Says Sanjay

Godse, Deputy Manager, Marketing, Bharat Bijlee, "La Plume offers quality after-sales

service. They send technically qualified people to service our machines."

Strong team of engineers

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The retail outlets have brought repeat sales to Vilas because of his emphasis on

after-sales service. For this purpose, he has built a strong team of ten engineers who

form the backbone of his service center. Says Kishore Karkera, technical in-charge of

service center, "Giving service to our customers at any time of the day or night is

our top priority."

It is not just service that has made a La Plume a success but the people who provide it

to the customers. Vilas is proud of the team with whom he works. "I have put in

efforts to create a conducive working environment in my organization," says he.

Agrees Kishore, "If I have remained four-and-a-half years with La Plume, it is

because of the learning opportunities I have enjoyed in the company."

The employees at La Plume are a motivated lot because the organization has enabled them

to grow and develop their skills. For instance, Mukesh Dighe joined La Plume six years ago

as an office boy and today he heads the service center.

Of course, it was a bold decision for Mukesh to join in that position despite the fact

that he was a graduate and had done training in hardware. La Plume soon recognized the

fire within Mukesh, promoted him to the post of a service engineer and got him trained at

HP's service center at Delhi. "La Plume gave me plenty of opportunities to learn and

grow in my career," says a happy Mukesh.

Golden rules of retaining employees

Vilas follows his own golden rules to retain his employees. He always pays the salary

of his staff ahead of the due date. He looks for ways and means to contribute towards the

self-development of his employees. For instance, quite often, Vilas brings in outside

experts to lecture on self-development topics to his employees.

Vilas is not only concerned about the well being of his employees but also of the

welfare of the channel community in Thane. That is the reason he joined hands with leading

dealers to establish Computer Media and Dealers Association in 1998. As the secretary of

CMDA, Vilas has been instrumental in creating an atmosphere of bonhomie among channel

partners and represent their problems to the local government in Thane.

Vilas would like vendors to treat dealers in Mumbai and Thane on an equal footing. He

points out that HP and Samsung absorb octroi in Mumbai but not in Thane, which he finds

discriminatory. CMDA has taken up the issue with concerned vendors who have promised to

look into the matter.

Be it the channel partners, employees or customers, Vilas has made his mark with all of

them with service as his front-end. He gratefully remembers the support given to him in

all his ventures by his elder brother Ramesh Bhandarkar who handles finance at La Plume.

"He is the backbone of my organization," says Vilas.

As Vilas prospers in his business, he has to take care that internal communication

keeps growing for a smooth interaction between sales and service teams. More delegation on

his part can help him to concentrate on expanding his business further.

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