Machine quality, service and spare parts support are important attributes that impact customer satisfaction.

– Rahul Shorey

National Head – Construction, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery

How has the pandemic impacted the company’s strategies of maintaining the customer-connect? How is the same evolving now?

The pandemic has no doubt affected our ability to directly engage with customers. In fact, the entire ecosystem from customers to vendors to employees were affected. However, this also offered us an opportunity to devise strategies to rise to meet the challenge.

The pandemic led to a shift towards adoption of digital communication channels, which we have successfully utilized to facilitate communication within the organization as well as to maintain connect with customers and external stakeholders.

Our digital connect platform called e-DOST will provide a seamless digital experience to our customers in the new reality where physical meetings are restricted. This platform will enable our customers to transact with us on sales as well as after-sales requirements virtually. While physical connect remains an integral part of our sales activities, we continue to invest in digital technologies and enhancing the skillsets of our employees to ensure smooth continuity of business operations.

Brief us on the measures taken for effective and efficient customer engagement with newer technologies and revenue models and improved mechanisms for feedback on product improvements?

We have continued to enhance our presence in digital communications channels, where we are seeing great traction in terms of audience participation as well as engagement. We have conducted several product launches on social media channels, which have proven to be valuable as well as cost effective.

As mentioned above, our digital connect platform, e-Dost, has augmented our capability to engage with customers. In addition, our corporate website, as well as our website for used equipment has seen increased activity, especially during the pandemic.

In terms of newer revenue models, we are continuing to expand our reach in the rentals market. This market is supported by factors such as the government’s enhanced focus on infrastructure, as well as advantages from the customer’s perspective like standardisation and customisation, and the ability to remain competitive while remaining asset light. We are poised to take advantage of the growth in this segment given our inherent advantages, which among other factors include, a young fleet with company-certified operators, a diverse portfolio of machines, lower maintenance costs, certified genuine spares, and hassle-free operations as well as transparent billing based on our on-board telematics systems.

As for feedback mechanisms, we constantly collect and analyse several layers and levels of feedback from customers, apart from direct feedback through our sales and service teams. These include analytics data from our telematics systems as well as our CRM system from both the sales as well as service perspective. This data is then sent back to the product development team to further make improvements in our products.

Can you brief us about your dealership network and the strategies adopted for strengthening this network?

We ensure greater proximity to customers through over 200+ touchpoints covered by our 49 domestic and three international dealers. We also continue to invest in after-sales support through our dealers – in terms of diagnostic vehicles, mobile workshops and increasing numbers of outlets, so that we are within reach of the customer in the shortest time possible. We have also, through our dealer partners, started a mobile van service where the entire overhaul and repair is quickly offered to concentrated customer locations.

The consumer touch points that companies continuously attempt to influence is the relationship between the brand and the consumer. How do you nurture this relationship in terms of after-sales initiatives and customer care?

We have accorded special focus to the following approaches in terms of after sales support:

1. Increasing availability of spares through regional warehouses to minimize parts delivery lead time
2. Fleet of Field Diagnostic Vehicles (FDVs)
3. Parts availability on e-commerce portal
4. Customized maintenance kits for all products
5. Skilled service team for on-the-spot trouble shooting.
6. Training customers on best practices for maximum up time of machine.
7. Toll free number for 24×7 support.

We have laid special emphasis on reducing downtime, even during lockdowns, by maintaining an increased inventory of spares.We also offer a range of reman products to ensure availability of important aggregates that can be exchanged at affordable prices for quick restoration of machines at site.

Further, our service team is equipped with PPE and safety kits to visit customer locations while adhering to safety regulations. A large team of over 1000 service technicians is enabled with technical skills and necessary tools to support the customer.

Tata Hitachi warehouses have also developed procedures to work safely under pandemic conditions. Dealer warehouses and dealer teams can deliver parts through local transport, courier, wherever possible. Our online portal also makes it more convenient for customers to place orders.

In addition to our strong products, we also offer our comprehensive range of support solutions that include Full Maintenance Contracts (FMCs), Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMCs) and Extended Warranty. We have also introduced several other initiatives on the support front, such as field diagnostic vehicles for faster reach and immediate on-site resolution and mobile workshops that can easily reach customers to carry out repairs.

We have set up a central call centre for any support related issues. We have also instituted multiple digital communications channels including our in-house platform e-dost. Support-related issues are then forwarded to the closest dealer and monitored till closure. We have instituted an ongoing machine inspection programme led by our engineers, especially for out-of-warranty equipment, to check and recommend necessary repairs, and replacement of parts to our customers. This goes a long way to pre-empt and minimise breakdown and unnecessary downtime.

All these institutionalised measures ensure robust after-sales support and services including faster spare parts supply to customers.

What are the major challenges you face in sustaining the customer satisfaction levels, especially in today’s context?

Machine quality, service and spare parts support are important attributes that impact customer satisfaction. As explained earlier several initiatives are already in place to give the customer a superior after-sales experience through various innovative measures like fully equipped field diagnostic vehicles, mobile workshop vans as well as full-fledged workshops for repair and upkeep of machines.

Most of these services are offered by our dealers, and we are constantly striving to reach closer to the customer in terms of our dealership footprint, customer touchpoints and outlets. And apart from a large network of spares outlets through our dealerships, our e-commerce portal for spares ensures that customers can order parts from any location.

The pandemic-related lockdowns affected our ability to be physically present for some time. However, our field teams made efforts to reach customers, establish direct lines of communication and physically address the requirement of providing unhindered support. We also tried to address many of these issues through digital channels at the height of the crisis. Given the nature of our operations, we still believe that our physical presence at customer sites will further enhance our ability to improve customer experience.

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