Aftersales services are a key factor in determining the leader in the Indian truck and bus industry, which is largely dominated by a handful of players catering to the entire market.
Considering this, Eicher Trucks and Buses — a business unit of VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) — has invested an enormous amount of time, effort, and resources in upgrading its aftersales services and thus improving customer satisfaction.
Today, having topped the FADA Dealer Satisfaction Survey in the CV segment for two consecutive years, the company is reaping rich dividends for all its dedicated efforts.
Ramesh Rajagopalan, SVP – Customer Services & Network Strategy, VECV, recently discussed in detail the CV maker’s pursuit of ‘Retail Excellence.’
Highlighting some of the key initiatives taken by VECV to support its dealership partners, Rajagopalan said, “Around two years back, we introduced a system through which the dealer stocks are directly monitored by us. It is a scientific model which tells each dealership the kind of parts to be stocked based on consumption patterns and the vehicles running in the region. This ensures the availability of the right parts at the right time and right place. Previously, the parts availability and stock planning were being handled by dealers’ workforce which made it extremely difficult to streamline.”
“Similarly, we have also recently kick-started an e-commerce initiative through which parts can be ordered online or by a phone call. Also, some dealers have huge stocks of old unused parts which no one is usually aware of; these parts are actually the dealer’s working capital locked up. Through our new system, the parts that get consumed further get replaced. The parts that don’t get consumed over a particular period of time are taken back by us for which we offer a full buyback. So, the dealer has zero risk since he has stocks of all relevant necessary parts and doesn’t have to worry about cash getting blocked in unsold parts. As a result, the financial efficiency of our dealer partners has dramatically increased,” he asserted.
Such initiatives have contributed to Eicher topping the FADA Dealer Satisfaction Survey in the CV segment for two consecutive years so clearly, we are seeing results, Rajagopalan added.
About VECV’s service side, he said, “These days, fleet operators want to save time by not sending their vehicle to the workshop for service, they expect the service to be done at their place. We are moving aggressively towards being where the customer wants us. We offer on-site support for large fleets. We offer site support at 158 locations across the country where we provide guaranteed uptime and back it up with parts, training, tools, and diagnostics. Through this, we have seen the productivity of fleets increase dramatically.”
“We try and remove such small bottlenecks that could be potential pain points for our customers. We tell them, ‘You take care of your business, the vehicle is our business.’ We guarantee their fleet’s uptime and take pride in pioneering this in the Indian CV industry.
“Under our ‘workshop responsiveness’ initiative, we monitor over a half dozen of strong KPI parameters, and this has dramatically improved the efficiency of our workshops. We also have an app called ‘MyEicher’ which gives the customer full transparency of their vehicle and its service schedule,” he elaborated.
Post BS-IV, there has been a significant change in diagnostics, so technicians need to be trained. VECV has 4 levels of competency — learner, performer, expert, and master — maintaining a sharp focus on training. “We have around 6 regional development centers and 9 mobile training vans to ensure our dealers are constantly updated on competency. We have a digital platform called iLearn which is like a YouTube channel that is constantly updated.
Also, to support our technicians, especially those in the hinterlands, we provide remote diagnostics assistance through which they can connect with our 24×7 Uptime Centre at Pithampur who can take over the diagnostics remotely and resolve the program,” Rajagopalan said.
“We have a technically qualified team who handles these calls and ensures the issues are resolved on priority as we don’t want to make our customer wait for any reason,” he added.
Talking about challenges before the service sector and how Eicher is dealing with them, Rajagopalan said, “The availability of good, qualified resources is a major challenge. We at Eicher are actively engaged in skilling and training and are creating a resource bank. We invest time, money, and resources in upgrading our workforce’s skillsets and also accept dealership manpower into apprentice roles which helps them in many ways. We are proactively involved in ASDC initiatives, we support their programs by sharing a lot of valuable content, in framing the curriculum, etc. on the CV side.”
“Another one that is not a challenge but more of a rapid change is digitalization – how quickly and effectively dealers, customers, and technicians become tech-savvy. Technology adoption is a bit tricky because even if we as an OEM want to move forward with new solutions in telematics and related areas, the other stakeholders involved need to be educated and made aware of its advantages for them to accept and appreciate the change,” he added.
According to Rajagopalan VECV is focused on creating a great customer experience by designing high-quality products and an excellent online shopping experience. “We take great care in delivering our products and adhere to the highest quality standards,” he said.
Talking about Eicher’s return and refund policy, we will review the case and get back within 1 working day. If the claim is found to be correct then we will arrange a pick-up of the product/s from the address same as the shipping address within 5-7 business days, he added.
We will replace the product/s within 7-10 business days of receiving the product or as per actual production timelines mentioned on the website. Replacement would initiate after physical verification of the returned product. If we are unable to replace the product due to non-availability, we will then refund the payment or cancel the invoice within 5-7 business days after receiving the original product. The customer will be informed about the possibility within 2 business days of receiving the products.