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| Handle with Care | |
| Handset makers have tasted huge success, but customer care for them is yet to become a focus area | |
| Ritu Singh | |
| Monday, November 29, 2010 | |
Mobile services are getting developed everyday. India has entered the third generation of mobile technology which lets people enjoy marvelous Internet options, video calling, and video conferencing. The growing needs of the consumers and the price sensitivity of the region has resulted in a huge influx of new entrants joining the bandwagon of the handset equipment making industry. According to a recent IDC report, 'emerging vendors' like Micromax, Karbonn, Lemon, Lava, Spice Mobiles, Fly, Olive, etc, are fast establishing themselves with a national footprint. The report reveals that India's mobile handsets' sales in the second quarter of this year saw the number of cellphones purchased reach a whopping 38.63 mn-a 6.3% increase as compared to the previous quarter. The market share for handsets made by the new vendors saw a steep rise from below 1% in the first quarter of 2008 to 33% in the quarter ending June 30, 2010. Though these so-called 'low cost handset equipment makers' and the new entrants may be riding high on making huge profits, and may also pose an upcoming threat in the near future, but when it comes to an in-depth analysis of their services and offerings, they seem to be still lagging behind in a few contexts. At a time when the mobile equipment making industry is gushing with new low-cost feature rich mobile phones that claim to suit the pockets of every consumer, the ground reality is different-with lack of customer care centers of these handsets topping the chart.These emerging players venturing into the business have very lucrative offers like QWERTY keypad, MP3, high-end battery back-up, dual SIM facility, memory storage card, an elegant look, style, etc, and that too at a very economical range of `2,999 to `3,999. The marketing gimmicks for such brands are done so well that today's customer, who cannot even imagine a day without being connected, often falls prey to these strategies. And once the customer makes the purchase, then comes the real challenge. Till the consumer does not face any difficulty, things are in place, but the moment it shows a problem then things go for a real toss. The equipment makers of such low-cost feature rich gadgets though claim tall on offerings and a high-leveled satisfactory customer service, yet it seems that the Indian mobile industry that boasts of a subscriber base of around 680 mn subscribers, are not too much satisfied with the customer service. Today's customers who are extremely tied-up with busy schedules want an immediate response to their complaints rather than waiting for hours and returning home with their complaints unsolved or unattended. So, here comes the need for a better and an appropriate customer care center rather than the increasing number of mobile launches in the country. Voice&Data, using an survey portal, surveymonkey.com, conducted a survey to bring to light the unsaid part of the service center issues faced by the consumers. The survey that saw the online participation of various equipment brand users like Nokia, HTC, BlackBerry, Samsung, HTC, iPhone, Spice, Lava, Karbonn, Fly, Lemon, Micromax, MCC, and others, says that 35.7% of the users could not even get in touch with the right contact person in the customer care center who could solve their issues; while 42.9% were successful in getting through to the right person; and the remaining 21.4% somehow managed to get across to the concerned executive. The study also showed that 50% of the users were not completely satisfied with the service, and 7.1 % were completely dissatisfied with the service, 7.1% were not satisfied with the service, while the remaining 39.3% were satisfied with the service. Moreover, the service charges also don't seem to be meeting the customer's standards as 28.6% stated that the charges were unreasonable, 17.9% found it to be too high, 14.3% found it to be in the medium bracket level, while the remaining 39.3% found it reasonable. However, the Indian economy that takes pride in being the second largest telecom market is also providing a little better customer attention by few industry leaders like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung. Derivations from the Online Survey 
Established Versus Emerging Nokia has over 1,000 customer care touch points in India covering over 650 towns and villages. These touch points include physical care centers, collection points, and mobile vans to establish the 'reach' in areas, where there are no physical care centers. As a truly consumer driven company, Nokia is committed to addressing the changing consumer needs and delivering true value to the consumers. As a step in this direction, Nokia has launched its 'care experience centers' across metros in India. These centers are in sync with Nokia's strategy to provide a holistic solutions experience to its consumers at all consumer touch points. At the Nokia care experience centers (NCEC), consumers can experience and receive support for Nokia's latest services and applications, such as music, messaging, maps, and games. Nokia's spokesperson Sudhir Kohli, head Nokia Care informs that the company has divided the large format customer centers into special zones including the hardware repair zone, the services support zone, the learning zone, and the service experience zone, and allow the consumers to explore and familiarize themselves with the features and services available across a multitude of devices. The centers offer not only a redressal and resolution forum, but also total mobility solutions under one roof bringing together the Nokia care center, software assistance, service support, accessories' sale, and other related care services. 
In order to give complete satisfaction to its customers, Nokia has also opened 5 NCECs till date in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad with plans to open another 6-7 NCECs by the end of this year. According to a survey report released by Voice&Data on mobile handsets' market share, in FY 2009–10, the market share of Nokia in India stood at 52.2%. Coming to the other established brand, Samsung occuping a major market share, with its wide range of 'Corby' and 'Star' mobiles which have caught the attention of young Indians that played its part in raising its market share from 10% to 17.4%. The brand currently has a widespread network of over 1,200 service centers across India. The company has a widespread service center network to address the needs of the customers. In fact, 36 of the service centers in 17 tier-1 cities offer 365 days' service, which means they are open on Sundays as well. Mobile specialists are available at the service centers to offer technical guidance to customers experiencing problems on the phone. Ranjit Yadav, director, mobile and IT, Samsung Electronics says, “95% of the Samsung service center network is exclusive to Samsung, with only some of the service centers in remote locations being non-exclusive. For repeated customer calls, there is an escalation within the system and 'happy calls' are made to check the satisfaction level of customers with the service provided.”  Now coming to a brand that has grown from scratch to a state where it commands a respectable market share of 4.1% in a very short span of time-Micromax. Micromax, apart from being famous for producing low-cost dual SIM mobiles, is also known for producing some fancy looking handsets. After conquering the dual SIM market and shaking the QWERTY market, it is slowly but surely shifting its focus to 3G phones. In about 4 months from now, India will be on 3G networks. The brand has already played a role by developing quite a few 3G models. Micromax has a product service setup, and offers a toll-free telephone number for complaint registrations. The brand also provides onsite service in most of the Indian cities. Two-hundred Micromax touch points, which have product support engineers, are spread in approximately 150 Indian cities. The company operates through more than 400 service centers operational in about 250 cities. Micromax is aiming for a turnover of `1,500 crore by the end of this fiscal, and `3,000 crore for the next year. The company that is planning to reach out to its customers through 70,000 operational stores in the coming year, however, also needs to focus more on service.  Spice, the gadget maker that claims a subscriber base of around 1.26 crore with a market share of 3.9%, has merely 370 service centers across the country. The company, with the punchline 'there's always a smarter way', is taking a rather safer than smarter route when it comes to addressing the customer care issues. On an average across India, the brand receives close to 5,000 complaints at the service centers. Prominently, complaints are related to accessory failures (chargers and battery) to fluctuating power conditions. Hence, 20% problems require PCB level repairs for which handsets are sent to their L4 centers. Spice has built-up 4 levels at their customer service end. So, if the handset requires a L4 level of repair that is it has to be sent to different station, which takes 15 days of repair time. L1, L2 level of repairs are resolved within 24 hours. L3 level of repairs are repaired within 7 days. Handset which requires L4 level of repairs are sent to different stations. In such cases, it takes more time for a handset to get repaired. Ninety-eight percent of such cases get repaired within 15 days, which is quite a long period.  Now moving to Karbonn Mobiles, a brand that claims to redefine mobility with its wide range of attractively priced multimedia phones, has initiated its aggressive and ambitious expansion plans from the current market share of 3%. The handset that boasts of a wide range of 30 models with sales of 0.5 mn on an average in a month, is not that great with its availability of services centers. The brand has only 550 services centers, which does not suffice in comparison with its rapid expanding zone and future plans. Lava, a brand that aims to carve a niche with its feature-rich mobiles that fits the pocket of all income groups, claims to have 2.3 mn subscribers across pan-India with a market share of 1.1% of the equipment making industry. The brand offers 9 models with price ranging between `1,500 to `6,000 and has a quite decent amount of monthly sales, is also not meeting the customers' needs to a great extend, with around 700 services centers across the country. And the manpower of these centers is not sufficient. In order to meet growing concerns of its customers, the brand though has planned and implemented 2 base mechanics by enhancing the service reach by offering service centers to the distributors which will maximize the customer delight. 
Talk of Lemon mobiles-a brand that offers an array of 14 models to its consumers, and covers a market share of 2% of the overall handset market. The brand that is quickly scaling up its product portfolio with a rapid expansion plans in the future, however, is also lagging in the availability of service centers. Lemon has approximately 335 service centers across India while it has 20,000 plus handset stores in India. Each service center has 2 engineers and 1 executive across India with only 60 employees managing aftersales service pan-India. Videocon mobile, a brand that is one of the late entrants in the cluttered mobile handset business has managed to offer 28 models. The company which in the last 6 months has managed to garner a respectable share has only 436 service centers across the nation. These 436 centers have a minimal manpower of 4 employees in each of them. However, the company has a multi-brand outlet footprint of 27,000 plus across the country and are also present in all the top large format or organized retail outlets. The handsets are available in the top 1,000 towns across the country. 
Now moving to Intex, a brand that claims to capture approximately 2% of the market share with its 15 models spread across the various categories. The brand that boasts of approximately 2.5 lakh units per month sales has only 500 touch points across the country. The working strength of these centers is also not sufficient, and has a minimal strength of 3-15 employees on an average. This includes a network of dedicated testing and repair centers, owned and operated by the company, where even L3 and L4 repairs are taken care of at the local branch level. MCC mobiles, a brand that is one of the latest entrants in the Indian equipment making industry currently offers 7 models to its consumers. The company that aims to capture 5% of the market share has 765 service centers across the country with a working strength of 3 employees in each of the center, which indeed is very low. However, to increase the sales, the company stores are available in 13 states and boasts of around 1,000 outlets at the pan-India level. Last but definitely not the least, ZTE is ranked as the sixth largest handset manufacturer in the world. It has sold its various handsets from high-end markets in UK, France, Spain, US, and Latin America to the emerging market in Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and various other regions globally. The company possesses a diversified and complete handset and terminals' portfolio ranging from low-end to high-end handsets, smartphones, and other terminals. All these handsets are designed as per the operators' requirements, delivering more localized and specific device for a country or region. But when it comes to the availability of service centers, ZTE's total tally for customer care centers in India is over 380. These customer care centers are set up across cities covering all the regions, according to penetration and demand for that particular region. Some of the regions/cities include Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Punjab, Orissa, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kerala, UP, Jharkhand, Gujarat, etc. Hence, venturing into the telecom gagdet making industry would not be that hercluean task, but to meet the demands of the India consumer is a deal in itself. The handset makers-both new and established-may be swinging on a rollercoaster ride these days by making huge revenues, but if they continue to fail in meeting the customer safisfaction with their lack of adequate service centers, the future may not be very bright.... 
Can the Government Assist? Home-grown handset makers started grabbing marketshare from the established players. They need to focus on customer care. Indian customers do not want to stand in queue. They want the best services in the world. The government can look into setting up quality of service standards for moblle phones and mobile phone care centers. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1 |
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Mobile phones of the future
Summary
Designers have presented the latest in concept phones at the Cutting-edge IT and Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition in Chiba, Japan.
Events
Telecom Cloud Services: Business Models and Deployment Strategies
25 - 26 Jan 2011
Amara Hotel, Singapore
The Internet Show 2011
13 - 15 Apr 2011
Suntec, Singapore
Shown here is a phone from Kyocera's booth, called "Organic Transparent". This concept features a flip-out sheet of glass that is supposed to serve as an "augmented reality layer". The idea is that it can act as a screen on which information about businesses or a landmark it's pointed at can be projected.
Photo credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News
Photo credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News
Photo credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News
Photo credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News
Each person gets a heart that they grip in their hand. The device measures your pulse in order to represent how fast your real heart is beating while talking on the phone to your sweetheart. The info from the heart is then sent via Bluetooth to the other person's phone and then to his or her own heart. When the heart heats up, vibrates, or its lights change colour, it's meant to communicate how a person's partner is feeling about them at that moment.
Photo credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News
Photo credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News
Photo credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News