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All,

As I was reviewing my own experience with Indigo Marina since 05 and my recent experience with booking Safari GX. And compare that with my experience with Hyundai earlier and experience of my friends with other players..it seems to me that biggest differentiator is

1. Attitude of the Company - towards customer complaints and ownership.
- With Tata, I get a feeling that they look at customers as though customer is looking for a free ride and trying to get more from them i.e. what they don't deserve and un-necessarily creating noise. Which is very different with other well placed player - they actaully go out of their way to understand whats bothering the customer and perhaps emapathy also a play a role there. I was thinking hard on this topic as to whats the source of this problem - and I think its typical India attitude, we see that in our offices as well..department like admin/support function the same way. Just put a gora on top of them..attitude just changes. Moreover goras/mnc also have more process oriented view - they want to know what went wrong to create this problem and try to improve on the process then just take care of point problem.

2. Support process - so that complaints do not fall through crack in the system and are followed up.

Again goes back to same point of process orientation - reduce dependence on people so that people failure can be reduced.

3. Well published Escalation matrix and monitoring of the process

I think they may exist..coz some of the customers can /do get resolution to their problems by leverging their contacts etc. I think..the way you approach the problem also has a say - It seems that while working with Indian players - lot of it has to do with the fact- how much time you are ready to spend, frequent calls, boss kuch kardo etc, and combining that with some threatening etc seems to work. Not ususal I raised an issue, its upto them to sort it out.


Any idea from fellow bhpians...as to what works and what doesn't?

I am very keen to understand the dynamics.

Thanks

Vivek

from my POV, tata does seem to have good processes. Just that they are implemented in letter than in spirit

4. Technical Competence: Lacking. Specially for FIATs. They are ok with tinkering with hammer and spanner. Give them an Examiner and it is a different ballgame.
5. Load: Too many customers, too few Service Centers. They really struggle with managing that load, and hence try to cut corners where they should not.

One point that I think requires attention is the fact that the other companies being compared with our humble TATA are much older and well established in the automotive sector and hence all processes including after sales service have been fine tuned to the best possible extent.
While TATAs still have a long way to go before they can claim to have a good after sales service standard, my experience with them (since 2002) has been that they are trying to improve, which in itself is a good sign. I hope that they shed the typical "desi" attitude in the service centers and start giving the customers the attention they deserve.

In my opinion TATAs are trying to improve & they have, to a great degree. But, as vivek.singh.73 has pointed out "- With Tata, I get a feeling that they look at customers as though customer is looking for a free ride and trying to get more from them".
Apathy and not empathy is the word for them.

Did you say empathy? Yes it does. A simple "good morning sir, how may i help you?" does the trick lot of time. Even if the customer is having genuinly bad issue, he will start on a sober note; most of the times. Thats where companies score and thats where they do not. After all, showing empathy, taking ownership of customer's issues, active listening are not limited only to the BPOs; are they?

I think lets forget about all the processes of Tata. What they need to do first is sort the MOST IMPORTANT PROCESS(MIP) and everything else will eventually fall into place.
I feel that all the Tata service centers are overburdened with work due to the failure of this MIP. This MIP by the way is QUALITY CONTROL which Tata seriously lacks.

If they could get that right, their cars would be frequenting the workshops less often. Most cars come back because the problem has either appeared/reappeared. If the problems are less then the visits will be lesser and customers will give a thumbs up and the sales will rocket too. Unfortunately, right now its the other way round.

On his part the dealer does try to address the issue at his end, the support process is also good(they are ever ready to replace parts under warranty to solve the problem), but wth poor QC at the factory level all efforts are in vain.

Tata wakeup, else everyone will say Tata.

at my tata workshop, the staff and the receptionists, right upto the Customer Relations Manager is very courteous. Unfortunately, they seem to be playing a game of good cop - bad cop with the mechanics. They put on a happy face, act courteous, but when the time comes to pick up the car after service, then you find so many things missing, and they'll start running after the mechs , and the mechs generally ignore them, and then they plead helplessness, and seek your pity.

You take delivery of your car, because its 7 in the evening , and they're closing up, you've come all the way to get the car, and you dont want to go back empty handed.

And then the next day my dealer's customer care folks call up, and when I'm say that The last service was crap, they start grovelling. Its pathetic , really. " Sir if you had a problem why didnt you say so then????"
Yeah right.

Well, they whine so much , asking you to give them a good rating when the call for feedback from pune comes, and ask you to take back the car to fix the issues, and the whole cycle repeats.

While its good that clearly, somebody , somewhere gives a damn, It's still extremely frustrating.

You seem to have 'hit' the nail on the proverbial head.:thumbs up

Tata is a very good process oriented company and some of their methrods are comparable to the Japs , but the extend to which it is implemented is still just a question. There are the usual "chalta hain" attitude and some even find loop holes to by pass this process :Shockked:.

Experiencing this from hyundai , honda & maruti for many many years. Why blame tata only?

Only good point if , call comes after 1/2 days & I complain they will tellme to come again and they will fix the problem. But who has time to go back unless it's very imp.

WHat i think on this topic is that, TATA first of all should work hard to have the product perfectly made initially, i am not saying that all other are doing the perfect 10 but still they have few niggling things whcih annoys the cutomer & it keep on adding & at the end it blasts ...... TATA ia doing a great brand promotions & adv etc but the product have few loose ends which is making all the things in vain..... TATA need to work more on most of the departments ....

I once spoke to the customer relation manager of a Tata dealer regarding this. His reply was very interesting. "Tata gives for whatever the customer is paying. i.e. the car would be atleast a Lakh cheaper than its competetor cars of the same segment. So the quality also would be slightly lesser than the competetors. Same applies to the service as well. The charges would be lesser than that of our competetors. In general, the objective of Tata is to give VFM cars to the customers"

lol:

Is it not true? I never understood (yet to understand) how people can compare the Indica V2 they owned five years before to a Swift ZXi!

Obviously the list price is just number that is forgotten after the sale.

You need support processes that can be used to address problems. However, the process at the end of it all needs competent people to address the issues that are raised. A good product to start with helps the cause also.

You can't keep listening to complaints have a good escalation process but cant solve the problems. At some point someone gives up and it shows.