Tata Motors carves out customer-care vertical

Tata Motors has created a new vertical focussing on passenger car customers promising enhanced customer experience.

The automaker has laced together a series of initiatives around this vertical headed by Rajalakshmi Vijay, Head-Customer Experience, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, as a part of its Horizonext initiative launched in June 2013.

This vertical has a mandate to “delight” customer,s be it when they come to shop for new car, or experience customer care or give the vehicle for servicing or repairs, Rajalakshmi said. Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of its latest car, the Zest sedan, in Hyderabad, she told BusinessLine this is a common theme that will run across the passenger car line-up, beginning with the Zest.

“We have empowered more than 3,000 sales staff in this new network with a new dress code and handheld tablet devices. They will facilitate visitors to sales outlets and customer care outlets and help them take informed decisions. A technical call centre has been created to assist these staffers in explaining even some of the technical queries people may have,” she said.

The focus of this initiative is to look at the softer part of a customer’s buying experience where even small things matter, including how they are treated when they come scouting for a car. Several inputs have been incorporated from Tata group entity Taj Hotels on customer care, she said.

As an extension of this initiative, the company has developed a smart tracker system for service-related work. This helps a customer track the progress of service of the vehicle through various stages, right from handing over the vehicle to what stage of service it is at.

These customer executives now span a network of over 470 showrooms and 584 workshops. They are trained by team leaders referred to as Dronas, she said.

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