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L.N. Revathy

Technology will ensure you get your LPG refill even if you've forgotten to book your cylinder. How's that for mind-reading?

DIAL directory assistance. More often than not, you hear the standard "you are in queue. Please wait." recorded response, before the operator picks up your call.

I'm sure you feel like hanging up but restrain yourself from doing so. You put up with it, for, with the frequent changes in the telephone number list, it would not be wise to hang up.

Result — you can't help but wait in queue.

Recall a similar situation, say five years ago, when you had to book your LPG cylinder, before dashing off to attend an urgent call, but the line remained busy (engaged continuously).

You finally gave up, planning to call back later, and forgot about the call completely.

Booking a cylinder can be an insignificant chore, considering your pressure at work, particularly if you are a career woman. But can you afford to forget it? Can you imagine working in the kitchen without a gas stove?

May be, yes, the brave ones might say, but the frequent disruptions in power, tariff hike etc, scare one from relying fully on the electric stove.

Here again, one has had to reconcile oneself to waiting, rather than erase such trivial jobs from memory.

Now, in the face of stiff competition, the public-sector oil companies have started to look for innovative methods to ease consumer booking — by taking care of their needs and thereby retaining their loyalty as well.

`Bharat Gas' (the brand name under which BPCL markets its LPG), for instance, has drawn up a strategy to proactivate delivery.

If you have a Bharat Gas connection, you can afford to forget about booking your cylinder, yet have the refill delivered at your doorstep on or around your booking date.

To facilitate prompt delivery, BPCL, says Satish Kumar, Senior Sales Officer, has supplied software for this to its distributor network.

"Apart from the customer code, consumer number, address and such other details, a team studied the consumption pattern, case by case.

The data is being compiled by the distributor. Once through, our distributors will be in a position to knock on the customer's door on the day when he would have otherwise got the refill even if he fails to book a cylinder by oversight" Satish says.

The market is indeed witnessing a dramatic turnaround — from the time one had to wait (for days) before the LPG cylinder got actually delivered, to it being at your doorstep within hours of booking or even earlier, even if you had forgotten to book!

The sea change in LPG availability (in the past two years 2.3 crore new LPG connections have been released across the country, wiping out entire waitlists) has kept the oil majors on their toes to devise ways to measure up to customers' expectations.

This is not all. BPCL has installed mobile LPG vending machines to cater to the rural populace.

All this would have been a dream two decades ago, when there were only two options — drop a post card or wait endlessly to get the telephone line to book the LPG cylinder.

According to Satish, loyalty to the post-card booking still remains despite the advent of technology.

Today, we have the facility of booking online, swiping the `premium' card issued by the company (with details like consumer number and name embedded on it) at select BPCL petroleum dealer outlets, touch-screen kiosks installed in distributors' premises/office, over and above the IVRS, and telephone booking.

Hassle-free booking at last. Forget the queue, the long wait, both at the telephone booth and for the cylinder.

lnr@thehindu.co.in

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