Page 171 - DMGT522_SERVICES MANAGEMENT

Services Management

Notes Thus SangamDirect is a service which offers customers the experience of shopping from
the comfort of their homes. The customers have to order for their monthly groceries and
other products over the telephone and their order is delivered at their doorstep at no extra
cost. Moreover, most of the products available at SangamDirect are below MRP. There are
other offers that are exclusive to SangamDirect. Thus the benefits are passed on to the
customers and it results in huge savings from the customers’ point of view.
The process of ordering from SangamDirect: The customer has to call up the call center.
There is a very efficient and trained team, at the service of the customers, ready to take
down their order. Here Information Technology has helped the call centre to a great
extent. SangamDirect has a system, with the call centre, the warehouse and the dispatch
center all well integrated with each other. There is effective and efficient flow of information
across all these levels. All the products that are available with SangamDirect are stored in
a database, complete with the recent prices and quantity and also the promotions carried
out by different companies and SangamDirect exclusive offers as well.
Thus, when a customer calls up the call centre, he/she is given all the information, right
from the product quantities available, prices, offers and also the amount of money that the
customer saves. The call centre agents have all the knowledge about the product, i.e. the
product features, its quality, its uses, etc. Thus they are in a position to inform the customers
correctly about the various aspects of the products that are being ordered.
In case of any product not being in stock, the call centre agents are immediately informed
about it, so that they can suggest alternative products to the customer. The order is delivered
at the customer’s house at the time convenient to the customer, free of cost. Thus the
customer is put at ease and given the much needed convenience; a convenience both of
time and place.
The processing of the order: Once the order is confirmed and the customer decides the time
of delivery, the order is forwarded to the warehouse department. This department is
responsible for getting the order ready for dispatch. This department prepares a list of the
items in the product and gives it to a person who does the “shopping”. The warehouse is
very methodically designed. There are different markings for different racks for easy
identification of the items. So the “shopper” moves around the warehouse picking up the
items in the list. At the end, an invoice is prepared and the items are packed in totes and
then sealed.
Dispatch operations: Once the list is given to the “shopper”, the orders are sorted according
to the area of delivery and by the time of delivery. Once the totes are packed and sealed,
they are arranged in the dispatch centre according to the different areas of delivery. The
dispatch centre is very well organized, by way of separate markings for different areas of
delivery. SangamDirect has an efficient team of delivery vans and drivers at their disposal
and also a very efficient team of delivery boys. They are provided with proper training as
to how to deal with customers, the different modes of payment, and the different coupons
acceptable by SangamDirect, etc. They are regularly evaluated on various parameters like
politeness towards the customer, cleanliness, consent to keep the items, the ability to
satisfactorily respond to the queries of the customers, etc.
Delivery operations: The orders are loaded in the vans according to the knowledge of the
drivers about the respective areas. This saves a considerable amount of time required to
search for the correct address. Thus the delivery reaches the customer’s house on time. The
mode of payment is either by cash or credit cards and that too only at the time of delivery.
Customer Relationship Management Programmes: SangamDirect has started very effective
methods of managing customer relationships. It has created different classifications of customers,
depending on the frequency and the amount of their purchases. These customers are given
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