We already have 350 service centers pan India: Syed Tajuddin
We already have 350 service centers pan India: Syed Tajuddin

From introducing a phone under sub 10k with a finger print sensor to creating a buzz with Cool 1, the Coolpad phones are giving a run for their money to its other Chinese competitors. In a conversation with Indian Retailer, Coolpad India CEO Syed Tajuddin tells Indian Retailer that customer experience will be taken to a new level at the Coolpad's exclusive experience centers. The Chinese phone maker says experience centers will offer a great opportunity for them to connect with customers, offer a personalized experience and make sure they are satisfied by the service.

Tell us about Coolpad's exclusive experience centers.
The Coolpad exclusive experience centers are a combination of dedicated service center and product experience zone, where we resolve their queries as well as one can experience our recent devices. The experience centers are also a great opportunity for us to connect with customers, offer a personalized experience to them and make sure they are satisfied with the service. We have already made bench mark product innovations and it’s time for us to make the service also equally great. Customers will have a dedicated representative to look into their problems and will negate them as soon as possible. Thus, we are looking forward to cut the time lapse in solving the issues and provide a faster service.

How was this idea conceptualized?
After Sales, service is one of the most critical responsibilities for any smart phone brand in India. We already have 350 service centers pan India and have partnered with tech support felicitators like HCL and Regenersis, to handle after sales queries. But we were planning to establish a personal rapport with our customers and also give them a hands-on experience of our devices, before they actually buy one. That’s where the idea of an exclusive experience zone cum service center came and it rightly fits our goal to engage with customers personally.

What will be the funding to develop these centers?
Setting up experience centers incurs a huge cost and for this we have partnered with E-Mars services to set up an exclusive experience centers for us. We are already coming up with 5 more stores in the next 3 months to make sure we offer best personalized services to our customers.

What has been your biggest challenge so far in scaling -up?
Smartphone market in India is at its competitive best. When we entered the market it was already cluttered, specially the budget segment and the competition was cut throat in this segment. We were up against some well established brands and it was really tough to get noticed in that clout. But we were sure of our products and we followed our brand philosophy of introducing bench marking products. With Coolpad Note 3, we introduced the first phone under sub 10k with a finger print sensor and it became a trend soon after.  We did the same when we launched Cool 1. This approach of initiating a trend in the market has been our strength and helped us to make a mark in the Indian market.

Share with us some numbers such as revenue, fiscal targets, sale proportion (online vs offline)
We are getting 72 % of the sales revenue from online sales on Amazon’s platform as it’s our exclusive partner in India. We have already started exploring the offline channel 6 months ago and now we are getting 28 % of our total revenue in terms of sale from the offline channels. We have also launched Coolpad Note 5 Lite C in the Indian market as an offline exclusive product and planning to launch more offline exclusive products in the coming months as well to boost our offline presence. As far as fiscal target is concerned, Coolpad has 4 % market share in India as of now and we are targeting to increase it to 6 % market share in next 6 months, targeting a 50% growth rate to conclude the fiscal year.

How do you plan to improve the customer experience in terms of pricing, features, innovation in phones that the company will make in India?
Consumers in India love to experiment and always look out for great value for money in products, be it any industry. We design our product strategy strictly around this behavior of consumers.We believe in pricing our products very aggressively, while bringing the features of mid-range smart phones to the budget devices and that has been our strength. When it comes to innovation, we believe in challenging our limits to come up with outstanding products. Currently 95 % of our smart phones that we sell in India are ‘Made in India’ products and we are targeting to make all our products that we sell in India as made in India only.

 

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