That is the biggest challenge a channel partner faces today? You don't need
to be on the KBC hot seat to give an answer. The most common refrain would be
issues related to services-some would say the vendor doesn't have a clear
service engagement model, some would say there is no clarity on the vendor
service policies, while some crib about vendors not being available at the
critical time. Vendors too crib that many partners lack the requisite skill sets
or worse even the right mindset to deliver the proper services required.
Whatever may be the issues or grouses, what is clear is that All is NOT Well as
far as services are concerned in the channel community. Be it a large
established partners in Nehru Place, Lamington Road or GC Avenue or be it
smaller resellers from upcountry markets like Jalandhar, Rajkot, Ranchi or
Tirunelveli. Bottomline: 'guaranteed customer dissatisfaction' and we know that
means subsequent loss of business.
The dynamics of customer satisfaction is changing with the times. Gone are
the days when customers used to remain satisfied with basic minimum level of
customer service. They want vendors/channel partners to offer the highest
quality of satisfaction at all levels of their relationship-sales and marketing,
delivery, installation, products/services, post-sales service. Customers are now
asking for support in the medium they want and at the time they want. 24x7x365
is something which has become the norm rather than exception. In this scenario,
it becomes even more crucial that channel partners have the perfect service
engagement models with their principals in place as otherwise the whole
structure will crumble and affect not just the channel partners but even the
vendors.
There are myriad problem areas ranging from service repairs to reverse
logistics to warranty management to spare parts availability. In a tough
economic climate sullied by the impact of recession, credit crunches and cash
(or lack of it) are also often linked with delivery (or rather non-delivery) of
many of these services. Currently, in most cases we see a stop-gap, short-term
solution being worked out in case the crisis threatens to overwhelm all the
protagonists. Another example of the famous Indian jugaad trick. While that may
work in some cases, paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln we can safely assume that it
will not work all the time in all the cases. This is where The DQWeek can be a
forum or platform for the channel partners. Starting next week, we will
highlight individually the problem areas and try to act as a guide in how
partners and vendors can create a framework to work through these problems. As
always, we want your active participation, and I am sure together we can create
a better service engagement model for the Indian IT market.
Rajneesh De
rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in