Samsung Electronics India Information and Telecom Ltd (SEIIT)
celebrated its first anniversary by thanking the dealer community for their
support and urging them to adopt online communication in their interactions with
the company.
Declaring the winners of Mobike to Mercedes (M2M)
scheme, meant for Tier 2 channel partners, also marked the occasion. The
proceedings of the event were webcasted from its site www.buildurpc.com
to
enable its 3,000 strong dealer community to watch the event live. A total of
2,000 prizes were given during the scheme. Among its prizes included a Home
Theater System, 50 750-ST color monitors and 100 weekend holiday packages.
The M2M mega scheme taught Samsung a couple of valuable
lessons. First, officials swore not to have schemes on such a large scale.
Secondly, it was also the first time that the auditing was outsourced to a
prestigious third party. Thirdly, its 134 star dealers would henceforth have
very personalized reward schemes and not be part of the general schemes any
more.
Urging the dealer community to adopt Internet in a major
way, Vivek Prakash, GM, Samsung India said, "We are positioning our website
buildurpc.com as our main vehicle. Henceforth all our business communication to
our star dealers will be personalized through the site. We solicit business
inquiries on the Net with a guarantee that it will be answered within 24
hours."
Samsung in the process of setting up a complex e-mail
management system from Talisma, which is intelligent enough to escalate the
problem to the highest level if the query is not attended within the specified
time. The software is also intelligent enough to identify the right person for a
particular query and send a copy of it to the concerned person.
Each Samsung star dealer would have a user name and
password on the site after which they shall have a personalized space allocated
to them. This personalized page would have all the relevant information
regarding the history of interaction of the dealer with the company as well as
bulletin boards that would be of interest to them. Information regarding new
product launches etc would be conveyed through the website. Dealers would also
be able to monitor the movement of orders online.
With the dealers clearly not too comfortable with the
idea of going online, Samsung officials had to work hard at convincing them.
Among many reasons offered some were that it was easier to get an answer online
since people were always travelling. Second, it amounts to huge cost-savings and
efficiency to the company given the quantum of information that needs to be
circulated to the community so frequently. Third, it helps Samsung keep track of
its business in a scenario where more than 6,000 dealers buy from the company
once in 60 days.
Meanwhile in a strategic decision, the company has
decided not to focus on the Nehru Place market in Delhi any more. Elaborated
Prakash, "There is so much heat in Nehru Place, it is bound to explode
soon." The company also emphasized the need to have more quality sales and
reiterated its support for those who deliver more on this front. Quality sales
here refers to the sale of high-end niche products where the margins are much
more than in mass products like the 14 inch monitor where volumes are more but
less on margins.