Customer Relationship Management by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

About Company:
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. is one of India's leading four-wheeler automobile manufacturers and the market leader in the car segment, both in terms of volume of vehicles sold and revenue earned. Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan holds a majority stake in the company. It was the first company in India to mass-produce and sell more than a million cars. The company headquarter is in Gurgaon, Haryana (near Delhi). More than half of the total number of cars sold in India wears a Maruti Suzuki badge. History: Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) was established in February 1981, though the actual production commenced in 1983 with the Maruti 800, based on the Suzuki Alto kei car which at the time was the only modern car available in India, its' only competitors- the Hindustan Ambassador and Premier Padmini were both around 25 years out of date at that point. Through 2004, Maruti has produced over 5 Million vehicles. On 17 September 2007, Maruti Udyog was renamed Maruti Suzuki India Limited.

Product Mix:
Maruti Suzuki offers 13 models, Maruti 800, Alto, Ritz, A Star, Swift, Wagon R, Zen Estilo, Dzire, SX4, Grand Vitara. Swift dzire, A star and SX4 are maufactured in Manesar, Grand Vitara is imported from Japan as a completely built unit (CBU), remaining all models are manufactured in Maruti Suzuki's Gurgaon Plant.

Customer Relationship Management:

In these competitive times the challenge is to keep inventing newer ways of doing things to keep the customers in your fold. Over the last few years, the company strengthened the existing practices and experimented with many new initiatives by way of kaizens (continuous improvements) to delight its customers. These initiatives ranged from product design and quality to network expansion, and included new service programs to meet unsaid needs of customers. The company has retained its competitive edge by offering high quality products. In the field, the products are supported by rapidly expanding networks. The company has diverse networks for new cars, spares, service, pre owned cars and so on, and all of them were in expansion mode last year to enable the company get closer to the customer. Servicing customers 24X7 ..... 365 days.... The company takes great pride in sharing that customers have rated Maruti Suzuki first once again in Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by independent body, J.D.Power Asia Pacific. It is 9th time in a row. The company was first car company in India to launch a Call Centre in the year 2000. The award Obsession. mirrors the company's commitment towards "Customer

Key Initiatives Car pickup & delivery facility for women car owners. Quote Unquote: "The study finds that vehicle pickup and delivery before and after service has a strong impact on customer satisfaction. In particular, customers who say that their vehicle was picked up from their doorstep before service and delivered to the same point after service are notably more delighted with their after-sales service experience, compared with customers who do not receive this service...." Maruti also launched mission to promote safe driving habits jointly with Institute of Driving Training and Research. It also launched Dil Se- a special program for Indians living abroad or NRIs, to facilitate them to gift Maruti cars online to friends and relatives at home. Online club Swift Life is made for all Swift owners. Setting up "Express Service Bays" & "2 - Technician Bays" As the name suggests the company set out to delight its customers by offering them faster car service by introducing new concepts such as Express Service Bays & 2- Technicians Bays. These are done for customers who are hard pressed for time. Both the initiatives undertaken in this direction have helped improve customer interface and also helped increase the productivity and capacity of existing workshops. Mega Camps The company aggressively conducts 'Mega Camps' throughout the country round the year. Activities undertaken during a mega camp include complimentary car wash, AC & Pollution check up, oil and fuel

top ups, wheel alignments etc. Apart from mega camps workshop camps like A/C checkup camps, PUC and general check-up camps, Locality camps , Pre monsoon camps etc are also regularly conducted as part of customer connect initiatives.

Service at Door Step through Maruti Mobile Support Another unique initiative is the door step service facility through Maruti Mobile Support. Maruti Mobile Support is a first of it's kind initiative and is expected not only to help the company reach out customers in metro cities but also as a mean to reach semi urban /rural areas where setting up of new workshop may not be viable Car Safety device: Immobilizer The company used technology to meet customer needs and even delight them. Following feedback that the company's cars were more prone to theft owing to their resale value, the company worked on an anti-theft immobilizer or "I-Cats;" system for all its new cars. Complete car needs The company's effort of providing all car-related needs -- from learning to drive a car at Maruti Driving Schools to car insurance, extended warranty and eventually exchanging the existing car for a new one -- under one roof at dealerships also enhances customer satisfaction.

CRM STRATEGY IN TOYOTA

You can hardly pick up a business newspaper today without reading of the demise of the big Detroit automakers at the hands of Toyota. But what exactly is behind this success? A large part of the answer is Toyota's obsession with its customers. Toyota's internal sales and marketing bible, The Toyota Way in Sales and Marketing, makes it patently clear to all staff that totally satisfied customers is the source of its success. Everything Toyota does is done with this in mind. But in what may be surprising to those who believe a manufacturing strategy doesn't work in a customer-centric environment, I would argue that a good measure of Toyota's success is a strategy that manages to straddle both manufacturing and non-manufacturing environments. It's one called Lean CRM, which was developed by Toyota in Europe, in response to the growing volume of customer information collected at the many touch-points during the customer lifecycle. It allows Toyota to sense changes in individual customers' behavior and to respond in a way that increases customer satisfaction. It has enabled Toyota to sell significantly more vehicles, with a shorter trade cycle and higher repurchase rate, at significantly lower costs. Customer pull A typical European customer will own a new vehicle for three to eight years before replacing it. Toyota's process guides how different touch-points over the customer lifecycle are delivered and how to employees should respond to customer-initiated touch-points and deliver Toyota-initiated ones. This process starts when the customer is just thinking about buying a new vehicle, with Toyota's marketing. The marketing guides prospective buyers to the Toyota web site, where they can learn more and request further information. Requesting information is an example of "customer pull," where Toyota responds directly to the customer. It is the first point at which the customer becomes known to Toyota, and it triggers a check to see if Toyota already knows the customer. What the company already knows about the customer guides how future touch-points to that customer are delivered.

Toyota push

As Toyota guides the customer through the purchase process, the auto company uses what it knows about the customer to provide just the right information that Toyota leadership thinks will help him or her make the right choice. This is an example of "smart Toyota push." In addition to more vehicle information, Toyota might send out a customized offer, maybe even a pre-approved credit offer if the customer's credit record with Toyota is good. Statistical models are widely used to help identify which customers should have which information pushed to them. Where models are not available or not appropriate, simple data analyses or Toyota best practices are used, instead. As the customer buys his or her new Toyota and enters the ownership lifecycle, Toyota uses every opportunity to sense customer pull and to respond to itand to push exactly what it thinks the customer wants, exactly where it's wanted, exactly when it's wanted. It is this combination of pull and push that guides each customer step by step during the customer lifecycle and toward the customer's next purchase. It is the backbone of the lifetime conversation between the customer and Toyota. Customer DNA

The heart of Toyota's Lean CRM is "Customer DNA." Just as real DNA influences how each individual develops, looks and responds to his or her environment, Customer DNA controls how each touch-point between the customer and Toyota during the customer lifecycle is carried out. It defines each touch-pointmost likely a contact or a campaignthat a customer is likely to have with Toyota, whether initiated by the customer or by Toyota. The touch-point trigger, the touch-point delivery process, previous or subsequent touch-points, the roles and responsibilities involved and the business rules that control how the touch-point is executed are all contained within the touch-point definition. The touch-points appropriate to each

customerwhich make up that person's Customer DNAare assigned to them as soon as the customer is identified. Toyota implements the touch-points through the Unica Affinium campaign management system (CMS). Using an industrial-strength CMS like Affinium is the only way to manage the variability of customers, the different touchpoints and their implementation. A regular process automatically reviews what is known about each customer and decides whether a touch-point should be triggered. If more than one touch-point is appropriate at the same time, it also decides which one has priority and what happens to the other. For example, an update of customers who have had recent service from a dealer will trigger the review process. For those who were due to be sent an inspection reminder but had the inspection recently, the reminder will be cancelled. And the mileage at the last inspection will be used to calculate when the next reminder should be sent out. Similarly, if the customer requests information about a new model, the request will automatically trigger a review process to identify the best touchpoint and which touch-points should be triggered as a follow-up. As Toyota introduces brand new touch-points, such as a new Customer Driver Club, all Toyota has to do to update the Customer DNA is to define the touch-points associated with the Club, how they interact with existing touch-points and the membership rules for the club and then enter that data into Affinium. The next time a review is triggered, the new touch-points will be there along with the pre-existing touch-points. More sales, more often, at lower cost The Lean CRM approach outlined here has been developed in close cooperation with one of Toyota's European sales companies and its dealers. It has been piloted in touch-points during the customer lifecycle. It has enabled Toyota to sell significantly more vehicles, with a shorter trade cycle and higher repurchase rate, at significantly lower cost. A comparison of a recent before and after marketing campaign showed a 70 percent reduction of non-target customers being mailed, an 80 percent reduction in campaign costs, a 50 percent reduction in campaign development time and a 60

percent increase in campaign ROI. Over the next few years, Toyota's Lean CRM will contribute between $5 million and $10 million (in U.S. dollars) of additional contribution each year to the sales company. Despite the reservations that some have about applying lean principles developed in manufacturing to sales and marketing, Toyota has shown clearly that Lean CRM does deliver significant benefits for customers and for itself. For Toyota, it is an inextricable part of its long-term drive toward total customer satisfaction