Sameer patwardhan's Comments

Hello dear

My name is Veronica Conte,i wish to ask for your true friendship.I have important reasons to request your interest.
Write me here:veronicaconte008@hotmail.com
Thanks,

Veronica.

OMNI HOTELS INTERNATIONAL CANADA
1050 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal,
H3A 2R6 CA
Fax:(501) 638-8719
Tel: 0012063394803

Good day,
I am Rose from Canada, the manager of Omni Canadian hotel, please i want to inform you about the vacancies in our hotel, The management needs men and women, married and not married, who will work and live in Canada .The hotel will pay for his flight ticket and assist him to process his visa in his country, if you are interested contact us via E-mail : omnimontreal_hotelinternational@yahoo.ca
And the Hotel information will be sent to you immediately.
Thanks.
From the Manager.

E-MAIL : omnimontreal_hotelinternational@yahoo.ca

Thanx sameer very much for it. But it was my service marketing case study . i was supposed to send u the HRM case study any ways thanx very much.

Hi Anjana,
The write up which you have shared can point out only one thing and that is lack of communication between the teams who aught to be customer centric but were not. Lack of coordination between the teams made life miserable for the customer. Relations with the client "the pantaloon way" was far away from reality. And i dont think that home solution was anyways meant for middle income group. Pls dont hesitate to write if you want any clarification on the above subject. Hope your studies are going well.

Hii , please help me to identify the Key issues in this case. its very important.

HOME SOLUTIONS LTD- KITCHEN SECTION

Home Solutions India Ltd (HSIL) a part of the Future Group, announced the launch of the first of its kind home improvement retail format in India- ‘Home Town’ at Great India Place (Unitech Mall), Noida in April 2007. Spread across an area of about 125,000 sq. ft, Home Town provides consumers all that goes into building a house and everything to make it a ‘home’. Home Town offers consumers the largest choice and variety under one roof and a specialized team of experts to set it all up for them at their home. The launch of Home town also marks the entry of Future Group into the services business. In addition to retailing , the newly launched format also provides services like electrical fittings, plumbing , interior decoration, modular kitchens, vastu suggestions etc.

The store has been divided into three sections- exhibitions, markets and services. Home Town has, in its exhibition section, put up a live display of various rooms such as living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, kid’s rooms, kitchens and bathrooms.

The market section features products for a living room, dining room, bedroom, kid’s room, kitchen and bathroom, apart from home furnishings, matresses, eZone (consumer durables and electronics), and depot ( books, music etc.).

The services sections offers service options called Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Plumber, Mr. Electrician, Mr. Painter, Tilewala, Design Centre, grihapravesh, door delivery and installation.

Said Kishore Biyani, CEO Future Group, “ Owning a home has always been the ultimate Indian dream. Currently, consumers have to visit multiple stores and markets while building a home and to often rely on advice from unqualified sources.” He added, “ Home Town is an amalgamation of the value lifestyle proposition, so appears eminently approachable to the budget buyer as well as the aspiring customer, and also to the lifestyle driven customer. The display will echo the aspirations of the consumer , keeping traditions alive in a contemporary world.”

Home Town displays products from all major manufacturers of several products such as tiles, sanitaryware, bathroom fittings/fixtures, paints, furnitures etc. Customers are given price, service and product guarantees. If they find any products that they have purchased cheaper elsewhere, they are promisted a gift voucher of double the difference, provided they bring an original receipt within two days of purchase of the product. Home Town assures a one time gaurantee on the workmanship of the jobs that it undertakes from the time the job is completed. Every product or service provided is backed by reliable manufacturers and service providers. In case of any manufacturing defect, consumers get the option to exchange or get a refund for the product.

HOME TOWN ASSURANCE

Soon after the launch, Home town started advertising aggressively with the USP of “ ab ghar banana kitna aasaan” : ( Now making home is so simple). Full page advertisements were released in popular English language newspapers. Hoardings were put up at prominent locations. Slogans were splashed all over the store persuading customers that making home was easy and simple as they could now get “keel se kamre tak ghar banane ki saari cheezein ab ek chhat ke niche” ( from a nail to a room all the things needed to build home now available under one roof). The expectations of the customer were put on hype when it prompted people to revamp and decorate their dream home for which home town distributed brochures and pamphlets, providing details of it offering and promising to offer customers the best value, the best products, the best services, and a superior experience so that every time a customer walks into hometown, she walks out feeling satisfied.

The Exhibition section was a great attraction and inspired customers with ideas to make their home look beautiful and modern, Th exhibition section put up 40 living rooms, 16 modular kitchens, 30 bedrooms, 30 dining rooms, 23 bathrooms and 25 kids’ rooms. These real life rooms not only gave a feel of what they would look like in customers’ home but also stimulated them to create their own spaces. Home Town has assued customers that, “What you see is what you get!”.

A CUSTOMER’s EXPERIENCE

Mrs Raj Dogra, a middle income working woman owned an appartment in a posh NOIDA Sector was tempted to revamp her home with the new and stylish designs and interiors exhibited at the Home Town stores. She had already placed an order for several of the bathroom items including a jacuzzi. Mrs Dogra, however, was more keen to have a new kitchen with smart designs as was displayed at Home Town. Mr. Vipin was in charge of designing the kitchen using advanced software. Having decided to get the dream kitchen, Mrs Dogra spent a lot of time with Mr. Vipin in discussing the kitchen. Mr. Vipin sent his technician to take measuremnet of the kitchen diemsions at the customer’s residence, for which the company charged an initial fee of Rs. 1000/- adjutable against the final price. Mrs. Dogra finalised the design specifications of the materials including the colour of the shutters and the structure. Mr. Vipin had informed the customer that the kitchen modules as per the approved designs would be fabricated at the company’s worldclass facility at Nagpur. The wood and the equipemnet fittings were imported from Germany. The price of the kitchen was Rs. 1,11,000/- and the delivery of the modular kitchen was in 30 days and an additional 3 days were required for fitting the modules.

Without haggling further on the price, on May 9, 2007 Mrs. Dogra finalised the designs and paid an advance of Rs.60,000/-. The kitchen equipment was promised to be delivered on June 9, 2007. Mr. Vipin had handed over the blue print of the modular kitchen, along with detailed specifications. He also handed over diagrams suggesting the changes that were needed to be made to the kitchen space, which required complete demolishing of the existing kitchen structures, treatment of tiles, plumbing and electrical installations. The customer got the preliminary work done and around end of May 2007 asked Mr. Vipin to send someone to inspect the kitchen space so that it conformed to their requirement. After repeated requests Mr. Vipin sent his technical staff for inspection to ensure that the space conformed to the designs. The technical staff gave its approval stating that the space was ready for installation of the kitchen modules.

The customer was anxiously waiting for June 9, 2007 when their dream kitchen was to be delivered. Mr Vipin was contacted around June 6, 2007 to know the status of the kitchen. He was unsure of the delivery and was reluctant to give any commitment. On June 8, 2007, Mrs. Dogra went to Home town to know the exact status from Mr Vipin. On seeing Mrs. Dogra at the store, Mrs. Dogra tried to hide himself and avoid coming face to face. When Mrs. Dogra located him at the cafetaria and confronted him, it was revealed that the delivery was likely to be delayed as the company did not have the stock of the material as specified in the contracted design. Mrs. Dogra was annoyed at the attitude of Mr. Vipin and also dismayed at the way the company treated its customers. Her dreams of having a modern and trendy kitchen were shattered. The home was already without the kitchen, since the existing kitchen had been demolished to make way for the new kitchen. For over a month, the family had been eating outside and a temporary make shift kitchen was made in the bathroom. Mrs. Dogra found herself in a very embarrassing situation. She insisted on the return of the money paid but Mr. Vipin directed her to speak to Mr. Vinod, Head of the kitchen section in Mumbai to have the kitchen installation expedited. Mr. Vinod told persuaded her to modify the specification and choose a different material, since the contracted material had not been supplied by the vendor and imports were likely to take more than 3 months. Mrs. Dogra had no alternative but to specify a different colour shutter material. Mr. Vinod promised to deliver the material within 10 days i.e June 19, 2007 and also promised to compensate Mrs. Dogra for the delay and send an e-mail to the customer regarding the same. No message was received from Mr. Vinod. On June 14, Mr Vipin sent an sms to the customer that the kitchen was getting air lifted on June20 from the factory. Till June 21, nothing was heard and when enquiries were made, it was told that due to rains the roads were blocked and there was likelihood of further delays. Mrs. Dogra wondered whether the material was being air lifted or being sent by road. Truth could not be ascertained. Neither did Mr. Vinod care to inform. On June 23, 2007 Mrs. Dogra sent an e-mail expressing her unhappiness over the matter. She also reported the matter to the Pantaloon customer care cell with a request the matter be brought to the notice of Mr. Kishore Biyani.

Finally, on June 27, 2007 the material was delivered to the home of the custiomer. A day after, the carpenter came to install it. It was discovered that the material was short supplied and the kitchen was not yet ready for installation as the plumbing work though approved by the technical team of Home Town, was not in order. Tiles needed to be broken and water pipes were taken outside the walls which looked awkward and spoiled the look of the kitchen. Mrs. Dogra insisted that the problem should be corrected by Home Town. A team of carpenters from Mumbai were deputed to handle the installation work. They quickly finished their work and left the plumbing problem unattended. Even Mr. Vipin did not arrange for its rectification. While the shutters were being fixed, Mrs. Dogra noticed that the colours and material which she chose as an alternative to the original specifications were different and not the one she selected. The matter was referred to Mr. Vinod. The technical team came and took pictures and found that the material supplied was different than from selected by the customer as an alternative to the original specifications. Mrs. Dogra went to the store and met the store manager Mr. Diwakar, who promised to look into the matter. She also sent e-mails to the Pantaloon corporate office customer care and also wanted to get in touch with Mr. Kishore Biyani.

On July 4, Mr. Vinod came down to Delhi from Mumbai and visited the customer’s premise and found that the material supplied was different from what was chosen by the customer the second time. He prommised to have the shutters changed within a period of 3 weeks. According to him, even though the shutters were not as per the customer’s choice they were very close to what customer had opted for. To this, Mrs. Dogra reacted and told him that it was her kitchen and not Mr. Vinod’s kitchen and she would like to have the colour of her choice as she was not getting the kitchen free of cost.

Till that time the kitchen was not functional. The plumbing work was still pending. Mr. Vinod asked Mr. Vipin to get the plumbing work done immediately and make the kitchen functional. The replacement material was supplied to the customer several days after the promised date , and still the customer was waiting for someone to come and re-fix the shutters and rectify the defects that still existed.

Mrs. Dogra had excercised tremendous restraint, extremely unhappy and was at the breaking point. Such major home improvements are not casual affair for a middle-income group family. A beautiful smart kitchen was her dream, as it was for many middle-income house wives. Home Town gave the customer the worst possible experience. It was already August 3, 2007; Mrs. Dogra was still waiting for the carpenter to complete the work. A total of 12 e-mail’s were exchanged between the Mrs. Dogra and Home Town of these 3 were auto generated.

The management of Home Town was pondering over the issue- trying to identify the mistakes and learn from them- and thus understand how to integrate the Pantaloon way for effective service delivery and for meeting customer expectations.

I am pursuing from IILM institute for Higher Education , new Delhi. Its a Full Time Program.

I am a student. Pursuing MBA from New Delhi.