Press Release
Teus, 15 Dec 2020 5:45 PM IST
IVASS 2020 brings together the Global After Sales Experts to share Industry Best Practices amidst the Pandemic
- Every year, World Auto Forum celebrates National Vehicle After Sales Day on Second Sat of Dec with IVASS- India Vehicle After Sales Summit & Exhibition
- In its 6th year, IVASS went global this time and in a pioneering act got together the Top After Sales Experts from Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe and Australia
- The virtual exhibition at IVASS 2020 was also the highlight of the event and was a roaring success
- The most important reason for the global best practices sharing was that the entire industry worldwide moves a notch up in threshold and the most critical facet of the value chain benefits that is the Consumer!
15th December 2020 | New Delhi & Detroit | https://worldautoforum.com/ivass
India Vehicle After Sales Summit, a program organized on Saturday, 12th December 2020 by World Auto Forum in association with ASDC – Automotive Skilling Development Council, set the path for innovations in the Vehicle After Sales & Auto aftermarket ecosystem.
Top Experts from Auto Suppliers, OEMs, Dealership network, Service companies, Parts Makers & Distributors graced the Panel Discussions and Keynote sessions. The theme this year was ‘Surviving and thriving through Innovation, Skilling & Teamwork’. Each session deliberated on various aspects of the post Covid needs and adaptability required to cope with the changing dynamics of consumer behaviour and governmental policies.
Anuj Guglani, CEO, World Auto Forum set the ball rolling by sharing with the audience, the global outreach of IVASS this year, with speakers brought in from across the globe to broaden the horizons of learning and sharing of best practices. He also elucidated the common global challenges faced by the Industry and the pivotal role Innovation plays in overcoming them.
The first panel was about top challenges and their practical solutions. And our Panelists had a lot to share.
S Muralidharan, Director at several companies, Member WAF Hall of Fame, spoke about three factors – adoption of digital technologies, assuring seamless supply of spare parts through e-commerce and moving from work from anywhere to service at anywhere!
S Punnaivanam, VP & Head – After Sales, Hyundai Motor India was of the opinion that customer anxiety was a priority during the Pandemic and as a company they ensured that everything was done to address this aspect, be it providing extended warranties or approaching the relevant authorities for providing essential services. He shared how his company had harnessed digital tools for customer convenience which won his team top global laurels at his Parent Company HQ.
Engaging digitally with their dealers and customers both and ensuring their safety was a priority at Hero MotoCorp. Manish Srivastava, Head – After Sales emphasized on listen n learn approach, they follow at their company to keep their customers engaged and happy. He also shared how they had engaged their teams, suppliers and customers during the lockdown period.
Digital seemed to be the connecting thread across organizations and everyone agreed on its pivotal role in the post pandemic world.
Being debt free and mentally tough were the guru-mantras shared by Harsh Vashist, MD, Satyam group of companies. Through the pandemic, the company ensured that financial needs of their employees were taken care of. They also stayed away from postponing their liabilities, to avoid stressing company finances in the future.
M Dhananjayan, MD, Focus group, spoke about the 4 A’s – Awareness, Adaptation, Assurance and Acceptance to fulfil customer expectations in the post Covid world. His most special suggestion – Look after your people. You will need them post Covid.
Involving people in decision making and making processes supportive and participative was the suggestion that came from Rob Boyle, Director, Boyle Consulting, Australia. He remarked that in the post Covid world, it was interesting to see that prices of pre-owned vehicles had gone up.
Anuj Guglani, CEO, World Auto Forum, explained in detail how safety and health concerns were perhaps driving this shift to self-owned mobility solutions. He also suggested that dealers play a pivotal role in the Automotive ecosystem and they should not be burdened with over expectations or unusually high inventory. One way to achieve a balance is to do sales planning on Retail numbers rather than wholesale.
The second panel took on the theme of the program – Surviving and thriving through Innovation, Skilling and Teamwork.
Dr. Dinesh Bhasin, Industry veteran and Member – WAF Hall of Fame, took the lead in explaining what actually creates a differentiation. His view was that knowledge anyone can have. What creates true differentiation is application of that knowledge by turning it into skills. Asset tracking and other monitoring softwares could be used to bring efficiency to processes and manpower utilization was his opinion.
Digitization, Standardization and Collaboration were the key innovations required in the post pandemic world, was the thought tied neatly into the conversation by Ramashankar Pandey, MD, Hella India Lighting. He strongly advocated reskilling and contactless communication through digitization efforts.
Mr Pandey also mentioned the pivotal role played by World Auto Forum in initiating a dialogue on Training of Road Side Technicians which lead to great action by ASDC at ground level.
Arindam Lahiri, CEO, Automotive Skill Development Council, elaborated on how ASDC has been using e-learning portal and cloud based workshop models to train people. Multi-brand skilling is the need of the hour, was his take. This, he said, will help the customer in availing multiple services through a single platform.
Kalpit Shishodia, Director – Customer Service, Volvo Cars India spoke about customized online trainings, App based and QR based solutions and also how effective use of data gathered will help in customer engagement and management.
‘One Family Approach’ was what Sanjeev Aggarwal, Head – Business Excellence, Petromin Corporation, believes that kept the company on top and together during the Pandemic. He explained that even during the down time, when people were stuck in different countries, no jobs were made redundant and the entire team was retained.
More power to such strong ethical approach to people management, we say!
Reskilling is going to be the key to survive and thrive was the thought shared by Gaurav Mann, CEO, K2B learning. He spoke about how the Pandemic had driven companies to actively seek e learning solutions to engage, retrain and thereby retain their employees.
Panel 3 was about Harnessing Digital for customer engagement, higher sales and growth.
Bringing international approach into the conversation, Grant Fitzpatrick, Group Aftersales Director, Al-Mansour Automotive Egypt, shared an interesting insight when he said that web could be your best friend or the worst enemy! He further explained, that to use social media effectively, it’s important to be consistent. And solutions must be localized.
Daryl De Sales, VP – Business Development, Amplus Solar, threw some light on AI and tools they are using to enable their Sales teams to update customer information in real time. This enables their teams to effectively manage customer expectations.
Direct connect with customers is what Kevin Patrick Boyce, Customer Care and After Sales Manager, Cadillac and Chevrolet, Europe suggested to ensure seamless service experience. He spoke eloquently about connectivity programs that they organize and promote.
Akash Gupta, MD, AMG Corporation spoke at length about how they successfully transitioned from being tech poor to tech rich company in less than ten months! He said, culture change that comes with tech adoption needs a strong mindset. Being tech rich has helped them by bringing in better cost control and also through integrating various systems.
Virtual Exhibition
IVASS was about ideas and so much more! The virtual exhibition with 13 virtual stalls gave an interesting, involving and immersive experience to audiences across 125+ countries! It provided the perfect platform for customer engagement, allowing customers to download brochures, watch company videos, chat with company representatives, all a click away!
A word about our partners, without whom, this would have been incomplete. We thank all our partners for their constant support, participation and encouragement.
Skilling Partner: ASDC– Automotive Skill Development Council
Gold Partners: Gallops Motors | Motor Uncle
OEM Partner: Volkswagen
Partners: Amplus Solar | Focus Engineering | K2B Learning | Chemikleen
Associate Partner: Jubilant Motorworks
Media Partners: Patriot | WAF TV
Virtual Events Platform Partner: Exposim
Program Pictures : https://bit.ly/IVASS2020Pics
Program Videos on WAF TV : https://worldautoforum.com/waf-tv/
#ivass2020
For more information, please reach:
mohini@waf.bz | +919818168778
jerry@waf.bz | +918368746841
anuj@waf.bz | +919810552425
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