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CustomerDelight at

RituKumar’s

Fashion houses like that of Ritu Kumar’s know exactly whatcustomised selling means. In addition to improving their

designs and material, what brings maximum value to theirbusiness is knowing their customers’ tastes well. In the year

2002, the fashion house experimented with a software toachieve customer delight and, apparently, it proved to be

worth the effort.

Ritu Kumar is one of India’s leading designers.Her boutiques showcase the very best of Indiandesign, with specially produced range of high-fashion garments and accessories using silk,leather, and cotton. The company has been

growing steadily at a rate of eight to ten per cent in thelast five years to achieve a turnover of Rs 27 crore (270million) in 2002-03.

The CRM (customer relationship management)initiative at Ritu Kumar’s establishment started in April2002. A study of the marketplace helped them identifythe opportunities to become a leading player in theemerging fashion-retail industry. Director Amrish Kumarexplains, “Due to the nature of the market and the posi-tion of the company within it, we realised that we werein an ideal scenario for implementing a CRM solution.Customer focus was the primary driver behind our

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CRM initiative.”Amrish goes on to explain the

need for a CRM solution in thecompany, “Our small volumes en-able us to provide individual cus-tomer service across the board.Also, the nature of our luxurybrand makes a strong case forpampering customers and provid-ing them with the little extra.”

Amrish and his team had acouple of consultants look at theirbusiness and realised that byusing technology effectively theycould become pioneers in a niche segment. “The motiva-tion of staying ahead and gaining competitive advantagesmade us embark on this CRM initiative,” shares Amrish.

The nature of Ritu Kumar’s business attracts lower foot-falls as compared to mass retailers like Shoppers’ Stop. And,every person who walks in, does not necessarily end upbuying. It was evident to Ritu Kumar’s team that if theycould somehow track the reasons for people not buyingtheir wares, it would become possible for them to tap intoa bigger pool of customers.

In their line of business, it is important to maintain closeties with customers. The sales staff tracked customer re-quirements in an informal manner—nothing was recorded.It was all part of the interaction that the staff had with thecustomers while in the store. A need was felt to make cus-tomer interaction a formal process in which the staff wouldrecord the interaction they had with the customers. Storeswere spread across several cities in the country. In order toget business value out of the customer-interaction, datacollected in these stores, the data would have to be puttogether in a central location—the corporate office.

The BlueprintThe company realised the value customers would bring iftheir inputs were tracked. If the customers could bepatronised, referrals from them could become a source of

The Selection ProcessThe top management initiated the selection process by identifyingvarious solution providers. A list of criteria was drawn to shortlist theproduct vendors. Some of the key criteria included:1. Ease of use. This was very impor tant as the interface had to be

simple enough for the front-line sales staff to comprehend.2. Level of customisation. This was necessary to capture the

customer details, as well as, integrate with the existing PoS solution.3. Comfort levels with individuals from the solution provider. It was

crucial to find a service provider who would most easily fit in withthe company’s objectives.

4. Affordability. The available solution would have to be affordable.5. Scalability. This feature was essential keeping in mind future

market expansions.

new customers and growth. It wastherefore decided to profile storewalk-ins and link the data collectedacross the marketing, merchandis-ing, and customer support teams.Such an effort would capturewhat customers were looking for;their requirements could then beco-ordinated across teams to getbusiness value out of them.

It was realised that the utopiansolution for Ritu Kumar’s establish-ment should have the followingfeatures:

" An interface simple enough for the front-linesales employees

" Integration with the existing point-of-sale (PoS) systems" Tracking prospects who came but did not buy" Tracking purchase preferences of customers" Tracking customer complaints and feedback" Record requests or inquiries for products that did

not existThe team zeroed on SalesLogix, a CRM solution promoted

by Delhi-based Interact Commerce Corporation. The solutionwas customised to handle all the above requirements.

The Customer-friendly FeaturesThe CRM solution had to be customised to have the followingfeatures in order to get the true value out of their investment:

Easy to use. Interface screens were required to be simpleand descriptive so that the front-line sales personnel coulduse them easily. The customisation of the CRM solutioninvolved mapping the existing customer interactionprocess on to the solution. A prototype was first deployedin the Hauz Khas outlet (in Delhi), where a cross-functionalteam ensured that the interface had all that they werelooking for. From here emerged a screen flow that wouldlater be made the de-facto across all branches.

Work with existing systems. The outlets already had PoSterminals (computers that were capturing sales-relatedtransactions) deployed across the chain. They did not wantto waste their investment by replacing these PoS systemswith new ones for the CRM solution. Hence, the solutionwas designed such that it could work on the existing PoSsystems.

Customers who do not buy. To handle cases where aprospective buyer walks in but does not buy, basicinformation about the prospective buyer is entered into thesystem. This information is entered by the front-linesales staff based on their interaction with the prospectivebuyer. Basic information that is entered includes: name,size, colour, style preference, etc. The data collected is usedto profile prospects and get their preferences for productimprovement or development. The CRM solution is able

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Ritu Kumar, Fashion Designer

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to track prospects when they come in, maybe six monthslater, and buy some products. The PoS links to the CRMSolution through a smart-search capability. And, data isavailable, for analytical purposes, to match the buyers’preferences that were entered six months earlier with theproducts that were purchased.

What did they buy? When a customer buys, moredetailed information is entered into the system. Thisincludes—purchase value, colour, age group, size, etc. Infact, information related to alterations (including paper-based graphics used by the sales personnel to take in thedetails) are also fed in. Thus, the complete purchasehistory of the customer can be tracked. Plus, additionaluseful information, such as, the places where they usuallyshop is entered, so that the decision regarding the locationof the next store(s) is backed by data.

Complaints and feedback. Previously, complaints andfeedback were being recorded in registers kept in stores.However, information from such a manual method wassubject to delays, and made consolidation of the data atthe corporate office a Herculean task. With the CRMsolution in place, complaints and feedbacks are brought infrom the outlets into the corporate office. The data is con-solidated and then shared with marketing, sales, merchan-dise, customer service, and design at the corporate officeon a daily basis.

What do customers want? Customers who wantproducts that are not currently available also find a friendin this solution—their requests do not go unheard. Thefront-line sales staff uses the CRM solution to capturerequests, and they pass this information on to the corporateoffice. At the corporate office, trends can be identified andproducts developed based on popular demand.

The ImplementationAfter selecting SalesLogix, the project was initiated byidentifying the needs of key stakeholders, includingmarketing, sales, service, merchandising, and IT.Customisation involved the solution provider’s teamcollaborating with the cross-functional team set up at theRitu Kumar’s corporate office in Hauz Khas, New Delhi.

After the implementation was complete, in order to get

maximum mileage from the solution, the next importanttask was to train the staff. The design of the CRM solutionwas such that the personnel from a department did notneed training beyond their departmental applications.Training of the staff across the outlets was conducted overa period of time in stages. “The entire deployment wasplanned in a dynamic manner so as to find the best fit bylearning as we went along. We continuously enhanced ourown understanding of the requirements and limitations,”says Amrish.

In the EndThe system allows calendaring, activity scheduling, and evenmass mailing. Trends that can be indicated by the systeminclude analysis of alterations sought, product returns, andcustomer complaints. Informative reports include footfallto sales-conversion ratio, direct-mail campaign analysis,and campaign RoI (return on investment). Over and aboveall these reports, Ritu Kumar’s establishment is now betterequipped to provide customer delight as it has access tovital information, such as, customer profiles, interactionhistory, and purchasing preferences. !

— Subhasis Chatterjee, BenefIT Bureau

Technical DetailsThe hardware required was not enormous: a centralised SQL Serverdatabase on Windows 2000 server for the back-end in Delhi; a high-enddesktop with a Pentium 4 processor; 128 MB RAM; and a 40-GB harddisk does the trick at the front end.

Using the central synchronisation server, incremental sales data ispulled from all the retail outlets once a day, and subsequently pushed tothe outlets elsewhere using a file-transfer mechanism over the Internet.So, at the end of each working day, sales data is available across all theoutlets and inventory is planned accordingly.

As part of the organisational restructuring, merchandising andcustomer service structures were amalgamated at the top. The role ofthe customer service cell was enhanced by giving additionalresponsibility for maintenance of shop requirements. Accordingly, staffreshuffling and realignment of responsibility was done to accommodatethese changes.

The next challenge is to leverage the customer information to enterinto emerging business opportunities including mass retailing.

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