click here
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/mikemath/mathsc/linearprogramming/simplex.PDF
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Railway retailing
A Research Paper on
Railway Retailing: Perceptions and Expectations of internal and external customers.
By
Mr. Prasad Kulkarni1 and Mr. T. Joel Gnanapragash2.
Senior Faculty, Sikkim Manipal University, Manipal Towers Bangalore ,
E- mail: prasad.kulkarni@manipalu.com
Senior Faculty, Department of Management studies, Sir. M. Visvesvarya Institute of Technology. Bangalore, e-mail: joel_prakash@rediffmail.com
Railway Retailing: Perceptions and Expectations of internal and external customers
Mr. Prasad Kulkarni* and Mr. T. Joel Gnanapragash **
Abstract
The turnaround strategies of railways brought paradigm shift in the profitability and opened up new vistas. Railway management once considered as a white elephant, shown immense managerial skills to venture into new areas. Asset utilization and allocation of resources topped the agenda of management. The railway has 43,000 acres of unutilized land and management aspires to add value to its profit through this asset. Railway is planning to develop malls, food plazas, commercial complexes and budget hotels in this land. Retail industry which is experiencing the phenomenal growth and hungry for expansion, wants to grab this opportunity by both the hands. Railway retailing is not the new format but it exists in nascent stage and ready to explode. Railway retailing is classified into railway owned retailing and privately owned retailing. Railway owned retailing, whose control is with the railway department, is further classified into platform, railway land, non store and train based retailing. Privately owned retailing in India is managed by both the organized and unorganized players. In the organized retailing, we observed ticket retailing, platform store retailing, railway land store retailing and train retailing. The unorganized retailing is mainly through hawkers and small time vendors. To achieve unparallel success, it is critical for any service firm to understand and analyze the customer perceptions. In this article, we analyzed customers’ perceptions about existing and future railway retail formats. The perceptions are analyzed on the basis of convenience, relevance, reliability, motives, cost, time, quality and image. We examined the future expectations of customers like beliefs, personal needs, situational factors, and perception about the alternatives, regarding railway retailing formats and assessed them against the commercial viability.
Key words: Railway retailing, Platform retailing, Ticket retailing, Non store retailing,
Perceptual mapping, commercially viable expectations and internal customers.
Introduction:
The ‘Ubiquitous’ retailing has enhanced the efficiency of supply chain Management. Anywhere shopping tendency of the buyer has opened many opportunities for the marketer to adopt different retail formats. Organized and Modern retail together today forms around 9 % of the total retail in the country[1] With the Maximum number of store per person in the world, averaging 11 store per thousand people, India is ahead of UK and US and relatively higher too for neighboring Asian countries like china, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia.[2] Be it an agriculture, insurance, pharmaceuticals, banking services, the concept of ‘Retailing’ goes hand in hand with almost all sectors in the Industry. Railway is not exceptional as it has already ventured into retailing and advanced in the retail formats like e-tailing.[3]
Conceptual Framework
Retailing – a Powerful Horse:
Retailing is the set of Business activities which adds value to the products and services sold to the consumers. [4] Simply to put, Retailing involves various activities of shopping such as purchasing through the internet, dealing in financial services, eating at the restaurant, etc.
* Faculty, Sikkim Manipal University, Manipal Towers Bangalore, e- mail: prasad.kulkarni@manipalu.com
**Senior Faculty, Department of Management studies, Sir. M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore, e-mail: joel_prakash@rediffmail.com
The proliferation of malls, multiplexes and supermarket, are providing completely different shopping experience. In the race of economic growth retail sector, contributes 10% the GDP and source of employment for more than 41 million Individual[5]. Indian Retail sector Analysis (2006-07) indicates both the organized and unorganized retail, together contributes significant revenue with the market size of Rs. 10 Trillion as per 2005. This Powerful Retail horse marrying with Railway, will certainly bring a chunk of revenue to the growth of both the sectors
The ‘turnaround’ of IR- a seed for Modern Railway Retailing:
The emerging scenario of Indian railway retailing could be seen as the outgrowth of the strategic direction provided by the Indian Railway (IR). Expert Group on Indian Railway in 2001has declared Indian railway as one of the possible bankruptcy organization. With the Persistent effort of Indian Railways coupled with the strategic implementation by the Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Indian Railway has achieved an unprecedented growth in the recent years. Increased Competition interms of technology has spurred the growth of this PSU. The railways which had a fund balance of just 149 crore in 2000 has improved their financial position to Rs. 9000 crore in 2005 to Rs.14000crore in 2006 to Rs.20000 crore in 2007. [6] The total investment being planned for the eight year time frame (2007-2015) is tentatively in the order of Rs. 3, 50,000 crores. This stupendous performance could be attributed to the turnaround strategy adopted by Indian Railways to increase the share of goods earnings, Passenger earnings and other earnings like Advertising, catering, parcel. The notable turnaround strategies include focus on higher volume business by freezing freight rate increase and rationalizing commodity classification to benefit the high value of goods and charge more from the low rated commodities.[7] Outsourcing through public private partnership (PPP) Model was adopted in areas such as Catering, Parcel and Advertising. Against this backdrop, the avenues for the retailing have been felt and thereby the Railway Ministry is contemplating on the dimension of increased Modern retail formats with Public Private Partnership.
The Burgeoning Middle Class: Driver for the Growth Opportunity:
What underlies the opportunity is the emerging Middle class with its rising consumption in the yester years. The population of the middle class is around 480 million with the Monthly household Income (MHI) ranging from $ 150 to $ 1000.[8].This burgeoning middle class is a major thrust for the increased consumption. It is pertinent to note that the growth in the number of passenger has been 7.1 % in 2004-05 and 7.5 % in 2005 -2006. The data depicts that Indian middle class prefers railway transportation than others.
Accordingly, the Ministry also plans to introduce 53 pairs of new trains and host of benefits to passengers such as 7 % cut in A/c First class, 4 % in A/c Second class. [9] For any retailing business, pulling crowd is a major challenge, and it is apparent from these developments, besides its capacity to pull the crowd for the transport, the railway may attract the commuters as well as non-commuters for the retail business as well. Shoppers may be able to leverage the brand equity of Indian Railway to lure the customers of the burgeoning middle class.
Conceptual Model
Railway Retailing Formats:
Railway retailing could be classified as Railway owned Retailing and privately owned retailing (Fig1.1).
Railway owned retailing
Privately owned retailing
Store retailing
Non store retailing
Platform
Train
Online retailing
Store retailing
Train
Platform
Organized
RAILWAY RETAILING
Unorganized
Railway land
Kiosk and vending
Railway land
Mobile retailing
Ticket
Leveraging the turnaround experience to retailing.
Railway owned retailing is managed by the railway department. Further it is classified as Store retailing, Non-store retailing and train retailing. The store retailing includes platform retailing, and rail land retailing. Platform retailing( Stores on the railway platform) that exists ever since the operation of Indian Railway sells FMCG products. Rail land retailing is the yet to be launched retail format of Indian railways. A railway has 45,000 hectares of waste land in the vicinity of Railway station. The improved financial power of railways influenced its decision makers to convert this waste land into the modern retail hub. The ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India) has prescribed the development activities that include the establishment of motels, smaller huts and apartments and pizza huts to enhance railways revenue and to make use of the land for profiteering. [10] Rail Land Development Authority has been set up under the Railway (Amendment) Act to pursue this objective of commercial development to generate steady stream of Non-fare revenue. [11] It is also envisaged in the current union Budget 2008; the Railway Development Authority would raise Rs.4000crore during 2008-09 by making commercial use of Railways surplus land.
The Non-store retailing includes kiosk and vending retailing, online retailing and mobile retailing. Kiosks are the machines that provide information to the passengers in the railway stations while vending machines distributes the platform tickets. Online retailing is the emerging and better format of railway retailing. The e- ticket facility has become major hit among the corporate customers. The railway website is one of the top hit website in the world. Further, the e-ticketing facility is simplified so that the passenger are allowed to take a print out after booking the ticket. [12] Further the Automatic ticket vending machine would go up from 250 to 6000. [13] Railways recently started mobile ticket facility also. Incase of mobile retailing customers will be provided the pin which he/ she can show it in the railway station and get the tickets.
Indian Railway- a big leap for Private organized Retailer:
Indian Railway has about 7500 stations and it aims to move 661 crore passenger in the current fiscal. Each destination or station is a market as it is contemplating to allow many different retail formats to operate. To meet the emergency needs, Apollo, Fortis and life spring is to set up pharmacy cum clinics to tap train passengers. In this connection, the Railway has set up a committee to recommend a model for allowing healthcare chains for awarding license to set up pharmacy-cum-clinic at various stations. [14]Passengers could also check in the Budget hotels for a relaxed stay, as Indian Railway has planned for setting up of 100 budget hotels across the country. IRTC has invited bids from private hospitality developers and foreign players for setting up two or three star hotels in 20 locations. The locations include Madurai, Vijayawada, secunderabad, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Tirupati, kanyakumari, etc. Bangalore based ( ROHL) Royal Orchid Hotels has been tied up with IRTC ( Indian Railway Tourism Corporation. For developing these hotels, ROHL plans to set up venture with local developers. [15] The agency mode of ticket distribution is also helping the railways to reach masses very easily. Railway is planning to provide space inside the train to private companies to sell their products. This may eventually terminate the unorganized train retailing by hawkers and improve the private players’ retail services like catering. Some of the major initiatives in bringing private players to railway retailing are discussed below.
The prominent one is the plan to invite firms to invest in setting up infrastructure on its land for creating a supply chain to move agricultural products from their points of produce to demand destinations. The Railway has announced its plans to have 7500 agricultural outlets at stations. Retail players who want to use these outlets will be required to invest in the back-end infrastructure as well. These outlets can also sell non-agricultural commodities. In view of this, the Indian Railway had a meeting with several players including ITC, Cargill India, Adami Enterprises, Pantaloon, Godrej Agrovet. [16]
The pleasant experience need not come only from railway journey; it can also come from shopping experience in the places which comes under the purview of Indian Railway. The fabulous performance of railway has given rise to the developmental strategies including bid for the private players to set up kiosks. 287 bids have been awarded to ABCTL ( Amalgamated Beans coffee Trading Limited), Hindustan unilever limited, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, Fresh and honest café Ltd. Surya Food and Agro Ltd, the makers of the priyagold biscuits, and Nestle India recently won bids. Out of these already more than 90 Kiosks have been commissioned. [17] Café Coffee Day, owned by ABCTL has won the maximum bids and would be putting up 121 kiosks. Coca-Cola has bagged the bids for putting 61kiosks, followed by Fresh and Honest (49).IRTC has been mandated to develop catering services, budget hotels and food plazas at major stations through involvement of private entrepreneurs.[18]
In an effort to facilitate the tourism, the railway has plan to tie-up with private rental car players such as Hertz and India Travel House and several hotel operators to offer off-the-shelf packages along with rail tickets. The IRTC CMD PK Goel has told to Economic Times that the idea of tie-up is to create tourism products and services specifically tailored for the mid-segment. Yet another effort is to make the internet easily available to passengers, VSNL has been working on setting 68 Internet kiosks in 68 different locations on Indian Railway. [19] Beyond this, the Indian Railway is also launching Mobile Ticketing facility to delight its customers. In line with this, Reliance communications introduced railway ticket booking on its mobile phones through its tie-up with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation for the first time in the country in April 2004. In alliance with Indian Railway the SBI announced ‘The SBI Railway card” specifically to meet the need for efficient payment processes by India’s growing number of consumers. [20]
Perceptions and Expectations of the Internal and External Customers:
It is against this background, this study is intended to identify the effects of these trend shift in Railway Retailing on the perceptions and expectations of internal and external customers. Clearly, the Internal Customers are the Employees of Indian Railways and the external customers are the passengers. Any marketing program of a service company firstly is marketed to the internal customers. The quite obvious reason is that these internal customers have direct contact with the external customers. Any new policy at the corporate level may have impact on its internal customers. Recognizing this, railway minister in his budget speech 2008, brought the credit of the
Success of to the Indian Railway employees saying,”14 Lakh railway employees have worked relentlessly, day and night, for the financial turnaround of the Railways. In recognition of this we have increased their Bonus for 2006-07 from 65 to 70 day s” [21]Hence the importance of internal customers should never be overlooked.
The implementation of any corporate level strategy depends on the whole hearted commitment of its employees whether they are directly or indirectly related to the corporate strategy. As the Indian Economy is witnessing retail boom, marketers are trying to tap this opportunity. As railway is inherently surrounded by people, it is not surprising for the railway to adopt different railway formats. But what is important is the perception and expectations of the external customers about the new retail formats since it may require more co-ordination from the employees of various departments of railway and the private parties setting up ventures. While the impressive growth of railway has brought applause from all quarters, it has exposed the problems of infrastructure, congestion and saturation of the network especially on the high-density corridor connecting the four metropolitan cities.[22]
Methodology:
A survey was conducted from 10th January 2008 to 10th February 2008. The questionnaire was personally administered for the sample of 50 customers and 20 employees through random sampling method. The research was conducted on the basis of two objectives. First, assessing the customer perceptions about the existing and future railway retail formats and second, analyzing the customer expectations about the existing as well as future railway retail formats. Here customer means both internal and external. A pilot study was conducted to generate hypothesis required for the research.
Hypothesis:
The research was focused on perception variables like convenience, relevance, reliability, motives, cost, time, quality and image. Analyzing these variables from the pilot study data we were able to deduce the result into the following hypothesis
H1: the customer is having negative perception about the existing railway retail services.
H2: The customer is having negative perception about the future railway retail services.
Hypothesis testing rule: The weightages are given for perception and expectation variables for total of 1 each and result of testing of each variable is adjusted to analyze the acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis.
Results:
Testing of hypothesis:
We examined the perceptions of internal and external customers regarding existing railway retail services. The data is analyzed using chi- square test. The statistical output is shown in the table 1
Table 1: The Customers perceptions towards the existing railway retail services.
Food
Books
Newspaper
Stationary
Internet
Coffee/tea
Train information
Ticket information
Chi square
14.6
20.4
25.9
39.12
38.72
12.72
32.60
14.48
Asymp significance
0.006
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.007
0.000
0.002
Except food and coffee/tea all other parameters are accepted i.e. there is a negative perception about the services provided by railway retailers. Hence null hypothesis should be accepted.
Table 2: The customer perception towards the future railway retail services
Test Statistics
VAR00001
Chi-Square
.667
Asymp. Sig.
.955
The statistical analysis shows us that null hypothesis should be rejected i.e. customers are having positive perception towards future railway retailing
Findings:
The statistical interpretation of the data collected form internal customers and external customers have thrown light on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of railway retailing. Customers are having positive outlook towards future retailing like conversion of railway land into retail malls and shops. They also expressed their dissatisfaction and concern towards some of the existing retail services offered by the railway retailer. Food and coffee/tea retailing have positive opinion from the customers but newspapers, books, train information, stationary, ticket information, and internet service provider didn’t enjoy the customers’ favorability. Interestingly, most of the coffee/ tea retailing are either through vending machine or hawkers, which is non store format, enjoys customer loyalty. Indian railway website www.irctc.com which has highest number of hits in the Asia did not live up to the expectations of the customers. When asked about their perception towards rail land development into retailing both internal and external customers are positive about its attractiveness, value addition to profit, and better services. Some respondents voice their concern about the security threat from terrorists in such retail outlets. Employees particularly railway police responded that it will become very difficult for them to segregate genuine customers and terrorist elements. Hence their work load will go up. Mobile ticketing, the new retail baby of railways has thumbs up from the customers who are aware about the services. Some respondents have opposed the idea of opening bars inside the train. Respondents are positive about the convenience of ticket retailing by third party but they feel middlemen charges are too high.
Prior to the research we were interested to find out is there any service gap exists between customer perception and expectations. If the gap exists whether it is within the zone of tolerance? The outcome of the research has shown some untapped potential and also underneath current of dissatisfaction. Customers would like to have hospitality services near to railway stations. They want railways to have their own transportation facility for pickup and drop the customers. The concern about online retailing exists mainly because of extra amount customer pays. Some of the respondents pressed railways to tie up with big retailers to have better in train services. Other demands of customer include mobile recharge coupons, battery recharge facility, tour packages and easy availability of tickets in case of urgency.
Conclusions:
In the post independence era railways enjoyed their monopoly. The advent of metro train and no frill airlines took customers to next level of services. Hence in the globalized world it is inevitable for railways to upgrade their services. A railway has to professionalize their channels of distribution, value added services on the platform and inside the train. Railway land conversion a very good initiatives needs proper backup, tie up with professional companies and transparency in the operation. It should try to reduce the service charge levied on mobile ticketing and online ticketing. As expressed by the respondents’, railways need to integrate their services to become full line service provider from just transporter.
[1] Gibson G.Vedamani, Comprehensive Policy vital, Survey of Indian Industry 2007
[2] The Economic Times, Dec 15, 2006
[3] The Economic Times, Feb 15,2007
[4] Micheal Levy, Barton A.Weitz, Retailing Management, 5th Edn, Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Ltd, New Delhi 2003.
[5] RNCOS Retail Research, http://rncos.com/Blog/retail/archive/2007_01_01_retail_archive.html
[6] http://www.quamiekta.com/englishnews/p.php?q=1297
[7] G.Raghuram, ‘Turnaround’ of Indian Railways: A critical Appraisal of Strategies and Process, February 2007, PP 5-8
[8] The Survey of Indian Industry 2007.
[9] Business Line,27th February 2008
[10] Utilise Railways wasted land for Real estate: ASSOCHAM/INRNews
[11] IR News- Indian Railways: Running to be No.1 Network; http//www.inrnews.com/realestate property/India/policy/utilize_railways_wasted_land_f.html
[12] http://www.commodityonline.com/news/columns/newsdetails.php?id=5095&cont=2
[13] Business Line 27th February
[14] Business Line, February 14, 2008
[15] Business Line, April 30,2007
[16] Financial Times Information Limited- Asia Africa Intelligence wire ( The Economic Times, India)
[17] Business Line, January, 01, 2007.
[18] http://www.commodityonline.com/news/columns/newsdetails.php?id=5095&cont=2
[19] http://www.inrnews.com/realestateproperty/indian_railway_projects_to_be.html
[20] Business wire, Feb 20,2006
[21] http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080226&fname=railways&sid=2&pn=15
[22] http://www.irnews.com//realestateproperty/indiapolicy/utilise_railways_wasted_land_f.html
Railway Retailing: Perceptions and Expectations of internal and external customers.
By
Mr. Prasad Kulkarni1 and Mr. T. Joel Gnanapragash2.
Senior Faculty, Sikkim Manipal University, Manipal Towers Bangalore ,
E- mail: prasad.kulkarni@manipalu.com
Senior Faculty, Department of Management studies, Sir. M. Visvesvarya Institute of Technology. Bangalore, e-mail: joel_prakash@rediffmail.com
Railway Retailing: Perceptions and Expectations of internal and external customers
Mr. Prasad Kulkarni* and Mr. T. Joel Gnanapragash **
Abstract
The turnaround strategies of railways brought paradigm shift in the profitability and opened up new vistas. Railway management once considered as a white elephant, shown immense managerial skills to venture into new areas. Asset utilization and allocation of resources topped the agenda of management. The railway has 43,000 acres of unutilized land and management aspires to add value to its profit through this asset. Railway is planning to develop malls, food plazas, commercial complexes and budget hotels in this land. Retail industry which is experiencing the phenomenal growth and hungry for expansion, wants to grab this opportunity by both the hands. Railway retailing is not the new format but it exists in nascent stage and ready to explode. Railway retailing is classified into railway owned retailing and privately owned retailing. Railway owned retailing, whose control is with the railway department, is further classified into platform, railway land, non store and train based retailing. Privately owned retailing in India is managed by both the organized and unorganized players. In the organized retailing, we observed ticket retailing, platform store retailing, railway land store retailing and train retailing. The unorganized retailing is mainly through hawkers and small time vendors. To achieve unparallel success, it is critical for any service firm to understand and analyze the customer perceptions. In this article, we analyzed customers’ perceptions about existing and future railway retail formats. The perceptions are analyzed on the basis of convenience, relevance, reliability, motives, cost, time, quality and image. We examined the future expectations of customers like beliefs, personal needs, situational factors, and perception about the alternatives, regarding railway retailing formats and assessed them against the commercial viability.
Key words: Railway retailing, Platform retailing, Ticket retailing, Non store retailing,
Perceptual mapping, commercially viable expectations and internal customers.
Introduction:
The ‘Ubiquitous’ retailing has enhanced the efficiency of supply chain Management. Anywhere shopping tendency of the buyer has opened many opportunities for the marketer to adopt different retail formats. Organized and Modern retail together today forms around 9 % of the total retail in the country[1] With the Maximum number of store per person in the world, averaging 11 store per thousand people, India is ahead of UK and US and relatively higher too for neighboring Asian countries like china, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia.[2] Be it an agriculture, insurance, pharmaceuticals, banking services, the concept of ‘Retailing’ goes hand in hand with almost all sectors in the Industry. Railway is not exceptional as it has already ventured into retailing and advanced in the retail formats like e-tailing.[3]
Conceptual Framework
Retailing – a Powerful Horse:
Retailing is the set of Business activities which adds value to the products and services sold to the consumers. [4] Simply to put, Retailing involves various activities of shopping such as purchasing through the internet, dealing in financial services, eating at the restaurant, etc.
* Faculty, Sikkim Manipal University, Manipal Towers Bangalore, e- mail: prasad.kulkarni@manipalu.com
**Senior Faculty, Department of Management studies, Sir. M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore, e-mail: joel_prakash@rediffmail.com
The proliferation of malls, multiplexes and supermarket, are providing completely different shopping experience. In the race of economic growth retail sector, contributes 10% the GDP and source of employment for more than 41 million Individual[5]. Indian Retail sector Analysis (2006-07) indicates both the organized and unorganized retail, together contributes significant revenue with the market size of Rs. 10 Trillion as per 2005. This Powerful Retail horse marrying with Railway, will certainly bring a chunk of revenue to the growth of both the sectors
The ‘turnaround’ of IR- a seed for Modern Railway Retailing:
The emerging scenario of Indian railway retailing could be seen as the outgrowth of the strategic direction provided by the Indian Railway (IR). Expert Group on Indian Railway in 2001has declared Indian railway as one of the possible bankruptcy organization. With the Persistent effort of Indian Railways coupled with the strategic implementation by the Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Indian Railway has achieved an unprecedented growth in the recent years. Increased Competition interms of technology has spurred the growth of this PSU. The railways which had a fund balance of just 149 crore in 2000 has improved their financial position to Rs. 9000 crore in 2005 to Rs.14000crore in 2006 to Rs.20000 crore in 2007. [6] The total investment being planned for the eight year time frame (2007-2015) is tentatively in the order of Rs. 3, 50,000 crores. This stupendous performance could be attributed to the turnaround strategy adopted by Indian Railways to increase the share of goods earnings, Passenger earnings and other earnings like Advertising, catering, parcel. The notable turnaround strategies include focus on higher volume business by freezing freight rate increase and rationalizing commodity classification to benefit the high value of goods and charge more from the low rated commodities.[7] Outsourcing through public private partnership (PPP) Model was adopted in areas such as Catering, Parcel and Advertising. Against this backdrop, the avenues for the retailing have been felt and thereby the Railway Ministry is contemplating on the dimension of increased Modern retail formats with Public Private Partnership.
The Burgeoning Middle Class: Driver for the Growth Opportunity:
What underlies the opportunity is the emerging Middle class with its rising consumption in the yester years. The population of the middle class is around 480 million with the Monthly household Income (MHI) ranging from $ 150 to $ 1000.[8].This burgeoning middle class is a major thrust for the increased consumption. It is pertinent to note that the growth in the number of passenger has been 7.1 % in 2004-05 and 7.5 % in 2005 -2006. The data depicts that Indian middle class prefers railway transportation than others.
Accordingly, the Ministry also plans to introduce 53 pairs of new trains and host of benefits to passengers such as 7 % cut in A/c First class, 4 % in A/c Second class. [9] For any retailing business, pulling crowd is a major challenge, and it is apparent from these developments, besides its capacity to pull the crowd for the transport, the railway may attract the commuters as well as non-commuters for the retail business as well. Shoppers may be able to leverage the brand equity of Indian Railway to lure the customers of the burgeoning middle class.
Conceptual Model
Railway Retailing Formats:
Railway retailing could be classified as Railway owned Retailing and privately owned retailing (Fig1.1).
Railway owned retailing
Privately owned retailing
Store retailing
Non store retailing
Platform
Train
Online retailing
Store retailing
Train
Platform
Organized
RAILWAY RETAILING
Unorganized
Railway land
Kiosk and vending
Railway land
Mobile retailing
Ticket
Leveraging the turnaround experience to retailing.
Railway owned retailing is managed by the railway department. Further it is classified as Store retailing, Non-store retailing and train retailing. The store retailing includes platform retailing, and rail land retailing. Platform retailing( Stores on the railway platform) that exists ever since the operation of Indian Railway sells FMCG products. Rail land retailing is the yet to be launched retail format of Indian railways. A railway has 45,000 hectares of waste land in the vicinity of Railway station. The improved financial power of railways influenced its decision makers to convert this waste land into the modern retail hub. The ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India) has prescribed the development activities that include the establishment of motels, smaller huts and apartments and pizza huts to enhance railways revenue and to make use of the land for profiteering. [10] Rail Land Development Authority has been set up under the Railway (Amendment) Act to pursue this objective of commercial development to generate steady stream of Non-fare revenue. [11] It is also envisaged in the current union Budget 2008; the Railway Development Authority would raise Rs.4000crore during 2008-09 by making commercial use of Railways surplus land.
The Non-store retailing includes kiosk and vending retailing, online retailing and mobile retailing. Kiosks are the machines that provide information to the passengers in the railway stations while vending machines distributes the platform tickets. Online retailing is the emerging and better format of railway retailing. The e- ticket facility has become major hit among the corporate customers. The railway website is one of the top hit website in the world. Further, the e-ticketing facility is simplified so that the passenger are allowed to take a print out after booking the ticket. [12] Further the Automatic ticket vending machine would go up from 250 to 6000. [13] Railways recently started mobile ticket facility also. Incase of mobile retailing customers will be provided the pin which he/ she can show it in the railway station and get the tickets.
Indian Railway- a big leap for Private organized Retailer:
Indian Railway has about 7500 stations and it aims to move 661 crore passenger in the current fiscal. Each destination or station is a market as it is contemplating to allow many different retail formats to operate. To meet the emergency needs, Apollo, Fortis and life spring is to set up pharmacy cum clinics to tap train passengers. In this connection, the Railway has set up a committee to recommend a model for allowing healthcare chains for awarding license to set up pharmacy-cum-clinic at various stations. [14]Passengers could also check in the Budget hotels for a relaxed stay, as Indian Railway has planned for setting up of 100 budget hotels across the country. IRTC has invited bids from private hospitality developers and foreign players for setting up two or three star hotels in 20 locations. The locations include Madurai, Vijayawada, secunderabad, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Tirupati, kanyakumari, etc. Bangalore based ( ROHL) Royal Orchid Hotels has been tied up with IRTC ( Indian Railway Tourism Corporation. For developing these hotels, ROHL plans to set up venture with local developers. [15] The agency mode of ticket distribution is also helping the railways to reach masses very easily. Railway is planning to provide space inside the train to private companies to sell their products. This may eventually terminate the unorganized train retailing by hawkers and improve the private players’ retail services like catering. Some of the major initiatives in bringing private players to railway retailing are discussed below.
The prominent one is the plan to invite firms to invest in setting up infrastructure on its land for creating a supply chain to move agricultural products from their points of produce to demand destinations. The Railway has announced its plans to have 7500 agricultural outlets at stations. Retail players who want to use these outlets will be required to invest in the back-end infrastructure as well. These outlets can also sell non-agricultural commodities. In view of this, the Indian Railway had a meeting with several players including ITC, Cargill India, Adami Enterprises, Pantaloon, Godrej Agrovet. [16]
The pleasant experience need not come only from railway journey; it can also come from shopping experience in the places which comes under the purview of Indian Railway. The fabulous performance of railway has given rise to the developmental strategies including bid for the private players to set up kiosks. 287 bids have been awarded to ABCTL ( Amalgamated Beans coffee Trading Limited), Hindustan unilever limited, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, Fresh and honest café Ltd. Surya Food and Agro Ltd, the makers of the priyagold biscuits, and Nestle India recently won bids. Out of these already more than 90 Kiosks have been commissioned. [17] Café Coffee Day, owned by ABCTL has won the maximum bids and would be putting up 121 kiosks. Coca-Cola has bagged the bids for putting 61kiosks, followed by Fresh and Honest (49).IRTC has been mandated to develop catering services, budget hotels and food plazas at major stations through involvement of private entrepreneurs.[18]
In an effort to facilitate the tourism, the railway has plan to tie-up with private rental car players such as Hertz and India Travel House and several hotel operators to offer off-the-shelf packages along with rail tickets. The IRTC CMD PK Goel has told to Economic Times that the idea of tie-up is to create tourism products and services specifically tailored for the mid-segment. Yet another effort is to make the internet easily available to passengers, VSNL has been working on setting 68 Internet kiosks in 68 different locations on Indian Railway. [19] Beyond this, the Indian Railway is also launching Mobile Ticketing facility to delight its customers. In line with this, Reliance communications introduced railway ticket booking on its mobile phones through its tie-up with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation for the first time in the country in April 2004. In alliance with Indian Railway the SBI announced ‘The SBI Railway card” specifically to meet the need for efficient payment processes by India’s growing number of consumers. [20]
Perceptions and Expectations of the Internal and External Customers:
It is against this background, this study is intended to identify the effects of these trend shift in Railway Retailing on the perceptions and expectations of internal and external customers. Clearly, the Internal Customers are the Employees of Indian Railways and the external customers are the passengers. Any marketing program of a service company firstly is marketed to the internal customers. The quite obvious reason is that these internal customers have direct contact with the external customers. Any new policy at the corporate level may have impact on its internal customers. Recognizing this, railway minister in his budget speech 2008, brought the credit of the
Success of to the Indian Railway employees saying,”14 Lakh railway employees have worked relentlessly, day and night, for the financial turnaround of the Railways. In recognition of this we have increased their Bonus for 2006-07 from 65 to 70 day s” [21]Hence the importance of internal customers should never be overlooked.
The implementation of any corporate level strategy depends on the whole hearted commitment of its employees whether they are directly or indirectly related to the corporate strategy. As the Indian Economy is witnessing retail boom, marketers are trying to tap this opportunity. As railway is inherently surrounded by people, it is not surprising for the railway to adopt different railway formats. But what is important is the perception and expectations of the external customers about the new retail formats since it may require more co-ordination from the employees of various departments of railway and the private parties setting up ventures. While the impressive growth of railway has brought applause from all quarters, it has exposed the problems of infrastructure, congestion and saturation of the network especially on the high-density corridor connecting the four metropolitan cities.[22]
Methodology:
A survey was conducted from 10th January 2008 to 10th February 2008. The questionnaire was personally administered for the sample of 50 customers and 20 employees through random sampling method. The research was conducted on the basis of two objectives. First, assessing the customer perceptions about the existing and future railway retail formats and second, analyzing the customer expectations about the existing as well as future railway retail formats. Here customer means both internal and external. A pilot study was conducted to generate hypothesis required for the research.
Hypothesis:
The research was focused on perception variables like convenience, relevance, reliability, motives, cost, time, quality and image. Analyzing these variables from the pilot study data we were able to deduce the result into the following hypothesis
H1: the customer is having negative perception about the existing railway retail services.
H2: The customer is having negative perception about the future railway retail services.
Hypothesis testing rule: The weightages are given for perception and expectation variables for total of 1 each and result of testing of each variable is adjusted to analyze the acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis.
Results:
Testing of hypothesis:
We examined the perceptions of internal and external customers regarding existing railway retail services. The data is analyzed using chi- square test. The statistical output is shown in the table 1
Table 1: The Customers perceptions towards the existing railway retail services.
Food
Books
Newspaper
Stationary
Internet
Coffee/tea
Train information
Ticket information
Chi square
14.6
20.4
25.9
39.12
38.72
12.72
32.60
14.48
Asymp significance
0.006
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.007
0.000
0.002
Except food and coffee/tea all other parameters are accepted i.e. there is a negative perception about the services provided by railway retailers. Hence null hypothesis should be accepted.
Table 2: The customer perception towards the future railway retail services
Test Statistics
VAR00001
Chi-Square
.667
Asymp. Sig.
.955
The statistical analysis shows us that null hypothesis should be rejected i.e. customers are having positive perception towards future railway retailing
Findings:
The statistical interpretation of the data collected form internal customers and external customers have thrown light on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of railway retailing. Customers are having positive outlook towards future retailing like conversion of railway land into retail malls and shops. They also expressed their dissatisfaction and concern towards some of the existing retail services offered by the railway retailer. Food and coffee/tea retailing have positive opinion from the customers but newspapers, books, train information, stationary, ticket information, and internet service provider didn’t enjoy the customers’ favorability. Interestingly, most of the coffee/ tea retailing are either through vending machine or hawkers, which is non store format, enjoys customer loyalty. Indian railway website www.irctc.com which has highest number of hits in the Asia did not live up to the expectations of the customers. When asked about their perception towards rail land development into retailing both internal and external customers are positive about its attractiveness, value addition to profit, and better services. Some respondents voice their concern about the security threat from terrorists in such retail outlets. Employees particularly railway police responded that it will become very difficult for them to segregate genuine customers and terrorist elements. Hence their work load will go up. Mobile ticketing, the new retail baby of railways has thumbs up from the customers who are aware about the services. Some respondents have opposed the idea of opening bars inside the train. Respondents are positive about the convenience of ticket retailing by third party but they feel middlemen charges are too high.
Prior to the research we were interested to find out is there any service gap exists between customer perception and expectations. If the gap exists whether it is within the zone of tolerance? The outcome of the research has shown some untapped potential and also underneath current of dissatisfaction. Customers would like to have hospitality services near to railway stations. They want railways to have their own transportation facility for pickup and drop the customers. The concern about online retailing exists mainly because of extra amount customer pays. Some of the respondents pressed railways to tie up with big retailers to have better in train services. Other demands of customer include mobile recharge coupons, battery recharge facility, tour packages and easy availability of tickets in case of urgency.
Conclusions:
In the post independence era railways enjoyed their monopoly. The advent of metro train and no frill airlines took customers to next level of services. Hence in the globalized world it is inevitable for railways to upgrade their services. A railway has to professionalize their channels of distribution, value added services on the platform and inside the train. Railway land conversion a very good initiatives needs proper backup, tie up with professional companies and transparency in the operation. It should try to reduce the service charge levied on mobile ticketing and online ticketing. As expressed by the respondents’, railways need to integrate their services to become full line service provider from just transporter.
[1] Gibson G.Vedamani, Comprehensive Policy vital, Survey of Indian Industry 2007
[2] The Economic Times, Dec 15, 2006
[3] The Economic Times, Feb 15,2007
[4] Micheal Levy, Barton A.Weitz, Retailing Management, 5th Edn, Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Ltd, New Delhi 2003.
[5] RNCOS Retail Research, http://rncos.com/Blog/retail/archive/2007_01_01_retail_archive.html
[6] http://www.quamiekta.com/englishnews/p.php?q=1297
[7] G.Raghuram, ‘Turnaround’ of Indian Railways: A critical Appraisal of Strategies and Process, February 2007, PP 5-8
[8] The Survey of Indian Industry 2007.
[9] Business Line,27th February 2008
[10] Utilise Railways wasted land for Real estate: ASSOCHAM/INRNews
[11] IR News- Indian Railways: Running to be No.1 Network; http//www.inrnews.com/realestate property/India/policy/utilize_railways_wasted_land_f.html
[12] http://www.commodityonline.com/news/columns/newsdetails.php?id=5095&cont=2
[13] Business Line 27th February
[14] Business Line, February 14, 2008
[15] Business Line, April 30,2007
[16] Financial Times Information Limited- Asia Africa Intelligence wire ( The Economic Times, India)
[17] Business Line, January, 01, 2007.
[18] http://www.commodityonline.com/news/columns/newsdetails.php?id=5095&cont=2
[19] http://www.inrnews.com/realestateproperty/indian_railway_projects_to_be.html
[20] Business wire, Feb 20,2006
[21] http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080226&fname=railways&sid=2&pn=15
[22] http://www.irnews.com//realestateproperty/indiapolicy/utilise_railways_wasted_land_f.html
Monday, March 10, 2008
KLE IMSR ALUMNI E- Mail
ankyoo21@yahoo.com;
anu_savadi@yahoo.co.in;
anumath28_2003@rediffmail.com;
Anuragdanti@gmail.com;
arpana_vernekar@rediffmail.com;
arunsm@gmail.com;
asha_sp85@rediffmail.com;
balagouda_007@rediffmail.com;
chaitanya_prem@yahoo.com;
chandumba@rediffmail.com;
chintamast@gmail.com;
chintamast@yahoo.co.in;
cmattar7@gmail.com;
daneshwari@gmail.com;
deep_tambraparani@yahoo.co.in;
deepak_malagi@yahoo.co.in;
dhanu.kori@rediffmail.com;
divine_pavi@yahoo.co.in;
glancy_mba06@rediffmail.com;
gururaj0807@rediffmail.com;
harsha0306@rediffmail.com;
hegdal_vinod@yahoo.co.in;
indirapunit@gmail.com;
irfanmba1@gmail.com;
kamal_jyothi77@rediffmail.com;
kamaljyothi007@gmail.com;
karibhimagol_shridhar@yahoo.co.in;
kavitasm2003@yahoo.co.in;
kedkan@gmail.com;
m_neeralagi@yahoo.co.in;
m.neeralagi@gmail.com;
mallappa_patil123@rediffmail.com;
mohan.pb@gmail.com;
p_nand_m@rediffmail.com;
pavitra_1p@rediffmail.com;
pnand.m@gmail.com;
poorvi_v@rediffmail.com;
raghavendra_imsr@rediffmail.com;
raghs_p@rediffmail.com;
raghu_danti@rediffmail.com;
ramesh.hansi@gmail.com;
savu_jakati@yahoo.co.in;
shilpa_200624@yahoo.com;
Shivu.24@gmail.com;
shrikant43@gmail.com;
soumya_hungund@rediffmail.com;
sraj46@rediff.com;
suprita_hiremath@rediffmail.com;
sushma_sangolli@rediffmail.com;
swati_bajaj1984@yahoo.co.in;
trisual_shetti@yahoo.com;
varsha_kle@rediffmail.com;
varshag@gmail.com;
vinod_malji@yahoo.co.uk;
vinpat22@yahoo.co.in;
a.divate@rediffmail.com;
abhishek.kurkuri@gmail.com;
aruna.hampannavar@gmail.com;
dinesh.kalal@icicilombard.com;
dineshkalal21.dwd@gmail.com;
druti_naik@gmail.com;
dugganiv@gmail.com;
jyotiwantamutte@gmail.com;
kesari.prabhu@gmail.com;
kiniamit@gmail.com;
kirtibik_2000@rediffmail.com;
krishnavy@gmail.com;
mehaboob.mulgund@gmail.com;
minirg@rediffmail.com;
moni_findme@yahoo.co.in;
nitinwarkar@hsbc.co.in;
prabhakar.mali@reuters.com;
prabhukesari@gmail.com;
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Hybrid channels for unserved rural insurance market
Implementation Strategies for Hybrid Channels for Un-served Rural Insurance Market:
Introduction:
Globalization, Privatization and Liberalization have transformed the brick and mortar Indian economy to click and mortar. Every industrial sector is inching towards its pinnacle of performance. Western media writes in length about India’s growth. There is a surge of foreign direct investment in all sectors by MNC’s. Regulations are rewritten to suit the requirements. Domestic companies are restructuring their business to meet the competition. A booming economy is always in need of huge funds to meet its infrastructure ambitions and industrial financing. Insurance sector can provide such funds. Therefore, insurance sector is of vital importance to Indian economy.
The importance of insurance sector is summarized below:
Industry has shown unprecedented growth since its inception in the year 1907. The post independence era was dominated by public sector corporations. Their gigantic empire is facing severe threat from private and MNC alliances. The economy has seen innovative insurance offerings attached with value added services. The Public sector LIC and GIC restructured their businesses to face the competition. There is a northward movement of policies insured and the premium amount collected. Though the market share of LIC has come down in recent years
The aggression to expand in urban market suddenly opened a Pandora’s Box for insurance companies. 80% of the policies registered last year came from the urban India which represents just 21% of the Indian population. The poor reach of insurance in the rural areas and the sheer numbers make rural market with tremendous potential. This poor figure is largely due to the lack of adequate distribution channels and lack of suitable products. By tapping such under-served niches, new entrants can expand the market substantially.
Distribution – A Paradigm Shift
Distribution will be a key determinant of success for all insurance companies regardless of age or ownership. The nationalized insurers currently have a large reach and presence. New entrants cannot- and does not- expect to supplant or duplicate such a network. Building a distribution network is expensive and time consuming. Yet, if insurers are to take advantage of India’s large population and reach a profitable mass of customers, new distribution avenues and alliances will be imperative. This is also true for the nationalized corporations, which must find fresh avenues to reach existing and new customers. There would be substantial shifts in the distribution of insurance in India so as to serve the ‘bottom of the pyramid’.
Conventional Insurance channels and their disadvantages in rural India:
Channel 1
Company-------Agent -------Customer
Channel 2
Agent------Informer-------Customer------Company
Traditionally an agent played vital role in reaching the masses. His vulnerability to sell differentiated service mix of insurance companies becomes the bone of contention. Most of the agents look for better commission oriented policies which he/she is getting from endowment.
Insurance companies are unable to penetrate into rural areas through agent oriented channels. Some of the disadvantages are listed below
1. Product factors
Modern channels of distribution and their disadvantages
Departing from conventional channels insurance companies adopted modern channels to sell their products. They recruited MBA’s as ‘Sales Executives’ in their team to sell advanced policies. They are provided with laptops and software to present about the policies unlike the previous agents who were carrying on through word of mouth. Huge differentiation bought in service mix also complicated the job of agents who are usually not well educated. Modern channels adopted direct marketing tools like Internet, selling through company sales executives. They are also selling through intermediaries like franchisees and NBFC’s. Some of the banks came out with their own bank assurances. Though these modern channels are well equipped to serve changing needs of customers, their success in hugely potential rural market is very less. The reasons for their failure to serve such markets are
Hybrid channels:
(Thinking out of the box)
Hybrid channels possess both the conventional and modern channel behavior. They use technology and specialization in selling consumer goods. The best part of these channels is they are run and managed by the rural people who are inaccessible to insurance companies so far. Some of the channel formats that we are going to discuss are even having the strong backup of government. Mere presence of government brings the confidence in rural people. There are four types of Hybrid channels we are going to discuss in this article. They are
This is the Indian version of Bangladeshi successful microfinance saga. In this channel format group of rural women form an association. The objectives of these groups are to provide the financial help to the needy and ensure better saving by the rural Indian women. This concept is very successful in the states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This has attracted corporates like HLL, who are looking at penetrating into rural India. HLL is now selling many of its products through this channel. This is a win - win situation for both. Now there are more than 2 lakh Sthree Shakti groups in 2 lakh villages. This shows the enormous potential of this channel. Unlike agents who are not regularly in touch with the people, these women groups reside in village and are familiar. This brings more confidence in investors. Lack of money to pay premium can be substituted by these groups. Hence continuation of the policy is assured.
e- Choupal :
One of the corporate initiatives by ITC to reach rural India has turned out to be a big channel. ITC was able to procure more number of goods in huge volumes directly from the customer. This has eliminated middlemen from the scene. ITC found the potential and initiated ‘e-Sagar’; a super market concept in rural India. The demand for such store attracted ITC to enter FMCG business where it is doing extremely well. The concept usually runs by two important persons. One Sanchalak and another Sanyojak. Sanchalak acts as middlemen between customer and company. Sanyojak gives training and acts as a bridge between the company policy and customer. Their influence on the farmers is unquestionable. Insurance companies can leverage the technology and reach factors of this e- Choupal initiatives to sell their policies.
PDS stores:
This is the retail format of government’s public distribution system. It reaches below poverty line and poverty line population. Government sells cereals, kerosene and other essential goods through this type of channel. People visit such type of shops once in a month to purchase their goods. PDS store keeper knows the market better than anybody because of his interaction with people. This PDS store can act as a retail channel to sell the insurance policies.
Rural Cooperatives:
Rural cooperatives can be divided into following types
Rural cooperative banks
APMC’s
Sugar and rice mills
These are association of farmers working for betterment of people in rural villages. Rural cooperative banks are the major source of loans for farmers. Insurance companies can sell the policies with the loan on single premium basis. APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Cooperatives) which governs the selling of farmer produce and its billing may play significant role in selling insurance products. Sugar and rice mills where farmers wait for longer period to get their money can also act as important sources. These cooperatives can sell the insurance packages with effectiveness.
NGO’s( Non Government Organizations): These organizations are serving rural India with a cause. People recognize and believe NGO’s more. Hence NGO’s can act as a better channel to sell the insurance product.
Strategies and implementations to reach the rural population through hybrid channels:
The 5-‘A’ approach to strategy:
Awareness:
Affordability:
References:
ITC V/s HLL, Business World, Jan 2005
www.indiainfoline.com
www.irdaindia.org
www.lic.com
2005 Report of Ministry of Rural Development, India
www.hll.com
By
Prof: A. K. Pandey and Dr. Prasad Kulkarni
Faculty, MBA department
M.V.J. College of Engineering
Channasandra Bangalore- 67
Introduction:
Globalization, Privatization and Liberalization have transformed the brick and mortar Indian economy to click and mortar. Every industrial sector is inching towards its pinnacle of performance. Western media writes in length about India’s growth. There is a surge of foreign direct investment in all sectors by MNC’s. Regulations are rewritten to suit the requirements. Domestic companies are restructuring their business to meet the competition. A booming economy is always in need of huge funds to meet its infrastructure ambitions and industrial financing. Insurance sector can provide such funds. Therefore, insurance sector is of vital importance to Indian economy.
The importance of insurance sector is summarized below:
- It encourages people to invest for their future risk covers.
- It provides security for industries and individuals
- It acts as a saving instrument.
- It generates long term funds for infrastructural development
Industry has shown unprecedented growth since its inception in the year 1907. The post independence era was dominated by public sector corporations. Their gigantic empire is facing severe threat from private and MNC alliances. The economy has seen innovative insurance offerings attached with value added services. The Public sector LIC and GIC restructured their businesses to face the competition. There is a northward movement of policies insured and the premium amount collected. Though the market share of LIC has come down in recent years
The aggression to expand in urban market suddenly opened a Pandora’s Box for insurance companies. 80% of the policies registered last year came from the urban India which represents just 21% of the Indian population. The poor reach of insurance in the rural areas and the sheer numbers make rural market with tremendous potential. This poor figure is largely due to the lack of adequate distribution channels and lack of suitable products. By tapping such under-served niches, new entrants can expand the market substantially.
Distribution – A Paradigm Shift
Distribution will be a key determinant of success for all insurance companies regardless of age or ownership. The nationalized insurers currently have a large reach and presence. New entrants cannot- and does not- expect to supplant or duplicate such a network. Building a distribution network is expensive and time consuming. Yet, if insurers are to take advantage of India’s large population and reach a profitable mass of customers, new distribution avenues and alliances will be imperative. This is also true for the nationalized corporations, which must find fresh avenues to reach existing and new customers. There would be substantial shifts in the distribution of insurance in India so as to serve the ‘bottom of the pyramid’.
Conventional Insurance channels and their disadvantages in rural India:
Channel 1
Company-------Agent -------Customer
Channel 2
Agent------Informer-------Customer------Company
Traditionally an agent played vital role in reaching the masses. His vulnerability to sell differentiated service mix of insurance companies becomes the bone of contention. Most of the agents look for better commission oriented policies which he/she is getting from endowment.
Insurance companies are unable to penetrate into rural areas through agent oriented channels. Some of the disadvantages are listed below
1. Product factors
- All insurance packages are of long duration which rural masses are not ready to accept.
- The liquidity position of these policies is very less compared to gold and land which are major sources of investment for rural people.
- The services are not bundled with crop insurance and live stock insurance. Majority of the rural India depends on agriculture which is rain fed. Therefore decision to continue with the policies depends on the outcome of the crop yield.
- Scarcity of agents in remote village is another cause for not selling insurance policies.
- Illiteracy and undivided family of insurer
- Most of the financial fraud cases happens in the rural areas ( read by agents)
- Less number of branches of insurance companies in rural India which prevents directs communication of villager
- India with 6, 20,000 villages spread in huge territory which is difficult to cover. 7% of the rural India still inaccessible for electricity and transportation.
- The face value of the insurance scheme and premium to be paid periodically is beyond the reach of 16% population who earns less than Rs 50 per day.
- Mass media reach is still discouraging in rural India. Companies should look at unconventional mode of channels.
Modern channels of distribution and their disadvantages
- Company sales team
- Customer
- Internet
- Franchisee
- Company
- NBFC
- Banks
Departing from conventional channels insurance companies adopted modern channels to sell their products. They recruited MBA’s as ‘Sales Executives’ in their team to sell advanced policies. They are provided with laptops and software to present about the policies unlike the previous agents who were carrying on through word of mouth. Huge differentiation bought in service mix also complicated the job of agents who are usually not well educated. Modern channels adopted direct marketing tools like Internet, selling through company sales executives. They are also selling through intermediaries like franchisees and NBFC’s. Some of the banks came out with their own bank assurances. Though these modern channels are well equipped to serve changing needs of customers, their success in hugely potential rural market is very less. The reasons for their failure to serve such markets are
- Lesser presence of NBFC’s and Banks in rural areas
- Companies are not in position to recruit huge number of sales executives, as it is having direct impact on its financial position
- Internet penetration is significantly less and even today we are having 35 % of the population who are illiterates.
- Franchisee may find the rural market unattractive in terms of return on investment and economic value added.
Hybrid channels:
(Thinking out of the box)
- e- Choupal
- Sthree Shakti
- PDS stores
- Rural cooperatives& mills
- Company NGO’s & Post Offices
Hybrid channels possess both the conventional and modern channel behavior. They use technology and specialization in selling consumer goods. The best part of these channels is they are run and managed by the rural people who are inaccessible to insurance companies so far. Some of the channel formats that we are going to discuss are even having the strong backup of government. Mere presence of government brings the confidence in rural people. There are four types of Hybrid channels we are going to discuss in this article. They are
- Sthree Shakti
- e- Choupal
- PDS stores
- Rural Cooperatives
- NGO’s & Post Offices
This is the Indian version of Bangladeshi successful microfinance saga. In this channel format group of rural women form an association. The objectives of these groups are to provide the financial help to the needy and ensure better saving by the rural Indian women. This concept is very successful in the states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This has attracted corporates like HLL, who are looking at penetrating into rural India. HLL is now selling many of its products through this channel. This is a win - win situation for both. Now there are more than 2 lakh Sthree Shakti groups in 2 lakh villages. This shows the enormous potential of this channel. Unlike agents who are not regularly in touch with the people, these women groups reside in village and are familiar. This brings more confidence in investors. Lack of money to pay premium can be substituted by these groups. Hence continuation of the policy is assured.
e- Choupal :
One of the corporate initiatives by ITC to reach rural India has turned out to be a big channel. ITC was able to procure more number of goods in huge volumes directly from the customer. This has eliminated middlemen from the scene. ITC found the potential and initiated ‘e-Sagar’; a super market concept in rural India. The demand for such store attracted ITC to enter FMCG business where it is doing extremely well. The concept usually runs by two important persons. One Sanchalak and another Sanyojak. Sanchalak acts as middlemen between customer and company. Sanyojak gives training and acts as a bridge between the company policy and customer. Their influence on the farmers is unquestionable. Insurance companies can leverage the technology and reach factors of this e- Choupal initiatives to sell their policies.
PDS stores:
This is the retail format of government’s public distribution system. It reaches below poverty line and poverty line population. Government sells cereals, kerosene and other essential goods through this type of channel. People visit such type of shops once in a month to purchase their goods. PDS store keeper knows the market better than anybody because of his interaction with people. This PDS store can act as a retail channel to sell the insurance policies.
Rural Cooperatives:
Rural cooperatives can be divided into following types
Rural cooperative banks
APMC’s
Sugar and rice mills
These are association of farmers working for betterment of people in rural villages. Rural cooperative banks are the major source of loans for farmers. Insurance companies can sell the policies with the loan on single premium basis. APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Cooperatives) which governs the selling of farmer produce and its billing may play significant role in selling insurance products. Sugar and rice mills where farmers wait for longer period to get their money can also act as important sources. These cooperatives can sell the insurance packages with effectiveness.
NGO’s( Non Government Organizations): These organizations are serving rural India with a cause. People recognize and believe NGO’s more. Hence NGO’s can act as a better channel to sell the insurance product.
Strategies and implementations to reach the rural population through hybrid channels:
The 5-‘A’ approach to strategy:
- Assurance
- Awareness
- Availability
- Affordability
- Acceptance
Awareness:
- Create awareness about the insurance products to channel members.
- Train and motivate the channel members
- Educate them on the win-win situation
- Reach maximum number of hybrid channel members
- Ensure better service mix available with intermediaries
Affordability:
- Policy should start from face value of Rs 5000- Rs 10000.
- Premium should vary from Rs 50 to Rs 500.
- People accept a policy of short duration because of their financial constraints
- People accept the policies which are liquid in nature.
- People accept life time validity policy. Though some policy lapses are there which can be filled any time depending on Monsoon and crops
- People accept the policies which are bundled like crop insurance and weather insurance.
- Hence insurance companies must develop policies of less premium value, short duration, liquid in nature and available with trusted people
References:
ITC V/s HLL, Business World, Jan 2005
www.indiainfoline.com
www.irdaindia.org
www.lic.com
2005 Report of Ministry of Rural Development, India
www.hll.com
Descriptive research design
DESCRIPTIVE REASEARCH DESIGN: -
SURVEY AND OBSERVATION
Survey method: -
A structural questionnaire given to a sample of population and designed to elicit specific information from respondents.
NATURE OF SURVEY RESEARCH.
q Survey researcher must be concerned with
a. Sampling
b. Questionnaire design
c. Questionnaire administration
d. Data analysis.
q The administration of questionnaire to an individual or group of individuals is called an interview.
q Conditions for successful interview
1. The respondent must have the information, which is sought by the interviewer.
2. The respondent should understand what is required and expected.
3. The respondent should feel motivated to answer questions accurately.
4. The respondent should be serious about the matter and answer the question throughout.
q Task of interviewers.
1. Locating the respondents Ex Probability sampling of area sampling requirements.
2. Initiate the interview.
3. Give idea about the interview & its purpose.
4. Interviewer should be patient & courteous.
5. Assure of confidentially.
6. Ask only necessary questions.
7. Ask questions in same phrase & sequence.
8. Don’t influence the ideas.
9. Understand customer responses.
10. Don’t emphasize on any words.
11. Note down the responses properly.
12. Use technology wherever necessary.
q Selection of interviewer.
1. He should possess good health to do hard work.
2. The person should be extrovert.
3. The person should be well-behaved and good personality.
4. Knowledge of local language is essential.
5. He should have proper education to handle research.
6. He should be capable of handling he communication process.
q Training of interviewers: -
1. Specify the guidelines for conducting interview.
2. Make aware of technical specifications.
3. The initial training should be given to explain his role in the research.
4. Train them on research methodology.
5. Have a rehearsal research in the organization.
6. Provide background information.
q Supervision of interviewers: -
1. Gathering & training interviewer on fundamentals of interviewing.
2. Allocation of territory.
3. Carefully study first day’s work & correcting errors.
4. Editing all work.
5. Keeping careful production records.
6. Reviewing time sheets.
7. Reducing detailed bill for work.
q Types of interviews.
A. Structured interviews.
1. The amount of freedom the interviewer has in altering the questionnaire to meet the unique situation posed by each interview.
2. Interviewer bias is less.
3. It is possible to use less skilled interviewers because their main job is to read question and record the responses.
B. Unstructured interviews:
1. Used when the knowledge about variables is less.
2. This method used in he exploratory surveys.
Directness: - The extent to which the respondent is aware of the underlying purpose of the survey.
C. Direct interview:
1. Asking the questions such that the respondent is aware of the underlying purpose of the survey.
2. Usually the name of the firm is kept confidential.
3. It is easy to answer for the respondents.
4. The responses can be easily interpreted.
5. These are also known as non-disguised interviews.
D. Indirect interview:
1. Disguised interviews.
2. Involves asking questions such that the respondent does not know what the objective of the study is. Ex: Attitude measurement.
q Types of surveys:
Survey methods
Telephone interview Personal interview Mail interview Electronic interview
Traditional Computer assisted In home Mall intercept Computer assisted
Mail Mail Panel E – Mail internet
I. Traditional telephone interview:
Ø Phoning a sample respondent and asking them series of questions.
Ø Uses the paper questionnaire and records the responses with a pencil.
· Computer assisted telephone interview.
Ø Computerized questionnaire administered to respondents over the telephone.
Ø Uses the CRT and headset in the research.
Ø Data collection flows naturally & smoothly.
Ø Time is reduced and quality is enhanced.
Ø Data processing easy.
STEP 3:
OVERCOMING INABILITY & UNWILINGNESS TO ANSWER.
1) Inform the respondent.
2) If respondents are not likely to be informed filter questions that measure familiarity, product use and experience should be asked before questions about the topic themselves.
3) Can he respondent remember?
4) Questions that do not provide the respondent with cues can underestimate the actual occurrence of an event.
5) Can the respondent Articulate?
6) Minimize the effort required of the respondents.
7) Check whether question asked is appropriate.
8) If the information is sensitive.
a. Place sensitive topics at the end of the questionnaire.
b. Preface the question with a statement that he behavior of interest is common.
c. Ask the question using third person technique.
d. Hide the question in-group of other questions that respondents are willing to answer.
e. Provide response categories rather than asking foe specific figures.
f. Use randomized techniques.
STEP 7:
FORM & LAYOUT OR PHYSICAL CHARACTERSTICS.
Divide the questionnaire into several parts.
Questions in each part should be numbered.
The questionnaire should be precoded.
The questionnaires themselves should be numbered serially.
STEP 8:
REPRODUCTION OF QUESTIONNAIRE.
The questionnaire should have a professional appearance.
Booklet format should be used for long questionnaires.
Vertical response column should be used.
Grids are useful when there are a number of related questions that use the same set of response categories.
The tendency to crowd questions to make the questionnaire look shorter should be avoided.
Directions or instructions for individual questions should be placed as close to the questions as possible.
STEP 9:
PRESENTING & FINAL DRAFT.
1. Always pretest.
2. All aspects of the questionnaire should be tested including question content, working, sequence form and layout & instructions.
3. The respondents in the pretest should be similar to those who will be included in the actual survey.
4. Begin the pretest by using personal interview.
5. Pretest should also be conducted by mail, telephone or electronically; if those methods are to be used in the actual survey.
6. A variety of interviewers should be used for pretests.
7. The pretest sample size is small, varying from 15 to 30 respondents for the initial testing.
8. Use protocol analysis and debriefing to identify problems.
9. After each significant revision of the questionnaire another pretest should be conducted, using a different sample of respondents.
10. The responses obtained from the pretest should be coded and analyzed.
STEP 4:
CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE
OR
DECISION ABOUT THE RESEARCH RESPONSE FORMAT
OR
TYPE OF QUESTIONS.
Questions
Structured Unstructured
Multiple Choice Dichotomous Scale Open end
Structured questionnaire.
Questions that prespecify the set of response alternatives and the response format.
A. Multiple choice questions:
The researcher provides choice of answers and respondents are asked to select one or more of the alternatives given.
Ex 1: Do you intended to buy a new car
Ø Definitely will not buy.
Ø Probably will not buy.
Ø Undecided.
Ø Probably will buy.
Ø Definitely will buy.
Ex 2: What was the brand name of the last soft drink you purchased?
Pepsi Seven-up mountain dew
Coco-cola Thumbs Up Sprite
Maaza Mirinda Others
Advantages of multiple-choice questions:
1. Easier for both respondent & researcher.
2. They reduce the interviewer bias.
3. Tabulation & analysis are much simpler.
4. Can use maximum number of choices.
Dis-advantages of MCQ:
1. It requires considerable effort to generate variables.
2. It may cause distortion.
3. It may result in order bias or position bias (choosing one without knowledge).
4. Respondent will have some other alternative.
Issues with multiple-choice questions.
a. Number of alternatives.
b. Balanced or unbalanced alternatives.
c. Position bias.
Split ballot technique.
Dichotomous Questions:
o Extreme form of multiple choice.
o Example.
a. Yes or No
b. Agree or Disagree.
c. Male or Female
Advantages:
1. Researcher can ask clear-cut questions.
2. Researcher should think whether response will be dichotomous or not.
3. It is easy to codify and analyze.
Dis-advantages:
1. Entire research result may be biased or may have negative answers.
Issue:
1. Adding of neutral alternative.
UNSTRUCTURED QUESTIONS:
Open-end questions that respondents answer in their own terms & words.
Examples:
1. What is your occupation.
2. What is your favorite political personality.
3. What brand of cigarette do you generally smoke.
Advantages.
ü They do not influence respondent.
ü They generate wide variety of response.
ü Researcher can judge actual values.
ü Respondent have opportunity to express his variables.
Dis-advantage:
1. Respondent
2. Interviewer effects.
3. Necessity of precoding.
Open end Questions Classification.
Free response Probing Projective technique
STEP 5:
DETERMIE OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
OR
DECISION ABOUT QUESTUION PHRASING
OR
CHOOSING QUESTION WORDING
IMPORTANCE QUESTION WORDING.
1. These translate question into more understanding way.
2. It determines the success of the response.
3. Data analysis complexity depends on type of words used.
4. Poor wording results in response error.
DEFINE THE ISSUE.
Where
Who
What
Why
Way
WhenSix W’s
Find out customer choice of shampoo brand?
Which brand of shampoo use? (Incorrect).
Six W’s:
When is not clear.
Where is not clear.
What is semi answered.
ü Which brand /brands of shampoo have you personally used at home during the last month? In case of more than on brand, please list all the brands that apply. (Correct)
USING ORDINARY WORDS.
§ Simple words are necessary because education level of people varies.
§ Don’t use technical and management jargon.
Ask question to find out availability of Pepsi is enough.
Do you think the distribution of Pepsi is adequate. (Incorrect).
ü Do you think Pepsi is readily available when you want to buy them. (Correct).
AVOID AMBIGUOUS WORDS.
1. The words in a questionnaire should have a single meaning that is known to respondents.
2. Certain words have different meanings to different people.
3. Don’t use “usually”, “frequently”, “often”, “regularly”, “occasionally”, & “sometime”.
4. Ask following question before using such words.
a. Does it mean what we intended.
b. Does it have any other meanings.
c. If so, does the context make the intended meaning clear.
d. Does the word have more than one pronunciation.
e. Is there any word of simpler pronunciation that might be confused with this word.
f. Is a simpler word or phrase suggested.
Prepare a question to know the frequency o shopping in a month in Bangalore Central,
In a typical month, how often do you shop in Bangalore Central.
a. Never
b. Occassionally
c. Sometimes.
d. Often. Regularly (Incorrect)
In a typical month, how often do you shop in Bangalore central.
a. Less than once.
b. 1 or 2 times.
c. 3 or 4 times.
d. More than 4 times. (Correct)
AVOID LEADING QUESTIONS.
A Question that gives the respondent a clue as to what the answer should be.
Do you think that patriotic Indians should buy imported computers when that would hit Indian domestic computer manufacturers.
Yes, No, Don’t know, (Incorrect).
Do you think that Indians should buy imported computers.
a) Yes.
b) No.
c) Don’t know. (Correct)
AVOID BIASED QUESTIONS.
§ Biased phrases are difficult to deal with because phrases that are neutral to one group may be emotionally charged to another.
§ These are also called as loaded questions.
Prepare a question to find out what promotional activities Hyundai is doing to increase its sales using its Euro III pollution norms.
Do you think that Hyundai is doing everything possible to increase its sales using Euro III pollution norms. (Incorrect)
Do you think Euro III pollution norms of Hyundai will increase its sales. (Correct)
AVOID IMPLICIT ALTERNATIVES.
§ An alternative that is not explicitly expressed.
§ Making an implied alternative explicit may increase the percentage of people selecting the alternative.
Find answer for mode of transport in short distance.
Do you like to fly when traveling short distance. (Incorrect).
Do you like to fly when traveling short distances o would you rather drive.(Correct Partially).
Please mention the mode of transportation do you use for short distance.
a. Air.
b. Rail.
c. Road.
AVOID IMPLICIT ASSUMPTIONS.
§ Question that contain implicit assumption.
§ These are not stated in the question.
§ Answer depends on assumption about factors outside the question itself.
Construct question to know whether people prefer advertisement in movie theatres though there is increase in ticket prices by Rs.2/-
Q : Do you favor ban on commercial in movie theatres even if it meant
Rs. 2/- increase
in ticket prices. (Incorrect).
Do you favor ban on commercial in movie theatre. (Correct).
· To find out the impact of service tax on IT industry in the current chidambaaram budget.
Q : Are you in favor of service tax on IT industry. (Incorrect)
Are you in favor of service tax which may decrease its sales. (Correct).
AVOID DOUBLE BARRALLED QUESTIONS OR COMBIAING QUESTIONS.
§ A question that calls for several responses
Find out Kellogg Cornflakes spiciness & tastiness.
Q : Do you consider Kellogg Cornflakes spicy & tasty. (Incorrect)
a. Do you consider Kellogg cornflakes spicy
b. Do you consider Kellogg cornflakes tasty. (Correct).
BE SPECIFIC OR AVOID GENERALIZATION.
§ General results generate meaningless data.
What kind of car do you own.
Answers will be based upon.
1. Brand (Indica, Zen, Santro)
2. Type (Passenger, MUV, SUV)
3. Gasoline (Petrol or Diesel)
4. Model (V2‑ V2 deluxe, V2 New)
AVOID LENGTHY QUESTIONS.
a. It may discount the mood of respondent.
b. Respondent may confuse.
c. Respond may not answer.
STEP 6:
A. DETERMINE ORDER OF QUESTION
OR
DETERMINE ABOUT THE QUESTION SEQUENCE
OR
DETERMINE QUESTION STRUCTURE.
Question sequence:
The specific order in which the respondent receive the questions.
v The sequence of the questionnaire should start with statement of problems and topic’s purpose. It will be more attractive if it contains a formal request.
OPENING OR LEAD IN QUESTION:
Ø Introduce yourself.
Ø It should be easy to answer.
Ø It should be objective & interesting.
Ø It should not contain biasing question or leading question for rest of the part.
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are carrying out a study on buying behavior of households in television purchase. We would appreciate if you will please convey your views on the different question referred to in this schedule. On the behalf of the sponsors of this research study. I thank you for sparing your valuable time and co-operation.
(Signature)
Q 1: a) Do you own a television
a). Yes b). No
b). If yes please mention the brand /brands name. ---------------------
c). If No please go to question 7.
IInd Example.
Q 1: When did you last paint your house.
Less than 1 year back.
Between 1 – 2 years back.
More than 2 years back.
IIIrd Example.
Q I: How would you classify your hair.
Natural
Dry.
Oily.
IVth Example.
Q 1: Do you use toothpaste.
Yes
No
TYPE OF INFORMATION.
Ø Basic information: relates to basic formula
Ø Classification information: socio economic & Demographic character used to classify respondents.
Ø Identification information: Questions regarding, have address & phone number.
Basic.
Classification.
Identification.
QULIFYING QUESTIONS:
It is practical importance to confine the interview to people who have the background or are type for meaningful responses.
Example 1:
a. Do you use any toothpaste
Yes
No
If no stop asking question or Go to general questions.
Example 2:
Have you ever used any of the diabetic’s injection of these following companies.
a. Novo Nordisk
b. Ranbaxy
c. Cipla
d. Others
WARM UP QUESTION:
Example 1:
How many brands of toothpastes have you used in your lifetime. Please specify.
Example 2: Please rank the following attributes of toothpaste on a five-point scale ranging from most important to less important.
i. Taste.
ii. Foam.
iii. Freshness.
iv. Prices.
v. Packaging.
vi. Manufacturer name.
DIFFICULT QUESTION:
These are sensitive, embarrassing, complex or dull should be placed late in the sequence.
Research Bangalore central brand equity analysis.
ü Credit Card information should be asked at the end of the basic question.
ü Income should be he last question in classification section.
ü Telephone number should be at the end for identification number.
IDENTIFICATION QUESTIONS:
Name,
Age,
Telephone
Number,
Address,
Habits,
Occupation.
Funnel approach: or Flower pot Approach.
A strategy for ordering questions in questionnaire in which the sequence starts with the general questions, which are followed by progressively specific question, in order to prevent specific questions from biasing general questions.
SURVEY AND OBSERVATION
Survey method: -
A structural questionnaire given to a sample of population and designed to elicit specific information from respondents.
NATURE OF SURVEY RESEARCH.
q Survey researcher must be concerned with
a. Sampling
b. Questionnaire design
c. Questionnaire administration
d. Data analysis.
q The administration of questionnaire to an individual or group of individuals is called an interview.
q Conditions for successful interview
1. The respondent must have the information, which is sought by the interviewer.
2. The respondent should understand what is required and expected.
3. The respondent should feel motivated to answer questions accurately.
4. The respondent should be serious about the matter and answer the question throughout.
q Task of interviewers.
1. Locating the respondents Ex Probability sampling of area sampling requirements.
2. Initiate the interview.
3. Give idea about the interview & its purpose.
4. Interviewer should be patient & courteous.
5. Assure of confidentially.
6. Ask only necessary questions.
7. Ask questions in same phrase & sequence.
8. Don’t influence the ideas.
9. Understand customer responses.
10. Don’t emphasize on any words.
11. Note down the responses properly.
12. Use technology wherever necessary.
q Selection of interviewer.
1. He should possess good health to do hard work.
2. The person should be extrovert.
3. The person should be well-behaved and good personality.
4. Knowledge of local language is essential.
5. He should have proper education to handle research.
6. He should be capable of handling he communication process.
q Training of interviewers: -
1. Specify the guidelines for conducting interview.
2. Make aware of technical specifications.
3. The initial training should be given to explain his role in the research.
4. Train them on research methodology.
5. Have a rehearsal research in the organization.
6. Provide background information.
q Supervision of interviewers: -
1. Gathering & training interviewer on fundamentals of interviewing.
2. Allocation of territory.
3. Carefully study first day’s work & correcting errors.
4. Editing all work.
5. Keeping careful production records.
6. Reviewing time sheets.
7. Reducing detailed bill for work.
q Types of interviews.
A. Structured interviews.
1. The amount of freedom the interviewer has in altering the questionnaire to meet the unique situation posed by each interview.
2. Interviewer bias is less.
3. It is possible to use less skilled interviewers because their main job is to read question and record the responses.
B. Unstructured interviews:
1. Used when the knowledge about variables is less.
2. This method used in he exploratory surveys.
Directness: - The extent to which the respondent is aware of the underlying purpose of the survey.
C. Direct interview:
1. Asking the questions such that the respondent is aware of the underlying purpose of the survey.
2. Usually the name of the firm is kept confidential.
3. It is easy to answer for the respondents.
4. The responses can be easily interpreted.
5. These are also known as non-disguised interviews.
D. Indirect interview:
1. Disguised interviews.
2. Involves asking questions such that the respondent does not know what the objective of the study is. Ex: Attitude measurement.
q Types of surveys:
Survey methods
Telephone interview Personal interview Mail interview Electronic interview
Traditional Computer assisted In home Mall intercept Computer assisted
Mail Mail Panel E – Mail internet
I. Traditional telephone interview:
Ø Phoning a sample respondent and asking them series of questions.
Ø Uses the paper questionnaire and records the responses with a pencil.
· Computer assisted telephone interview.
Ø Computerized questionnaire administered to respondents over the telephone.
Ø Uses the CRT and headset in the research.
Ø Data collection flows naturally & smoothly.
Ø Time is reduced and quality is enhanced.
Ø Data processing easy.
STEP 3:
OVERCOMING INABILITY & UNWILINGNESS TO ANSWER.
1) Inform the respondent.
2) If respondents are not likely to be informed filter questions that measure familiarity, product use and experience should be asked before questions about the topic themselves.
3) Can he respondent remember?
4) Questions that do not provide the respondent with cues can underestimate the actual occurrence of an event.
5) Can the respondent Articulate?
6) Minimize the effort required of the respondents.
7) Check whether question asked is appropriate.
8) If the information is sensitive.
a. Place sensitive topics at the end of the questionnaire.
b. Preface the question with a statement that he behavior of interest is common.
c. Ask the question using third person technique.
d. Hide the question in-group of other questions that respondents are willing to answer.
e. Provide response categories rather than asking foe specific figures.
f. Use randomized techniques.
STEP 7:
FORM & LAYOUT OR PHYSICAL CHARACTERSTICS.
Divide the questionnaire into several parts.
Questions in each part should be numbered.
The questionnaire should be precoded.
The questionnaires themselves should be numbered serially.
STEP 8:
REPRODUCTION OF QUESTIONNAIRE.
The questionnaire should have a professional appearance.
Booklet format should be used for long questionnaires.
Vertical response column should be used.
Grids are useful when there are a number of related questions that use the same set of response categories.
The tendency to crowd questions to make the questionnaire look shorter should be avoided.
Directions or instructions for individual questions should be placed as close to the questions as possible.
STEP 9:
PRESENTING & FINAL DRAFT.
1. Always pretest.
2. All aspects of the questionnaire should be tested including question content, working, sequence form and layout & instructions.
3. The respondents in the pretest should be similar to those who will be included in the actual survey.
4. Begin the pretest by using personal interview.
5. Pretest should also be conducted by mail, telephone or electronically; if those methods are to be used in the actual survey.
6. A variety of interviewers should be used for pretests.
7. The pretest sample size is small, varying from 15 to 30 respondents for the initial testing.
8. Use protocol analysis and debriefing to identify problems.
9. After each significant revision of the questionnaire another pretest should be conducted, using a different sample of respondents.
10. The responses obtained from the pretest should be coded and analyzed.
STEP 4:
CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE
OR
DECISION ABOUT THE RESEARCH RESPONSE FORMAT
OR
TYPE OF QUESTIONS.
Questions
Structured Unstructured
Multiple Choice Dichotomous Scale Open end
Structured questionnaire.
Questions that prespecify the set of response alternatives and the response format.
A. Multiple choice questions:
The researcher provides choice of answers and respondents are asked to select one or more of the alternatives given.
Ex 1: Do you intended to buy a new car
Ø Definitely will not buy.
Ø Probably will not buy.
Ø Undecided.
Ø Probably will buy.
Ø Definitely will buy.
Ex 2: What was the brand name of the last soft drink you purchased?
Pepsi Seven-up mountain dew
Coco-cola Thumbs Up Sprite
Maaza Mirinda Others
Advantages of multiple-choice questions:
1. Easier for both respondent & researcher.
2. They reduce the interviewer bias.
3. Tabulation & analysis are much simpler.
4. Can use maximum number of choices.
Dis-advantages of MCQ:
1. It requires considerable effort to generate variables.
2. It may cause distortion.
3. It may result in order bias or position bias (choosing one without knowledge).
4. Respondent will have some other alternative.
Issues with multiple-choice questions.
a. Number of alternatives.
b. Balanced or unbalanced alternatives.
c. Position bias.
Split ballot technique.
Dichotomous Questions:
o Extreme form of multiple choice.
o Example.
a. Yes or No
b. Agree or Disagree.
c. Male or Female
Advantages:
1. Researcher can ask clear-cut questions.
2. Researcher should think whether response will be dichotomous or not.
3. It is easy to codify and analyze.
Dis-advantages:
1. Entire research result may be biased or may have negative answers.
Issue:
1. Adding of neutral alternative.
UNSTRUCTURED QUESTIONS:
Open-end questions that respondents answer in their own terms & words.
Examples:
1. What is your occupation.
2. What is your favorite political personality.
3. What brand of cigarette do you generally smoke.
Advantages.
ü They do not influence respondent.
ü They generate wide variety of response.
ü Researcher can judge actual values.
ü Respondent have opportunity to express his variables.
Dis-advantage:
1. Respondent
2. Interviewer effects.
3. Necessity of precoding.
Open end Questions Classification.
Free response Probing Projective technique
STEP 5:
DETERMIE OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
OR
DECISION ABOUT QUESTUION PHRASING
OR
CHOOSING QUESTION WORDING
IMPORTANCE QUESTION WORDING.
1. These translate question into more understanding way.
2. It determines the success of the response.
3. Data analysis complexity depends on type of words used.
4. Poor wording results in response error.
DEFINE THE ISSUE.
Where
Who
What
Why
Way
WhenSix W’s
Find out customer choice of shampoo brand?
Which brand of shampoo use? (Incorrect).
Six W’s:
When is not clear.
Where is not clear.
What is semi answered.
ü Which brand /brands of shampoo have you personally used at home during the last month? In case of more than on brand, please list all the brands that apply. (Correct)
USING ORDINARY WORDS.
§ Simple words are necessary because education level of people varies.
§ Don’t use technical and management jargon.
Ask question to find out availability of Pepsi is enough.
Do you think the distribution of Pepsi is adequate. (Incorrect).
ü Do you think Pepsi is readily available when you want to buy them. (Correct).
AVOID AMBIGUOUS WORDS.
1. The words in a questionnaire should have a single meaning that is known to respondents.
2. Certain words have different meanings to different people.
3. Don’t use “usually”, “frequently”, “often”, “regularly”, “occasionally”, & “sometime”.
4. Ask following question before using such words.
a. Does it mean what we intended.
b. Does it have any other meanings.
c. If so, does the context make the intended meaning clear.
d. Does the word have more than one pronunciation.
e. Is there any word of simpler pronunciation that might be confused with this word.
f. Is a simpler word or phrase suggested.
Prepare a question to know the frequency o shopping in a month in Bangalore Central,
In a typical month, how often do you shop in Bangalore Central.
a. Never
b. Occassionally
c. Sometimes.
d. Often. Regularly (Incorrect)
In a typical month, how often do you shop in Bangalore central.
a. Less than once.
b. 1 or 2 times.
c. 3 or 4 times.
d. More than 4 times. (Correct)
AVOID LEADING QUESTIONS.
A Question that gives the respondent a clue as to what the answer should be.
Do you think that patriotic Indians should buy imported computers when that would hit Indian domestic computer manufacturers.
Yes, No, Don’t know, (Incorrect).
Do you think that Indians should buy imported computers.
a) Yes.
b) No.
c) Don’t know. (Correct)
AVOID BIASED QUESTIONS.
§ Biased phrases are difficult to deal with because phrases that are neutral to one group may be emotionally charged to another.
§ These are also called as loaded questions.
Prepare a question to find out what promotional activities Hyundai is doing to increase its sales using its Euro III pollution norms.
Do you think that Hyundai is doing everything possible to increase its sales using Euro III pollution norms. (Incorrect)
Do you think Euro III pollution norms of Hyundai will increase its sales. (Correct)
AVOID IMPLICIT ALTERNATIVES.
§ An alternative that is not explicitly expressed.
§ Making an implied alternative explicit may increase the percentage of people selecting the alternative.
Find answer for mode of transport in short distance.
Do you like to fly when traveling short distance. (Incorrect).
Do you like to fly when traveling short distances o would you rather drive.(Correct Partially).
Please mention the mode of transportation do you use for short distance.
a. Air.
b. Rail.
c. Road.
AVOID IMPLICIT ASSUMPTIONS.
§ Question that contain implicit assumption.
§ These are not stated in the question.
§ Answer depends on assumption about factors outside the question itself.
Construct question to know whether people prefer advertisement in movie theatres though there is increase in ticket prices by Rs.2/-
Q : Do you favor ban on commercial in movie theatres even if it meant
Rs. 2/- increase
in ticket prices. (Incorrect).
Do you favor ban on commercial in movie theatre. (Correct).
· To find out the impact of service tax on IT industry in the current chidambaaram budget.
Q : Are you in favor of service tax on IT industry. (Incorrect)
Are you in favor of service tax which may decrease its sales. (Correct).
AVOID DOUBLE BARRALLED QUESTIONS OR COMBIAING QUESTIONS.
§ A question that calls for several responses
Find out Kellogg Cornflakes spiciness & tastiness.
Q : Do you consider Kellogg Cornflakes spicy & tasty. (Incorrect)
a. Do you consider Kellogg cornflakes spicy
b. Do you consider Kellogg cornflakes tasty. (Correct).
BE SPECIFIC OR AVOID GENERALIZATION.
§ General results generate meaningless data.
What kind of car do you own.
Answers will be based upon.
1. Brand (Indica, Zen, Santro)
2. Type (Passenger, MUV, SUV)
3. Gasoline (Petrol or Diesel)
4. Model (V2‑ V2 deluxe, V2 New)
AVOID LENGTHY QUESTIONS.
a. It may discount the mood of respondent.
b. Respondent may confuse.
c. Respond may not answer.
STEP 6:
A. DETERMINE ORDER OF QUESTION
OR
DETERMINE ABOUT THE QUESTION SEQUENCE
OR
DETERMINE QUESTION STRUCTURE.
Question sequence:
The specific order in which the respondent receive the questions.
v The sequence of the questionnaire should start with statement of problems and topic’s purpose. It will be more attractive if it contains a formal request.
OPENING OR LEAD IN QUESTION:
Ø Introduce yourself.
Ø It should be easy to answer.
Ø It should be objective & interesting.
Ø It should not contain biasing question or leading question for rest of the part.
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are carrying out a study on buying behavior of households in television purchase. We would appreciate if you will please convey your views on the different question referred to in this schedule. On the behalf of the sponsors of this research study. I thank you for sparing your valuable time and co-operation.
(Signature)
Q 1: a) Do you own a television
a). Yes b). No
b). If yes please mention the brand /brands name. ---------------------
c). If No please go to question 7.
IInd Example.
Q 1: When did you last paint your house.
Less than 1 year back.
Between 1 – 2 years back.
More than 2 years back.
IIIrd Example.
Q I: How would you classify your hair.
Natural
Dry.
Oily.
IVth Example.
Q 1: Do you use toothpaste.
Yes
No
TYPE OF INFORMATION.
Ø Basic information: relates to basic formula
Ø Classification information: socio economic & Demographic character used to classify respondents.
Ø Identification information: Questions regarding, have address & phone number.
Basic.
Classification.
Identification.
QULIFYING QUESTIONS:
It is practical importance to confine the interview to people who have the background or are type for meaningful responses.
Example 1:
a. Do you use any toothpaste
Yes
No
If no stop asking question or Go to general questions.
Example 2:
Have you ever used any of the diabetic’s injection of these following companies.
a. Novo Nordisk
b. Ranbaxy
c. Cipla
d. Others
WARM UP QUESTION:
Example 1:
How many brands of toothpastes have you used in your lifetime. Please specify.
Example 2: Please rank the following attributes of toothpaste on a five-point scale ranging from most important to less important.
i. Taste.
ii. Foam.
iii. Freshness.
iv. Prices.
v. Packaging.
vi. Manufacturer name.
DIFFICULT QUESTION:
These are sensitive, embarrassing, complex or dull should be placed late in the sequence.
Research Bangalore central brand equity analysis.
ü Credit Card information should be asked at the end of the basic question.
ü Income should be he last question in classification section.
ü Telephone number should be at the end for identification number.
IDENTIFICATION QUESTIONS:
Name,
Age,
Telephone
Number,
Address,
Habits,
Occupation.
Funnel approach: or Flower pot Approach.
A strategy for ordering questions in questionnaire in which the sequence starts with the general questions, which are followed by progressively specific question, in order to prevent specific questions from biasing general questions.
Market research report
Report
“Quality of the report is often used as a major indicator of the quality of the research itself”
Role of the report or function of the report
1. The successful report breathes life into the statistical and logical findings and wins the acceptance of those who will translate the findings into action.
2. It is the means whereby the data analysis and findings are placed in an organized and permanent form.
3. It serves as a reference to the future research.
4. Quality of the work is likely to be judged mainly by the report.
5. It is index of researcher’s skill and performance, the time thought and effort spent on it is vital to his or her future.
6. Effectiveness of the report may determine the action.
Types Of reports.
Oral Reporting.
1. Know your audience.
2. Proper planning is vital.
3. Clear about the objective of the session.
4. Organize in logical manner [meaningful & comparable parts]
5. Use suitable language for proper communication.
6. Visuaids (charts, diagrams, tables, pictures, posters, slides & video clips).
7. Handouts of the presentation should be distributed.
8. Summary should cover all the points of the topic.
9. Selection of delivery technique (important, speaking from memory, reading from script & extemporaneous)
Written Reports
Classification.
i. On the basis of time.
- Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually & special.
ii. On the basis of function.
a. Informational or factual report
b. Examination report (Doesn’t contain findings & conclusions).
c. Analytical report (contain only analysis of data, recommendation & conclusions).
iii. On the basis of physical form or make up
a. Short term.
b. Long term.
iv. On the basis of relationship between reader & writer.
a. Administrative.
b. Professional.
c. Independent.
v. Employment status as a basis.
d. Private report (Business Concerns).
e. Public report (Government).
vi. On the basis of formality of occasions.
a. Formal.
b. Informal.
vii. On the basis of representation of findings.
a. Basic report.
b. Reports for publication.
c. Technical reports.
d. Reports for executives.
Characteristics of report: -
1. Adhere to study objectives, selectivity and objectivity.
2. Study should cover all the important issues in detail.
3. Should be written in a manner, which possesses clarity of thought & expression throughout.
4. Report should present actual findings rather than what manager needs.
Contents of the report OR Report format OR Report outline OR Organization of the report.
I. Title page: -
II. Letter of transmittal.
III. Letter of authorization.
IV. Executive summary.
V. Table of contents.
VI. List of Graph, appendices, exhibits, Tables.
VII. Introduction.
VIII. Problem definition.
IX. Research design & methodology.
X. Data analysis.
XI. Findings/results.
XII. Limitations.
XIII. Conclusions & Recommendation.
XIV. Appendix.
XV. Bibiliography.
Title page:
Ø It should include.
a. Title of the report.
b. Information (name, address, & telephone) about the researcher.
c. Name of the client.
d. Date of the report.
Letter of transmittal:
ü It contains researcher overall experience with the project.
ü It contains what further action a researcher should take regarding findings or further research.
Letter of authorization:
ü It authorizes the researcher to proceed with the project and specifies its scope & the terms of the contract.
Executive summary/Synopsis:
ü The only portion of the report that executives read.
ü It should contain problem, approach, research design major results, conclusions & recommendations.
ü Written after entire research in Times New Roman Pont with font size 12 and line spacing single. Entire summary should not exceed maximum 3 Pages.
Introduction:
ü Background material.
ü Overview of the organization.
ü Reasons for doing the work.
ü Scope of the work.
Problem definition:
ü Background of problem.
ü Formation of problem.
ü Statement of problem.
ü Research objectives.
ü Research hypothesis.
ü Theoretical foundations.
ü Analytical models.
Research design & methodology:
ü Nature of the research design adopted.
ü Information needed.
ü Data collection from secondary & primary sources.
ü Scaling techniques.
ü Questionnaire development & pretesting.
ü Sampling.
ü Nature of fieldwork.
Data analysis:
ü Plan of data analysis.
ü Techniques of data analysis.
Findings/results:
ü Longest part of the research.
ü Organized in logical way.
ü Details should be presented in the form of tables & graphs.
ü Textual commentary of the research is essential.
ü Those who consider it relevant may put a portion of the very detailed information into an appendix for further study.
Limitations:
ü Researcher should state such limitations to provide the reader with insight into special conditions pertaining to the work.
Ex: Time constraint, population constraint, potential effects of non-response errors.
Conclusions & Recommendation:
ü Interpretation of results according to problems defined in the research.
ü Recommendations should be feasible, practical actionable & directly usable.
ü It is also known as “Marketing implications” Or action recommendation.
Appendix:
ü Supplementary information, which supports the body of the report.
ü Large and complex statistical tables, technical note, copies of the questionnaire instructions to field staff, Details of sampling plan & verification of research procedure.
Bibiliography:
ü Detailed information on references or sources.
Ex: proceedings of conferences, books, periodicals, articles & websites.
“Quality of the report is often used as a major indicator of the quality of the research itself”
Role of the report or function of the report
1. The successful report breathes life into the statistical and logical findings and wins the acceptance of those who will translate the findings into action.
2. It is the means whereby the data analysis and findings are placed in an organized and permanent form.
3. It serves as a reference to the future research.
4. Quality of the work is likely to be judged mainly by the report.
5. It is index of researcher’s skill and performance, the time thought and effort spent on it is vital to his or her future.
6. Effectiveness of the report may determine the action.
Types Of reports.
Oral Reporting.
1. Know your audience.
2. Proper planning is vital.
3. Clear about the objective of the session.
4. Organize in logical manner [meaningful & comparable parts]
5. Use suitable language for proper communication.
6. Visuaids (charts, diagrams, tables, pictures, posters, slides & video clips).
7. Handouts of the presentation should be distributed.
8. Summary should cover all the points of the topic.
9. Selection of delivery technique (important, speaking from memory, reading from script & extemporaneous)
Written Reports
Classification.
i. On the basis of time.
- Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually & special.
ii. On the basis of function.
a. Informational or factual report
b. Examination report (Doesn’t contain findings & conclusions).
c. Analytical report (contain only analysis of data, recommendation & conclusions).
iii. On the basis of physical form or make up
a. Short term.
b. Long term.
iv. On the basis of relationship between reader & writer.
a. Administrative.
b. Professional.
c. Independent.
v. Employment status as a basis.
d. Private report (Business Concerns).
e. Public report (Government).
vi. On the basis of formality of occasions.
a. Formal.
b. Informal.
vii. On the basis of representation of findings.
a. Basic report.
b. Reports for publication.
c. Technical reports.
d. Reports for executives.
Characteristics of report: -
1. Adhere to study objectives, selectivity and objectivity.
2. Study should cover all the important issues in detail.
3. Should be written in a manner, which possesses clarity of thought & expression throughout.
4. Report should present actual findings rather than what manager needs.
Contents of the report OR Report format OR Report outline OR Organization of the report.
I. Title page: -
II. Letter of transmittal.
III. Letter of authorization.
IV. Executive summary.
V. Table of contents.
VI. List of Graph, appendices, exhibits, Tables.
VII. Introduction.
VIII. Problem definition.
IX. Research design & methodology.
X. Data analysis.
XI. Findings/results.
XII. Limitations.
XIII. Conclusions & Recommendation.
XIV. Appendix.
XV. Bibiliography.
Title page:
Ø It should include.
a. Title of the report.
b. Information (name, address, & telephone) about the researcher.
c. Name of the client.
d. Date of the report.
Letter of transmittal:
ü It contains researcher overall experience with the project.
ü It contains what further action a researcher should take regarding findings or further research.
Letter of authorization:
ü It authorizes the researcher to proceed with the project and specifies its scope & the terms of the contract.
Executive summary/Synopsis:
ü The only portion of the report that executives read.
ü It should contain problem, approach, research design major results, conclusions & recommendations.
ü Written after entire research in Times New Roman Pont with font size 12 and line spacing single. Entire summary should not exceed maximum 3 Pages.
Introduction:
ü Background material.
ü Overview of the organization.
ü Reasons for doing the work.
ü Scope of the work.
Problem definition:
ü Background of problem.
ü Formation of problem.
ü Statement of problem.
ü Research objectives.
ü Research hypothesis.
ü Theoretical foundations.
ü Analytical models.
Research design & methodology:
ü Nature of the research design adopted.
ü Information needed.
ü Data collection from secondary & primary sources.
ü Scaling techniques.
ü Questionnaire development & pretesting.
ü Sampling.
ü Nature of fieldwork.
Data analysis:
ü Plan of data analysis.
ü Techniques of data analysis.
Findings/results:
ü Longest part of the research.
ü Organized in logical way.
ü Details should be presented in the form of tables & graphs.
ü Textual commentary of the research is essential.
ü Those who consider it relevant may put a portion of the very detailed information into an appendix for further study.
Limitations:
ü Researcher should state such limitations to provide the reader with insight into special conditions pertaining to the work.
Ex: Time constraint, population constraint, potential effects of non-response errors.
Conclusions & Recommendation:
ü Interpretation of results according to problems defined in the research.
ü Recommendations should be feasible, practical actionable & directly usable.
ü It is also known as “Marketing implications” Or action recommendation.
Appendix:
ü Supplementary information, which supports the body of the report.
ü Large and complex statistical tables, technical note, copies of the questionnaire instructions to field staff, Details of sampling plan & verification of research procedure.
Bibiliography:
ü Detailed information on references or sources.
Ex: proceedings of conferences, books, periodicals, articles & websites.
sales presentation checklist
Sales Presentation Checklist
1. Prospect Information (Assume your prospect is a "Driver." (pp. 201-207)
Company Name: __________________________Type of Business_________________
Key Decision Maker: ___________________________Job Title: __________________
Other Members of the Buying Center: Specify Names and Job Titles where Appropriate
Gatekeeper:
Influencers:
Users:
2. Needs and/or Opportunity Analysis
Statement of prospect's problem and/or opportunity as related to sales offering
Brief description of the product or service that you are selling
3. Prospect's Buying Motives
Rational Motives Emotional Motives
4. Competitive Situation: Describe current supplier’s product or service (if
applicable) and other key competitors.
Competitor Strengths Weaknesses
5. Sales Presentation Objectives: All objectives should relate to making the sale or
advancing the sale.
Major Objectives Minor Objectives
6. Sales Presentation Planning
A. Specific Benefits
Benefits to be stressed arranged in priority order (sequence to be followed in
presentation)
B. Information to Support Claims
Information needed to support claims for each benefit
C. Reinforcing Verbal Content (AV, collateral material, illustrations, testimonials, etc.)
D. Approach (Introduce yourself, thanks for the appointment, build rapport, then
use ADAPT method)
Plans for the first few minutes of the sales presentation:
Introduction, thanks, then:
Assessment
Discovery
Activation
Projection
Transition to Presentation
E. Questions and Objections (refer to pp. 221-225 and class handouts for methods)
Anticipated prospect questions and objections, and planned responses:
Questions and Objectives Responses
F. Prospect Commitment (refer to pp. 226-230 and class handouts for methods)
A preliminary plan for how the prospect will be asked for a commitment related to the
sales presentation objective:
G. Follow-Up Action:
Statement of follow-up action needed to ensure that the buyer/seller relationship moves in
a positive direction.
NOTE: This a WORD document utilizing tables. You can add or delete rows to the
table, as you need. You might refer to HELP - Tables - Add rows or columns to
tables if you need assistance.
This document is available on the CSU website. The address is
http://www.biz.colostate.edu/fac/tomi/
1. Prospect Information (Assume your prospect is a "Driver." (pp. 201-207)
Company Name: __________________________Type of Business_________________
Key Decision Maker: ___________________________Job Title: __________________
Other Members of the Buying Center: Specify Names and Job Titles where Appropriate
Gatekeeper:
Influencers:
Users:
2. Needs and/or Opportunity Analysis
Statement of prospect's problem and/or opportunity as related to sales offering
Brief description of the product or service that you are selling
3. Prospect's Buying Motives
Rational Motives Emotional Motives
4. Competitive Situation: Describe current supplier’s product or service (if
applicable) and other key competitors.
Competitor Strengths Weaknesses
5. Sales Presentation Objectives: All objectives should relate to making the sale or
advancing the sale.
Major Objectives Minor Objectives
6. Sales Presentation Planning
A. Specific Benefits
Benefits to be stressed arranged in priority order (sequence to be followed in
presentation)
B. Information to Support Claims
Information needed to support claims for each benefit
C. Reinforcing Verbal Content (AV, collateral material, illustrations, testimonials, etc.)
D. Approach (Introduce yourself, thanks for the appointment, build rapport, then
use ADAPT method)
Plans for the first few minutes of the sales presentation:
Introduction, thanks, then:
Assessment
Discovery
Activation
Projection
Transition to Presentation
E. Questions and Objections (refer to pp. 221-225 and class handouts for methods)
Anticipated prospect questions and objections, and planned responses:
Questions and Objectives Responses
F. Prospect Commitment (refer to pp. 226-230 and class handouts for methods)
A preliminary plan for how the prospect will be asked for a commitment related to the
sales presentation objective:
G. Follow-Up Action:
Statement of follow-up action needed to ensure that the buyer/seller relationship moves in
a positive direction.
NOTE: This a WORD document utilizing tables. You can add or delete rows to the
table, as you need. You might refer to HELP - Tables - Add rows or columns to
tables if you need assistance.
This document is available on the CSU website. The address is
http://www.biz.colostate.edu/fac/tomi/
selling: handling angry clients
Handling Angry Clients
-by Shamus Brown
What do you do when your client gets mad at you? How do you handle this? An angry client can be one of the biggest time and energy drains on a sales person.
What you should specifically do will obviously depend on what the client is angry about. Sometimes our clients have a legitimate reason to be angry, such as when we screw up. Other times clients get unreasonably upset because they have different expectations about your business relationship.
n either case, your objective should be to make the client happy again (unless your client is so unreasonable that you need to let them go).
The first step towards converting an angry client to a happy one is to get in rapport with your client while he is angry.
This approach may sound a little weird to you. It works though, and you'll realize its true once you reflect upon your own experiences with anger. Ever been mad at a company, or another person, or a politician for example? When you were angry, how did you feel when you spoke to someone who didn't share your anger? You felt misunderstood, maybe even to the point where you didn't want to be around them, right?
Now think about how you felt when you encountered someone who shared you anger. You felt understood and wanted to be around this person more, didn't you?
People fundamentally want to be around others who are like themselves. We seek this all the time in all of our dealings with others. And when our mood change, we often want to be around people who are experiencing the same thing.
So then, how do you get in rapport with an angry client?
The simplest and fastest way is to match their mood, while being careful not to match the content of what they are saying. You do this by getting yourself into an emotional state similar to the client. This may be anger, frustration, or whatever word you think best describes their mood. The word label doesn't really matter. You can observe the client's mood, and you know how to create a similar feeling inside of yourself whatever the name.
Remember I also said not to match the content of what the client is saying. This is very important. In other words, you don't want to say nasty things to your client just to match them. Yes this will get you into a similar mood as them, and yes you will be in rapport. But only briefly as you watch their anger skyrocket out of control.
Instead what you want to do is say something to let them know that you are going to try rectify the situation that caused the anger. You tell them something like this:
"Jack, I know you are upset. I am upset that this situation has gotten you upset. I am going to get to work right away on..."
And remember to say this from a mood that matches their anger or frustration. Don't be all nice and comforting in your tone of voice. If you do, you'll just make them madder because they won't feel understood.
Mood matching is something you do often with friends, family and many prospects already. You just do it so automatically that you don't always notice it. By choosing to match someone, you give yourself greater influence with your clients and prospects. By matching moods and getting in rapport with an angry client, you will have greater influence over the future of the relationship.
-by Shamus Brown
What do you do when your client gets mad at you? How do you handle this? An angry client can be one of the biggest time and energy drains on a sales person.
What you should specifically do will obviously depend on what the client is angry about. Sometimes our clients have a legitimate reason to be angry, such as when we screw up. Other times clients get unreasonably upset because they have different expectations about your business relationship.
n either case, your objective should be to make the client happy again (unless your client is so unreasonable that you need to let them go).
The first step towards converting an angry client to a happy one is to get in rapport with your client while he is angry.
This approach may sound a little weird to you. It works though, and you'll realize its true once you reflect upon your own experiences with anger. Ever been mad at a company, or another person, or a politician for example? When you were angry, how did you feel when you spoke to someone who didn't share your anger? You felt misunderstood, maybe even to the point where you didn't want to be around them, right?
Now think about how you felt when you encountered someone who shared you anger. You felt understood and wanted to be around this person more, didn't you?
People fundamentally want to be around others who are like themselves. We seek this all the time in all of our dealings with others. And when our mood change, we often want to be around people who are experiencing the same thing.
So then, how do you get in rapport with an angry client?
The simplest and fastest way is to match their mood, while being careful not to match the content of what they are saying. You do this by getting yourself into an emotional state similar to the client. This may be anger, frustration, or whatever word you think best describes their mood. The word label doesn't really matter. You can observe the client's mood, and you know how to create a similar feeling inside of yourself whatever the name.
Remember I also said not to match the content of what the client is saying. This is very important. In other words, you don't want to say nasty things to your client just to match them. Yes this will get you into a similar mood as them, and yes you will be in rapport. But only briefly as you watch their anger skyrocket out of control.
Instead what you want to do is say something to let them know that you are going to try rectify the situation that caused the anger. You tell them something like this:
"Jack, I know you are upset. I am upset that this situation has gotten you upset. I am going to get to work right away on..."
And remember to say this from a mood that matches their anger or frustration. Don't be all nice and comforting in your tone of voice. If you do, you'll just make them madder because they won't feel understood.
Mood matching is something you do often with friends, family and many prospects already. You just do it so automatically that you don't always notice it. By choosing to match someone, you give yourself greater influence with your clients and prospects. By matching moods and getting in rapport with an angry client, you will have greater influence over the future of the relationship.
selling: building rapport
How to Blow Rapport Really Fast
-by Shamus Brown
Do you have 5, 10, or 20 years of sales experience?
Or do you have 1 year of sales experience 5, 10, or 20 times?
Many salespeople never advance beyond ancient outdated sales lines like "If I do this for you, will you give me the order?" Or "What do I have to do to get your business?"
Lines like these are why salespeople have a reputation near lawyers in our society.
Everyone learns lines like these in sales at some time or another. Often it comes from a senior salesperson who is described as "aggressive" or as "a closer". Because this guy brings in a lot of business, other's think that they should model his every habit. People say that you would sell more if you acted like this person. Yet secretly, most people abhor this guy.
Here's a hint. If the people in your sales organization abhorred this guy, then so did most of his prospects and customers. This guy sold a lot by using the law of averages. He sold not because of his ancient sales lines, but in spite of them. He worked 70 hours a week, and one of his favorite sayings was "its a numbers game".
Now you do have to get your message out to a large number of people. However, if you are annoying them in the process, you are wasting many great sales opportunities.
Lines such as these quickly ruin the rapport you have worked so on hard building up to this point. You brand yourself as a mere salesperson hawking a product focused only on your sales commission, rather than a business partner with concern for your prospect's business. So what should you do instead?
Learn how to uncover problems and desires that you can help the prospect eliminate, solve, achieve or realize. Begin by seeing yourself as one who helps businesses and people with your products, ideas, and services. You do this by asking questions. Ask questions to uncover problems and desires. If you cannot find something that you can help with - move on to a new prospect. Ask questions as to what the consequences will be of not doing anything towards eliminating their problem or not pursuing what they want. Use questions to help them see the consequences of buying your competitor's inferior product or service.
Helping your prospects to experience the consequences of various courses of action (or inaction) will stimulate the prospect into wanting to move the sale along. Done properly, this results in the prospect asking you how to speed up and complete the sale so that he can get on with solving his problem or realizing his goal.
-by Shamus Brown
Do you have 5, 10, or 20 years of sales experience?
Or do you have 1 year of sales experience 5, 10, or 20 times?
Many salespeople never advance beyond ancient outdated sales lines like "If I do this for you, will you give me the order?" Or "What do I have to do to get your business?"
Lines like these are why salespeople have a reputation near lawyers in our society.
Everyone learns lines like these in sales at some time or another. Often it comes from a senior salesperson who is described as "aggressive" or as "a closer". Because this guy brings in a lot of business, other's think that they should model his every habit. People say that you would sell more if you acted like this person. Yet secretly, most people abhor this guy.
Here's a hint. If the people in your sales organization abhorred this guy, then so did most of his prospects and customers. This guy sold a lot by using the law of averages. He sold not because of his ancient sales lines, but in spite of them. He worked 70 hours a week, and one of his favorite sayings was "its a numbers game".
Now you do have to get your message out to a large number of people. However, if you are annoying them in the process, you are wasting many great sales opportunities.
Lines such as these quickly ruin the rapport you have worked so on hard building up to this point. You brand yourself as a mere salesperson hawking a product focused only on your sales commission, rather than a business partner with concern for your prospect's business. So what should you do instead?
Learn how to uncover problems and desires that you can help the prospect eliminate, solve, achieve or realize. Begin by seeing yourself as one who helps businesses and people with your products, ideas, and services. You do this by asking questions. Ask questions to uncover problems and desires. If you cannot find something that you can help with - move on to a new prospect. Ask questions as to what the consequences will be of not doing anything towards eliminating their problem or not pursuing what they want. Use questions to help them see the consequences of buying your competitor's inferior product or service.
Helping your prospects to experience the consequences of various courses of action (or inaction) will stimulate the prospect into wanting to move the sale along. Done properly, this results in the prospect asking you how to speed up and complete the sale so that he can get on with solving his problem or realizing his goal.
selling: creating intensive emotions that motivates people
Creating Intense Emotions That Motivate People
-by Shamus Brown
Ever wish that your presentations could be as much fun as a cool TV commercial? Come late January every year network TV treats us to America's finest and most expensive commercials - Superbowl commercials. You may remember some of these even now, 2 weeks later. Which was your favorite? E*Trade? Fed-Ex? One of the dot.coms? My favorite was Mountain Dew.
The commercial opens showing an African desert at a distance. Drumming percussive music is playing at a moderate pace in the background. Switch to a close up view of a cheetah running fast across the desert floor. As the music builds, switch to a distance shot of a line of dust speeding across the desert. Hmmm. There's a second line of dust gaining on the first. Switch to the determined face of a mountain bike rider, teeth bared, and pumping rapidly at the pedals of his bike. Who's chasing who? The cheetah is the fastest land animal, capable of speeds up to 60 miles per hour. Switch to a front view - the mountain biker is chasing the cheetah! What's going on here? As the biker gets closer and closer to the cheetah, the music and the anticipation build. The chase is getting increasingly more exciting, and more dangerous. As the biker closes in on the cheetah, he launches off his bike, and tackles the cheetah to the ground. He gets up, cautiously approaching the cheetah with both hands poised, and reaches into the cheetah's mouth, deep down into its stomach. Suddenly he pulls his arm out, and ... it's a punctured can of Mountain Dew - empty.
After a brief shot of three guys standing with their bikes watching in the distance, the biker scolds the cheetah for drinking his Mountain Dew "bad cheetah!" One of the three guys says "see, that's why I am not a cat person". Some party music kicks in while the three guys are shown chugging cans of Mountain Dew. The commercial closes with a shot of the cheetah walking around with Mountain Dew's tag-line, "Do the Dew", written in its spots.
Pretty fun, and pretty funny. What happened here? Put simply, Mountain Dew is using your emotions to get you to desire and purchase their product. The essence of an excellent commercial is to create an intense emotion within prospects who fit the target market, and then anchor the prospect's emotion to the product at the emotional peak of the experience. By creating an intense enough emotion, and repeatedly anchoring it, the prospect will later recall the emotion, the next time that he sees the product. The associated feelings dramatically increase his propensity to purchase the product.
So how can you use this? Plan stories into your customer presentations. Design a story with emotions that you wish to associate with your product or service. Choose emotions that will help sell your product. Use the story to create the emotion, to build the emotion, and to stack it until it is intense. Then slam home your product message at the peak of the emotion. If you have ever told a story with feeling or recalled an emotional experience to someone else, then you have already done this. This is equally effective in a brief one minute interaction, or in a one hour presentation.
First, you want to plan the sequence of emotions that you your audience should feel during the presentation. In the Mountain Dew commercial, the range of emotions went something like this: intrigue, anticipation, excitement, fun, friendship. These are the emotions that Mountain Dew wants you to feel the next time you see a can in the store. You want to plan the pictures, sounds, and words that will elicit the intended emotions from the audience during your presentation. The director of the Mountain Dew commercial scripted this out in detail.
Finally, plan what product message you are going to anchor at the peak emotional moment of your presentation. The Mountain Dew can with Logo was shown to you right at the peak of the anticipation and excitement after the biker tackled the cheetah. You saw it again with the three friends chugging it, anchoring you to friendship. The final anchoring was with the tag-line written in the spots of the cheetah sexily strutting by. The Mountain Dew logo was anchored three times to excitement, friendship, and sex.
Pictures and sounds are very important in creating emotions. If you help the prospect create pictures and sounds in their own minds, you help them to create their own unique meaning of the experience you give them. There was very little dialog in the Mountain Dew commercial. Instead, the visceral experience of the biker chasing the cheetah sells you the product. Only 7% of all communication comes through in the words we say. 55% of all communication comes through in the physiology we observe in others, and the remaining 38% come through in subtleties of the sounds we hear.
Telling stories allows you to fully engage your audience's emotions. Features and benefits are important, but emotions are how most people make purchasing decisions. Now, do you really want to give another bullet-list PowerPoint presentation?
Originally published in the EGOPOWER sales newsletter.
-by Shamus Brown
Ever wish that your presentations could be as much fun as a cool TV commercial? Come late January every year network TV treats us to America's finest and most expensive commercials - Superbowl commercials. You may remember some of these even now, 2 weeks later. Which was your favorite? E*Trade? Fed-Ex? One of the dot.coms? My favorite was Mountain Dew.
The commercial opens showing an African desert at a distance. Drumming percussive music is playing at a moderate pace in the background. Switch to a close up view of a cheetah running fast across the desert floor. As the music builds, switch to a distance shot of a line of dust speeding across the desert. Hmmm. There's a second line of dust gaining on the first. Switch to the determined face of a mountain bike rider, teeth bared, and pumping rapidly at the pedals of his bike. Who's chasing who? The cheetah is the fastest land animal, capable of speeds up to 60 miles per hour. Switch to a front view - the mountain biker is chasing the cheetah! What's going on here? As the biker gets closer and closer to the cheetah, the music and the anticipation build. The chase is getting increasingly more exciting, and more dangerous. As the biker closes in on the cheetah, he launches off his bike, and tackles the cheetah to the ground. He gets up, cautiously approaching the cheetah with both hands poised, and reaches into the cheetah's mouth, deep down into its stomach. Suddenly he pulls his arm out, and ... it's a punctured can of Mountain Dew - empty.
After a brief shot of three guys standing with their bikes watching in the distance, the biker scolds the cheetah for drinking his Mountain Dew "bad cheetah!" One of the three guys says "see, that's why I am not a cat person". Some party music kicks in while the three guys are shown chugging cans of Mountain Dew. The commercial closes with a shot of the cheetah walking around with Mountain Dew's tag-line, "Do the Dew", written in its spots.
Pretty fun, and pretty funny. What happened here? Put simply, Mountain Dew is using your emotions to get you to desire and purchase their product. The essence of an excellent commercial is to create an intense emotion within prospects who fit the target market, and then anchor the prospect's emotion to the product at the emotional peak of the experience. By creating an intense enough emotion, and repeatedly anchoring it, the prospect will later recall the emotion, the next time that he sees the product. The associated feelings dramatically increase his propensity to purchase the product.
So how can you use this? Plan stories into your customer presentations. Design a story with emotions that you wish to associate with your product or service. Choose emotions that will help sell your product. Use the story to create the emotion, to build the emotion, and to stack it until it is intense. Then slam home your product message at the peak of the emotion. If you have ever told a story with feeling or recalled an emotional experience to someone else, then you have already done this. This is equally effective in a brief one minute interaction, or in a one hour presentation.
First, you want to plan the sequence of emotions that you your audience should feel during the presentation. In the Mountain Dew commercial, the range of emotions went something like this: intrigue, anticipation, excitement, fun, friendship. These are the emotions that Mountain Dew wants you to feel the next time you see a can in the store. You want to plan the pictures, sounds, and words that will elicit the intended emotions from the audience during your presentation. The director of the Mountain Dew commercial scripted this out in detail.
Finally, plan what product message you are going to anchor at the peak emotional moment of your presentation. The Mountain Dew can with Logo was shown to you right at the peak of the anticipation and excitement after the biker tackled the cheetah. You saw it again with the three friends chugging it, anchoring you to friendship. The final anchoring was with the tag-line written in the spots of the cheetah sexily strutting by. The Mountain Dew logo was anchored three times to excitement, friendship, and sex.
Pictures and sounds are very important in creating emotions. If you help the prospect create pictures and sounds in their own minds, you help them to create their own unique meaning of the experience you give them. There was very little dialog in the Mountain Dew commercial. Instead, the visceral experience of the biker chasing the cheetah sells you the product. Only 7% of all communication comes through in the words we say. 55% of all communication comes through in the physiology we observe in others, and the remaining 38% come through in subtleties of the sounds we hear.
Telling stories allows you to fully engage your audience's emotions. Features and benefits are important, but emotions are how most people make purchasing decisions. Now, do you really want to give another bullet-list PowerPoint presentation?
Originally published in the EGOPOWER sales newsletter.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)