OREANDA-NEWS. On 26 May 2009 was announced, that COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS OJSC, LSE: CMST), a major operator of integrated telecommunications services in Russia and the CIS, held Round Table named: “Facing the Customer: Retail Against Crisis” as part of Svyaz-Expocomm 2009 Exhibition. That event was conducted with information support provided by the Expert Online business information/analytical portal and Comstar Community corporate magazine for the partners and customers of COMSTAR-UTS Group.

The event focused on review of the relevant issues concerning launching the sales and customer relations on mass market amid financial and economic crisis. More than 30 representatives, General Directors, Heads and top specialist from the sales and marketing units of communications operators, system integrators, major retail chains and companies from various market sectors, such as the banking, motor, foodstuffs retail, etc., attended the events. The Heads of COMSTAR-UTS’ Commercial Divisions,  as well as the invited experts: Andrey Shelkovy, Senior Vice President, MBRD; Igor Kachalov, President, Consulting Agency Kachalov and Clleagues; Evgeny Lomize, Head, Advertising  Technologies Unit, Yandex; Alexander Zarzhetsky, Head, Retail Sales Department, 1S Rarus. Elena Rytsareva, Editor-in-Chief of Expert Online portal, performed the duties of moderator of Round Table.

In the course of the Round Table session on the prospects of development of retail business, the methods for promotion of the FMCG the attendants discussed the ways of solving the common objectives relating to the necessity to optimize the sales system and customer servicing for further business growth.

Opening the work of Round Table, Alexey Goncharuk, First Vice President, COMSTAR-UTS Group of Companies, noted: “The crisis, to some extent or other, has affected all industries, the corporate and retail segments alike. We all see this plainly as the service providers, sellers, on the one hand,  and as customers, buyers, on the other hand, when we go to the bank or shopping. As a service provider, we are on the lookout for the ways to optimize the costs, and, as a buyer, we are keen to save. Moreover, as a buyer, what we know for certain is that we, in no circumstances, would want the business to economize on us. Therefore, given the prevailing market conditions, the manufacturers/suppliers/consumers relationship is brought to the forefront. The crisis is an appropriate point in time to move from inorganic business development to gain trust of the existing customers. To this end a new level of operator/customer relations needs to be achieved in proper time.”

Sergey Terpugov, Commercial Director for FMCG, COMSTAR-UTS, spoke about the restructuring the sales system of broadband Internet access, interactive digital TV services and value-added multimedia services under the STREAM brand in Moscow. “Nowadays, ÿõ îñîáóþ âàæíîñòü ïDèîáDåòàåò the ability to deal with customers, an ongoing service evolution, their affordability and improvement in the grade of service are becoming particularly important. This is why we place special emphasis on optimization of the sales network and customer relations processes. For example, we are replacing part of our offices, which perform poorly in terms of efficiency, with the new-format client offices, i.e. Small Office that are placed in the most advantageous locations, do not require heavy investment, feature high mobility (quick to launch and closedown, if necessary), have low maintenance costs, while offering a comprehensive range of service functions. Besides, we are developing aggressively direct sales and agency retail network (today, this comprises over 680 sales outlets and about 60K payment acceptance outlets in Moscow)  to ensure that our full-package product is within walking distance. The full-package product as delivered includes the CDs with special automatic configuration software and STREAM.Agent allowing the subscriber an easy connection, setting up and management of our services. Finally, another important area of COMSTAR’s activities is the development of facilities for remote subscriber service through Private Cabinet on the site, a call center with capability to process the most popular queries through IVR. All of this makes it possible to effectively sign on new subscribers and retain the existimg subscriber base.”

Roman Akatov, Commercial Director for operations on the mass market, told about comprehensive telecommunication solutions, proposed by JSC Comstar-UTS  to corporate customers, as a tool for saving costs and increasing business efficiency of the distribution companies. "As operator of mass services for residential customers, we explore new ways of dialog with consumers, work to raise the grade of service and the clients loyalty. As operator of comprehensive services for business (our customers include some big-time retail chains) we strive to help our corporate customers solve theirs urgent tasks, - he said. – So, for instance, we launched a new anti-crisis  service, helping our clients to arrange telecommunications when they move to a new office. In our business development, we take into account a desire of our many clients to outsource certain non-core activities, such as calls handling (we have our own outsourcing  call-center, successfully serving our clients in the current situation). We try to meet in maximum the clients needs, as it is obvious, that a full comprehensive set of services  from one vendor allows them to bring down theirs telecom costs".

Andrey Shelkovy,  Senior Vice President of MBRD, presented the development strategy of this retail bank in the face of keen market competition and difficult financial situation in the country and worldwide. He pointed out, that strong and trust-based customer relations become a key driver for long-lasting prosperity of any company. "MBRD today actively investigates the client needs and requirements, and sets up prompt feedback via channels specially  designed to evaluate the quality of service. The bank has developed the quality standards that contain the rules of service, and evaluation of compliance with them. We also have launched such projects as Hot Line and Quality Line. Being client-oriented our policy is basically aimed at quality of service, where each employee takes an active part in creating a positive bank perception, while the bank, in its turn,  provides a quality service", - he commented.

Special attention during discussions was paid to the new, promising ways of services promotion, including opportunities for context, targeting advertising (a topic presented by Evgeny Lomizse from Yandex), the use of CRM automated systems (of which the experience was shared by Alexandre Zarzjetsky from 1Ñ-Rarus") and customer relations based on advanced SLA (Service Level Agreement) approach. SLA makes integral part of the services provided on the European and American markets and is only emerging in Russia. JSC Comstar-UTS was the fist among Russian telecom carriers to start introduction of SLA of European level  for its corporate clients along with provision of QoS control tools (see).

Criteria for efficiency evaluation of retail business in different sectors in terms of comparison between Russian and international expertise were presented by Igor Kachalov.

In general the Round Table has proved a high topicality of the issues put on the agenda and  willingness of the companies in different segments of the mass market to use the most various opportunities to raise customer  loyalty through higher service standards.