OREANDA-NEWS. October 24, 2011. Tata Motors commercial vehicles business unit has announced a slew of initiatives, further extending and strengthening the reach of its customer service. The announcements coincide with the business’ observance of National Customer Care Day on October 23, 2011. It was on October 23, 1954, that the first truck of the company was rolled out.

Among the new initiatives is the availability of a Tata-authorised service workshop (TASS) in a radius of 30km across the country by 2015. At present, the business has about 1,240 service workshops, each in a radius of 65km. The business will also beef up the service infrastructure for its Ace and Magic families of vehicles, by setting up new and upgrading all existing service points into two-bay workshops known as Tata Authorised Service Point, to facilitate further penetration of the range in the interiors. Tata Alert, a road-side assistance programme for the full range of Tata Motors commercial vehicles is also among the plans, to be implemented by 2012.

Over the coming months, customers will also have facilities, such as the Tata Easypay Card, to ease payments at any authorised service workshop, and extended warranties with options as per customer needs.

The company already provides 24x7 assistance on any sales / service / product issues and spare parts availability across the country, through Tata Connect. Customer facilities already include an annual maintenance contract for customer-desired periods (kilometres / hours) at pre-determined prices, reconditioned aggregates on an exchange basis to reduce vehicle downtime, fleet maintenance, on-site service support, Tata genuine spare parts and Tata Delight, a customer loyalty programme for owners of its commercial vehicles.

The various customer care initiatives include:

Customer assistance centre: It is a nodal point receiving feedback through various access mechanisms and coordinating 24x7 assistance on any sales / service / product issues and spare parts availability to all customers across India.

Annual maintenance contract: An annual maintenance contract is offered for complete preventive and scheduled maintenance and breakdown repairs of driveline at predetermined prices for a period covering desired kilometres / hours.     

Recon products: Tata Motors offers reconditioned aggregates on an exchange basis which help in reducing the downtime of a vehicle.

Fleet maintenance: A fleet maintenance contract is offered for complete maintenance of vehicles, excluding tyres and accidental repairs, for a predefined period or kilometres / hours.

Onsite service support: To meet tight project schedules, tippers deployed on-site, which are away from town-based dealers or TASS, get on-site service through on-site packages.

Tata Alert: To support customers in case of emergency breakdown on highways, road-side assistance is available on the Golden Quadrilateral and N-S/E-W corridors.

ISO certification for workshops/TASS: Towards imparting a uniform and delightful experience to customers at all touch points, Tata Motors is getting its dealers certified for ISO 9001:2008 through Bureau Veritas.

Workshop infrastructure development: Towards imparting a uniform service quality, the business is supporting its channel partners in upgrading their workshops with modern equipment. Eight equipment suppliers have been roped in to supply and provide turnkey solutions to workshops.

Service training: There are five service training centres imparting advanced product and maintenance knowledge to mechanics, technicians, customers, fleet operators and institutional customers. Besides, on-site field training is also imparted.

E-learning: With the increase in number of workshops and requirement of trained personnel at workshops, an e-learning initiative, the first such initiative in the auto industry, has been implemented. It provides web-based multi-lingual training for technicians.

Skilled mechanic development: With the surge in demand for trained manpower, an initiative has been taken to upgrade Industrial Training Institutes so that skills are relevant to requirement.

Skilled workshop manager development: To support the company’s network expansion plan, trained workshop managers are being developed through the 'Tata Motors Certified Works Manager’ programme.

Driver training institutes: The initiative is a one-stop shop for training, covering theoretical and practical training.