By : Vinay Gada Prashant Jadhav Fatima Adab

About the Company:

Incorporated in US in the year 1973. It was the pioneer in the development of network solutions affordable by the customers. Its products include Voice, Data, Fax, LAN and WAN. It focused To provide multimedia access networking solutions to Large, Medium and Small sizes companies. It was the market leader in the year 1996 with 37% market share of the Rs 500 Mn market. It provided service to 11 sectors out of which Software Cos were leading with 24 % of sales followed by Telecom and Electronics with 16% and 14% rspt.

Reasons for poor After Sales Service and attempts to improve

More than 2 days was the time taken for the engineers to reach the customer after receiving the complaint. The distributors cant bear the cost of ASS[After Sales Service]. Assumption Improvements Crash time reduced to 30 hrs from 48 hrs.

Different Alternatives and its Pros & Cons

Alternatives
1 Appoint new distributors

Pros
Could give better service then old distributor Results in increase in customers and sales revenue.

Cons
They could do same practice as old distributor Co. has to bare the cost of training, salaries, expenses etc . Of new employees.

Opt for Companys own Direct Selling Network.

Improve the management of the existing channel members. Multi Channel Marketing and not to depend on just 4 distributors. Appoint Independent Agents [Commission]

It could satisfied customers problem. Superior service. Effectively reach different segments of the market Difficult to manage them

Increasing the reach Risk of spoiling the to far flung areas brand image of the Co.

What is meant by Vertical Marketing System?

A vertical marketing system is a contained business unit where the manufacturer, distributor and retailer work simultaneously to sell products to the end consumer. ADVANTAGES 1] Efficient Marketing - Having control of the entire marketing process from manufacturing to end user sales allows a company to i) analyze the process, ii) find problems and resolve those issues to become more efficient. Customer feedback on product issues can find its way back to the corporate marketing team at the manufacturing facility as opposed to being stopped by an independent retail outlet.

2] Combining Resources - A vertical marketing system allows the combined entity to benefit from the pooling of resources. For example, a vertical marketing system ships products from the manufacturer to distribution and then from distribution to the retail outlets. In a standard marketing arrangement, this would be the activity of three separate organizations. In a vertical marketing system, the shipping costs can be combined and a lower overall shipping agreement can be negotiated with a shipping provider.

How can Alfa network motivate their Distributors/Dealers to perform better

Monetary benefits Incentivize distributors Design Yearly, Monthly and Weekly Targets Non Monetary benefits Global and National Tours. Special Schemes for Distributors i.e. ASS In 24 Hrs, then xx amount by the Co.

Our Recommendation to Mr Sukesh Kumar.

Appoint Special Executives for Selected Clients in order to generate more revenue from them Design a ASS Visit Plan on regular interval Launch Customized packages for its customer as per their preferences. Eg Package should such that the customer can afford it. Develop a transparent system to attend Customer Complaints and the time taken by the distributor to solve the issue.