Monday, 25 February 2013

Professionalism or Service


When was the last time you felt a company was serving you rather than just doing its business? Would you expect a company to do holistic service or just be happy with its professional approach? What do you see as the most vital element and the deciding factor to call a company a “good company”?


There are two doctors in a locality. One is a formal guy and the other is more friendly and compassionate. People in the locality know that the man of few words is more efficient and experienced, but they prefer to visit the compassionate and friendly doctor. They consult him because of the fact that he provides them with the comfort level needed during their crisis situations. We also tend to adapt the same approach in many such situations. We may convince ourselves to avail of services from a person or company even though we know that they are not the best in the business. The emotional connect we have overpowers the reasoning in preferring professionalism. Does this type of reasoning stand good in very strict business sense? Will we have the same considerations when dealing with the corporate world?

How will we choose? If the difference in standard of service between the two companies is very obvious then choosing might not be tough. When the level of professionalism is just marginally high, how do we choose? The company is experienced, well-established and a prominent one in its industry of operation, but still we may not want to be associated with them. This can be caused by a existing relationship with another company. A successful relationship need not be broken, if it has been providing satisfactory results. A consideration to join hands with the new company should be based on the innovative approaches they possess, added advantage we could obtain, general practises of the industry and a better image we could gain from our client’s perspective. A thorough analysis of these factors is required before we can have a new relationship. A new relationship without having any significant developments would not be acceptable. Tried and tested methods are better to have than adopting a new method which others might call the best.

How will you choose your relocation partner?
What would be on your mind when you plan to choose a relocation partner? What are the factors which will make you choose the company for servicing your relocation needs? Reputation, price, track record, global presence or any other fact? Which of these will create the greater impact in your decision making?

There are numerous reasons to stick or not stick to a particular relocation company. Cost is a very vital element, but however when it comes to safety and timeliness, cost just comes as the third in priority. Delivering on time and with utmost care is what we usually look for in a good relocation company, but there can be other factors that can make us go back to them whenever we have a necessity. Those factors make what might be usually just a business transaction into the relationship. There are a few instances that bring the company close to our heart, that’s what makes the difference between a transaction and a relationship. Its not enough if the good work is done only for the first instance, we need to get the comfort and trust every time we approach the business. We might need good feedback system to voice our grievances and also need to be practically proved that those issues were taken care. There might a few very small things that we tend to look while we decide to stick on to a particular service provider. Sticking to the promises, meeting and at times exceeding expectations and also the efforts to keep the customer happy is what really matters. There might be dozens of options to choose from, but what is most vital is that “do we feel the urge and the confidence to go back to service provider and use what’s on offer. End of day “No one can be fully satisfied, but for sure there is a benchmark to feel convinced about good service”.



Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Interem and the other namesake companies


A review was written by a person about our company in a website. It was a negative review with lot of complaints about the operations of the company. The person accused the company of being highly unprofessional and providing dirty commitments. The person involved in moving his luggage kept them in the road and refused to take it to the house in the second floor because he had refused to pay him extra money. These claims by the person were hard to accept taking into consideration the high standards we set and the very serious complaints he made. We were courteous enough to apologize for the bad experience he had and we also requested his reference number to make clarifications. When we received the reference number and verified the records, we found out that the relocation services were not provided by us. It is most likely that he had availed the services of one of the many companies which constantly attempt at utilizing the brand value of Interem and misguide prospective clients. There have been negative reviews about the company before but they were a result of misunderstanding about the agreement between the company and the client. A not-so good review about the company is absolutely normal in any business operation, but this misguiding of prospective clients is unfair from the business point of view. The most disappointing part of this issue would be that only little can be done to tackle the problem. A look-a-like Roger Federer or Usain Bolt can pose like the originals. Can they perform like the real athletes? Reggie Brown (Barack Obama impersonator) can mouth lines like “we can” and amuse people, but is it possible for him to bring back troops from Afghanistan.  A similar situation would be when a person expects the same professionalism from the setup which wants to tap the name value of a reputed company.
A company which loses its prospective client, (because of a company which cons the client with a similar sounding name) loses one client and may also earn a bad reputation among a group known to the person. When proportionately taking it to consideration it might be minor, but what effect it has on the person who avails the services should be looked closely. The person will suffer badly and a sour memory of the experience will be etched in the back of their mind. Usually higher pricing is associated with greed but the truth is, it is near to impossible to provide a descent level of service without charging a descent fee. The cost charged includes proper packaging, good transporting and handling. When you feel the price is a big bargain according to industry standards, you should realize there is a possibility that you might not receive the perfection you wanted. It is important to prioritize our expectations. Do we rate low cost more than safety and proper handling of goods? A person moving their belongings would always prefer safety over other factors. You can either be satisfied with good services or be briefly happy about the huge discount you managed to obtain and later regret about the problems you faced while relocating.  

Interem Relocations (a subsidiary of Freight Systems Group) 
(www.interem.in)

Thursday, 25 October 2012

Interem to invest Rs 200-crore in 3 years


Source: Economic Times (Bangalore edition) 19 Dec 2012

Relocation and warehousing company Interem plans to invest Rs 200 crore over the next three years, as part of its plan to increase its business in the consumer retail segment across the country.

The company has earmarked about Rs 150 crore to acquire land and build a logistics hub near the Nhava Sheva container port in Navi Mumbai.

It also plans to spend between Rs 50 crore and Rs 60 crore for a separate facility in Sanand, Gujarat.

"The Nhava Sheva project should be initiated by 2013, and be up and running by 2014. We have also applied to the government for land in Sanand," said Rahul Pillai, regional director for Middle East and India, Interem.

These new projects will spearhead the company's plans to re-orient its business towards a more consumer-led model. Currently, about 90% of its business in India is generated from the business-to-business model.

"The business-to-consumer segment is more competitive and margins do get impacted, but the Indian market works on volumes and we hope to grow the retail segment by an additional 10% over the next year," said Pillai.

According to industry estimates, the Indian relocation sector is valued at about $360 million (about Rs 1,960 crore now), and is expected to grow 20% annually.

Interem competes with Santa Fe Relocation Services and Crown Relocations — both based in Hong Kong — as well as UK's Allied Pickfords in the highly fractured Indian logistics, warehousing and relocation sector.

It will fund the expansion through its own reserves as also funds from its parent — Dubai-based $400 million Freight Systems Group.

Privately-held Freight Systems Group is involved in shipping, freight forwarding, warehousing and supply chain logistics.

In 2010, Interem invested Rs 50 crore for constructing a 20 lakh square-foot central logistics hub in the Mahindra World City special economic zone in Chennai.

"We have been fairly cash rich as a company, and our division has zero debt per se. As we go forward, it (investments in India) will be funded by the parent company," Pillai said.

According to him, Interem contributed 10%, or $40 million, to Freight Systems' turnover for 2011-12. It expects to make up 20% of the parent's turnover in the current fiscal.

"The huge volume of domestic consumption in India has been the differentiator, as the market requirements in the country are huge," Pillai said.