Imperatoria Case Study

8/10/2019 Imperatoria Case Study

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Customer Redressal Mechanism & Organisation Overhaul in the Cable Industry:

About the firm & Industry:

Den Enjoy Cable Network Pvt Ltd is a Multi System Operator (MSO), a 51-49% JV

between Den Networks Ltd & Enjoy Cable Network. The firms distributes the encrypted

signals of satellite channels to Local Cable Operators (LCO) like Jolly Brothers, Niral

Nagar, Lucknow through fibre optic cables across Lucknow. Jolly Brothers, Local cable

operator or cablewallahs own the last mile of the cable and distribute it to subscribers

homes, delivering hundreds of channels at the lowest tariffs across the world.

Cablewallahs go from door to door collecting the monthly subscriptions for the agreed

bundle of channels.

In 2003, another option - Direct-to-Home (DTH) emerged to give a tough competition to

the LCOs. Faced with the threat of DTH and The Cable Television Networks (Regulation)

Act 19951, the cable TV industry has been forced to restructure. DTHis a digital satelliteservice that provides television viewing services directly to subscribers through satellite

transmission anywhere in the country. In this a dish is placed outside a home which helps

in receiving the signals and broadcasting the transmission onto a television. DTH will

definitely cut into the existing cable user base. It will give consumers greater choice. But

it is likely to be an expensive and up market premium product and now since cheaper and

same quality digital signal is available through cable operator, mass and middle class

households will stick to cable.

Cable Tv is a solution using cable wires whereas DTH is a wireless solution. DTH is a

one way solution and Cable operators cable can be a two way solution. Broadband alsoneeds two-way communication and the wired version is better (than wireless version) for

fast speeds and heavy downloads. Thus Cable operator will be the biggest broadband

service provider due to his expertise in wired solution. But first, Cable TN operations will

have to become more professional and organized.

Local cable vs DTH:

The subscribers have limited options besides a few local cable operators. The

cable TV operators enjoy a monopoly in the market due to the unique nature of

their offerings, in comparison to DTH.

DTH is more expensive In DTH, Customer complaint phone number is chargeable (STD) in addition to visit

charges whereas local cable complaint mechanism is a local call: practically a free

1The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 19951(7 of 1995), as amended by the Cable Television Networks

(Regulation) Amendment ordinance, 2011 (3 of 2011): The Central Government, having been satisfied that it isnecessary in the public interest so to do, hereby notifies that it shall be obligatory for every cable operator to transmitor re-transmit programmes of any channel in an encrypted form through a Digital addressable system. As perRegulation last date of compulsory Digitalization and sun set of Analog Cable in Lucknow was 31stDec 2013


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option (a quick phone call to the on-ground employee mobile phone or the cable

operator office)

Every time you call DTH customer care, a different unknown executive deals with

you. Whereas local cable customer care is simply a boy next door and is often

known to the customer for a long time.

DTH customer redressal takes 72 hours whereas the local cable boy can comewithin an hour

DTH performs poorly in cloudy/ rainy season

DTH customer packages and offers change too frequently

Multiple payment options in DTH, while convenient for the company, are confusing

for the customer. In contrast, the cablewallahs offer the postpaid system for cash

collection

The prime movers in Jolly Brothers are the foot soldiers: the workers who traverse door-

to-door selling connections, collecting subscription and addressing grievances. There are

around 4000 such workers across the industry in Lucknow.

Typical worker profile: Education levels ranging from Class 8 to graduation, between 25-

40 years of age, 90% of staff has 10+ years of tenure with the company. Most workers

are migrants from nearby districts.

Some of the problems faced in dealing/ formalizing the Jolly Brothers Staff:

Incentives: In theory, during the analog regime, the on-ground employees have to

declare the number of their subscribers to his owner cable operator. In practice, the on-

ground employees routinely under-declare the subscriptions and pocket the money since

the channels were delivered to the customer without an addressable system involvingset-top boxes and smart cards. This was amplified by the fact that there was no way

previously to track the number of connections serviced by each worker. After

digitalization, the extra commission earned by the workers (through providing additional

untraceable connections) has disappeared. To compensate for this change, their salary

was doubled (from INR 4,000 to ~INR 7,500).

Enforcing norms like attire: Most of the on-ground employees have been with the

employer for a long time. Servicing the same consumers for years has given them easy

excess and good repo with the consumers. They visit the consumer houses when most

of the male members are out yet no complaints have been lodged against cable workersof misbehaving or theft etc. On the other hand rules like dress code, clean-shaven etc are

enforceable or appreciated by the workers

Job Security: Despite staff with 10-15 years tenure, the workers need assurances

regarding the growth prospects; assurances that go beyond salary hikes. While the

company director used to personally engage with the workers, that has become difficult

with increasing staff and workload


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Organisation Loyalty:The workers do not have organization loyalty. Being the single

point of contact for most customers, they can easily switch firms or recommend an

alternate service to a customer.

Shortage of new workforce: Despite the salary hike to INR 7,500 per month, people are

apprehensive of the nature of the job (outgoing, customer service etc.) and the quality ofnew hire is dismal

Extra mile for customer service: Workers will not pick up customer calls on holidays.

Neither do they divert or report such calls to the city office. The workers have no incentive

or drive to do so. A typical conversation would be:

Customer:Rajan, the BBC channel has stopped coming at our home

Rajan (with no research/ attempt to verify):Maam, the channel has closed down

at our company

Deliverables:

1) Propose a practical training module to address the above worker issues, including but

not limited to:

a) Motivation

b) Loyalty

c) Appearance

d) Commitment to work, accountability

2) Appraisal mechanism/ reward system

3) While salaries of workers are currently pegged at competitor rates, what data would

you requireto calculate the actual costing of the workers

4) Customer redressal & Collection mechanism:A system that can track customer

complaints effectively and collect payments. At present, payment is received by door-

to-door collections

5) Cost-effective methods of connecting with customers: Keep in mind that

housewives and senior citizens are also a significant chunk of the customer base

Submission information:

1) The deadline for submission is 2200 hrs, Friday, 21 Nov. Please note that the deadline

will not be extended

2) Submissions in form of Power-point deck (.pdf/.ppt/.pptx) of max. 20 slides (1 CoverSlide with Personal Profile + Executive Summary + 18 Solution slides)

3) Submissions are encouraged to have primary research and can have additionaldocuments like excels as supplements


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4) Submission link will be made available at http://iiml-manfestvarchasva.com/content/cognizant-imperatoria

5) Submission is to be named as:

6) Teams can upload their entries at the upload link made available on the Imperatoriaevent dashboard. The upload link will be made available in due course.

7) The submissions will be evaluated on the following parameters:

a) Exhaustive understanding of the case scenario and context

b) Depth of analysis of industry, existing business model & key challenges

c) Novelty, feasibility and practicality of ideas proposed

d) Detailing of action plan proposed

e) Structure of presentation & clarity of ideas conveyed

f) Completeness / comprehensiveness of the solution
http://iiml-manfestvarchasva.com/content/cognizant-imperatoriahttp://iiml-manfestvarchasva.com/content/cognizant-imperatoriahttp://iiml-manfestvarchasva.com/content/cognizant-imperatoriahttp://iiml-manfestvarchasva.com/content/cognizant-imperatoriahttp://iiml-manfestvarchasva.com/content/cognizant-imperatoria

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Imperatoria Case Study