Illustration of Service Marketing and Selling Processes at TCS Finland by Sofia Nyyssรถnen
Conducting the study
• The TCS is suitable for research in that it is the expert service provider of IT services, consulting and business solutions. • It was interesting to study how the company perceives their own role and the role of customer in the process of production of value and marketing of such service. • Main theme: How to develop the processes to be more customer – centric and to build a long-tern relationship with customers? • Subtheme: how the customer is involved in the process of value and how the company sees their participation?
• TCS – a global consultant company whose solutions come from collaborative relationships with our clients.
Implementation of the interview
In preparation for the study, we studied and benchmarked it against its main competitor in Finland – the Infosys, which takes pride in building strategic long-term client relationships. • Pre-sent themes, subthemes and questions to the interviewee TCS Engagement Manager Man Singh so that would have time to look into it more deeply and reflect on the company’s positions prior to the interview. • A good method, flexible, and not based on accurately predetermined questions. • Possible to jump to another topic, when it arises, and questions can be adapted to the situation. • Interview questions were formulated as open as to produce productive dialogue, an open discussion in which all topics are allowed is in the according to the Service Dominant Logic-thinking.
The Analysis • The answers were grouped into the selected themes.
• We analyzed how the interviewed has talked from the relationship marketing perspective. • Especially, we focused on putting the customer at the center of the TCS business and creating the strategic long-term relationships with the customer, and how these add value to their roles in cooperation. I • We looked into the organization's description, in order to assess, are the service marketing and selling perspectives spontaneously raised. • The purpose of was to find recurrent references relating to the strategic management of customer relationships and cooperation.
TCS’ Relationship Strategy • To reduce the dependence on the external environment Tata has adopted a strategy, which stresses branding its products and adding value to its products or services. • The company has realized that a strong customer focus is essential in order to brand its products and gain reputation on the market. • The customer-centric corporate culture is adopted throughout the TCS and tightly woven into their processes- it helps the employees to think and act in customercentric ways • An internal R&D arm known as InnoLabs, whose goal is to anticipate the evolution of technology and its impact on business provide TCS with innovation opportunities and enlarge the capabilities of the company to keep up with the fast changes in the IT world. • Creating long-lasting relationships, operates in many countries and at the intersection of different cultures and technologies- create insights into industry trends and emerging business models, rather that relaying on the expertise in a single domain.
Digital Marketing & Relationship Management • Focus on the role of digitization on relationship management as sub-theme of our research. • Select activity - tools such as social media to gain attraction of the right customers. For instance professional blogs, digital white papers, cloud related different solutions helped TCS to gain lot of customer traction. • Customer Acquisition - identifying the customer segmentation, determining the customer lifecycle, and service quality levels. We did not find TCS using digital tools in customer acquisition though TCS determines the customer lifecycles, value and quality. • Customer Retention - TCS uses mix of digital tools and personal meetings with the clients to proactively track the issues and communicate the problems faced by the delivery teams: Customer satisfaction surveys (CSS), employee’s incentive and internally developed issue tracking tools. • Customer Extension - extend the offerings to the exiting customers both vertically and horizontally.
Conclusions and Recommendations for the TCS Finland 1/2 Selling is all about relationship-building • Customers will only buy your services if they trust you, respect you, and like you. • Customers care about their business, and sale proposition should take place from the customer's perspective rather than from the perspective of your business. • One idea would be introducing the integrated and co-creative platform that would provide various collaborative, communication and information tools for enabling TCS and its customers to co-create valuable experiences with their customers and stakeholders. • Digital tools play vital role in creating B2B co-creative platforms
Conclusions and Recommendations for the TCS Finland 2/2 Increasing Customer Lifetime Value • TCS need to focus on loyalty and find ways to develop customer relationships in the business in order to keep customers coming back for what their service offering - one of the most effective ways to distinguish yourself from competitors . • TCS need to keep their pricing model as accommodating as possible and be flexible with the features of their service - This will allow TCS to target a much wider audience with their services. • TCS need to ensure that the pricing model is clear and that customers know exactly what they are paying for. This not only improves the company’s reputation but also, coming back to our first point, improves customer relationships and develops customer loyalty towards the company.