Tata Group firms adopt total customer value management solutions
The Economic Times — December 23, 2007

With customer-care taking centre stage in businesses, a city-based firm has chipped in with a Total CustomerValue Management initiative for providing the right strategies to companies and has already roped in India's leading corporate Tata Group as a client.

A brainchild of Customer Value Foundation (CVF), the TCM programme focuses on the wants of customers rather than just process-oriented issues.

"With the concept of TCM, our aim is to create awareness and also help the companies to understand the value and role of customers for their respective businesses," CVF President Gautam Mahajan told reporters.

The idea is to generate higher returns on investment and create more value for the company to its stakeholders through proper management of customers, he added.

CVF was founded by consultancy firm Inter-Link Services and marketing company TLC Marketing.

One of the companies that have already taken up TCM is Tata Group company Tata Fertilisers.

"The implementation of CVF's customer value study helped us align the supply chain (our sales team, the dealers and the retailers) to become more customer focused and customer sensitive," Tata Fertilisers CEO Kapil Mehan said.

Pointing out that TCM is not a substitute for the existing Total Quality Management (TQM) programme, he said that customer value management is rather complimentary to other quality management initiatives.

Mahajan said that a few more group companies of Tatas including Tata Chemicals would be taking up the customer value management programme.