“It is unfortunate that most of the handset manufacturers do not focus on customer service,” says Sharad Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO, Hyve. The New Delhi-based mobility startup – Hyve has recently launched its first smartphones in India – the Hyve Buzz and Hyve Storm. In an interaction with EC’s Ankush Kumar, Mehrotra talks about the company’s focus in providing quality after-sales service to its customers that comprises extended warranty, bundled insurance policy and pick-up & drop facility at pan India addresses for cases of repair/replacements. He also sees huge opportunity in the enterprise mobility market which is likely to further grow in the coming years.
Edited Excerpts :
How do you see the enterprise mobility market in India?
Enterprise mobility in India is growing at a phenomenal pace. As smartphone adoption is growing, enterprise also are allowing their employees to have access of their critical apps on mobile devices. The main drivers for mobilising employees is to either increase the productivity or operational efficiency or enabling employees to address their customers more effectively. Expanded workforce outside office further acts as a catalyst to drive enterprise mobility.
After Blackberry good old days of success there hasn’t been any handset manufacturer getting a hold of the enterprise segment. How do you evaluate this; as an opportunity or a challenge?
Enterprise mobility has evolved much more than it was when Blackberry was leading it. From just an email driven enterprise adoption earlier, today mobility enables effective business engagement, and drives to ease business processes. With more & more enterprise building mobile apps, the usage and the need is far more than ever before. It is already a huge opportunity and likely to further grow in coming times. At Hyve, we are committed to address this market in the best manner.
What are the key features that a smartphone should have, to be successful in the enterprise mobility segment?
Enterprise look at devices that are a great mix of stability, performance, upgradability, and security. Since enterprise run business critical applications, it is very important that the device is stable. It should not only have good specs, but component quality should also be great, so the devices work at all times. At Hyve, we have ensured that we put best-in-class components and the specs in both our smartphones.
It is very important that hardware and OS are optimized for a great performance. Our design & engineering team has worked grounds-up to ensure that OS is optimized for the hardware. We are also one of the very few brands, who have run certification process with Google and offer the pure Android. This is to ensure a great performance on our devices. We have also enabled ‘Android for Work’ on both our devices, which instantly makes it enterprise ready. One of the biggest issues in the Android world is upgradability of devices. Most of the devices are unable to upgrade to the latest Android OS, thus affecting the performance. We being Google certified, would ensure that devices are upgraded if the hardware supports it. Again Android being an open system, most of the manufacturers skin it and put unnecessary apps, thus making the devices susceptible to viruses/malware. At Hyve, we have signed 30 day security update with Google, that would nullify the said issue.
Why do you think in the handset market, customer service should be given the utmost importance?
It is unfortunate that most of the handset manufacturers do not focus on customer service. Mobile phones are the most personal device in today’s time and the users should be well taken care of if the devices go bad or meet accidental damages. That’s why we have not only given extended warranty, but also bundled insurance, so our users have peace of mind using our smartphones. Also, finding the nearest service centre and getting in queue to get the phone repaired is not only time consuming, but a big hassle for any consumer.
Our Hyve Care proposition of pick-up & drop across the country addresses this issue most effectively. Our consumers do not have to visit any service centre. They can login the complaint either through Hyve Care app, portal or our call centre (1800-121-4983). Our representative visits them at their convenience of time and venue, picks-up the device, get it repaired/replaced, and drops it back. This is surely going to set a new benchmark in the service industry.
Do you think Indian consumers have a psychological inclination towards global brands in the smartphone market?
While, we are not discounting the influence of global brands; but fortunately forward looking youth in India now makes informed decisions. Consumers today do their due diligence before they make a purchase decision. The value proposition that we have will surely be appreciated by our consumers and we are very positive that our smartphones will be a huge success.