Aforeserve.Com Limited: The key is Customer Retention
It is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one. A customer well taken care of is worth much more than the money spent on advertising. Customers are not buying products and services these days, rather they are looking for experiences delivered to them via the products and services. For a Service Company like Aforeserve, these principles are like a lighthouse.
Every company says that their customers are the first priority, but there are a few which show that their businesses are always ready, willing, and able to go the extra mile for each and every one of their customers. Therefore, the most divergent and stupendous brand of the year: Aforeserve.Com Limited works on the mantra – “Good service is good business”.
The company was started in the year 2000 with the break-fix and repair services for motherboards and monitors for customers like HCL and in the year 2012, the company started wider offerings like AMC/FMS/Managed services to the customers across segments like BFSI//Govt./PSU/Corporates, setting new benchmarks and standards for service delivery across the country and today, it is well known in the industry as a leading services provider.
About the Services:
- IMS/FMS/AMC Services Pan-India
- Multi-vendor AMC Services
- Geographical coverage
- The entire spectrum of Products
- Trained Manpower
- Addressing all segments of the market
How do they feel they are different from competitors?
- Their integrated Service and Support model, which offers end-to-end ICT lifecycle services across brands, platforms and technologies, thus eliminating the complexity of managing service commitments and relationships with multiple vendors.
- Flexibility, Agility, Affordability, and Responsiveness – In the highly fragmented services market of the country, they offer a services delivery model, which is adaptable to budget considerations, flexibility, location preferences and mission-critical needs of the customer.
- Pan India presence – extensive Pan-India support network offering benefits of direct and localized service to meet service level commitments in a cost-effective and viable manner.
- Superior Repair capabilities and Quality of service – Highly differentiated and chip-level repair capabilities backed by 44000 Sq. Ft of state of the art, ISO9000 certified RoHS and ESD compliant repair facilities. And ISO 20000 certified Services delivery across the country, with online tools for Service Management.
Any time is a good time to start a company – Start-ups
Today, IT systems are highly open and very few components of the entire IT landscape are proprietary. So, over the years, from a few large brands, the IT Lifecycle services market has become highly fragmented and only about 30% of the total market is occupied by the large players. The rest of the market comprises small and medium-sized service providers (Start-ups) and at the base of this pyramid are thousands of service providers who are small, localized and even client-specific.
This scenario gives rise to a large number of start-ups as the entry barriers are low and this is positive for the start-up ecosystem. However, this also provides a challenge for the customers to get reliable services at an affordable cost.
Story of Struggle
Starting and establishing any business has challenges and more so, in case of IT Lifecycle services which is a crowded market space. They started with few customers and created a name for themselves with superior service experience for their customers. Backed up by robust systems, frameworks, and processes and gradually over a period of 5 years acquired a large set of customers across all segments, specifically BFSI and Corporates.
One must take risks to drive growth. While the appetite for risk may vary as it can adversely impact the enterprise, it is a must to be successful. So, a balanced approach helps and the onus lies with the leader to do this.
Robust and Growing List of Clients
They address the entire market, broadly segmented into four categories covering the Businesses & End-customers that consume IT services and the technology providers or System Integrators that drive them. There are numerous types of clients they serve:-
- OEMs: HP, Acer, Lenovo, NCR, UFO Movies, Tata Sky, Jio, and more
- ODMs: ECS, NSI, ECS, Inventec, Pegatron, and more
- SI’s: HP, IBM, HCL, Wipro, DD, NCR, and more
- End Customers: multiple clients in segments like BFSI, Govt, PSU, and Corporates.
Creating market share in a crowded and fragmented market for IT Infra Services is a challenge for any service provider and they have addressed this by differentiating themselves through Customer Focus coupled with agility, flexibility, and responsiveness. Today, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) is a key performance metric across the Company and there is a huge emphasis on the Quality of Service.
Innovations and cutting edge technology
Chip level repairs of complex components like motherboards of latest generation Servers, laptops and desktops are being done at global class repair facilities, equipped with the tools and machines and the trained engineers, achieving the service standards required by the Global brands.
Apart from the standard offerings of AMC/FMS services, they have developed robust frameworks and systems for specialized service offerings like IMS. There are other specialized and differentiated offerings like servicing the IT equipment which is beyond their End-of-Life by the respective OEMs.
This helps them to grow the customer base and gives strong reasons to customers to avail their services. The customers can optimize their IT investments and sweat their IT assets more than they would otherwise.
Innovations are a must for the IT sector and more so today, in the age of Industry 4.0. Innovations like Automation in IT infra services delivery and so-called Left-Shift enables customers to optimize and reduce the costs of IT Infrastructure Management, even as the Infrastructure grows along with business growth.
The life of a CEO
Apart from playing the role of CEO in Aforeserve.Com Limited, Mr. Rajeev Asija loves adventure travel and he has been indulging in this for several years. He undertakes at least one such travel every year and has had the opportunity to visit several really exotic places across the world that include the jungles of Africa, the icebergs and the volcanoes of Iceland, the serene and majestic beauty of Newzealand experienced thru a 3500Kms road trip of the North and South Islands, Western coast of USA and last but not the least the Himalayan mountain ranges in the North covering the remote interiors of Ladakh Region.
Apart from such travels, he enjoys reading. This includes fiction as well as non-fiction. Non-fiction would typically include some great books by successful entrepreneurs and management gurus as well as some books that have European history as their backdrops.
Path towards Achievements, Millstones, and future of the company
They achieved the best in their industry as they have grown at a CAGR of 34% over the last 5 years and the outlook for growth looks healthy. They also have established a robust pan-India footprint with presence across all States. Additionally, they have got accolades in the form of ‘Company of the Year’ and “Brand of the Year” from leading market publications over the last 3 years. They have received special recognitions from Partners like HP, Acer, and Lenovo for their services partnership with them over the years.
