EICS Project

Group 3

UEMF16009 Hrishikesh Mahapatra

UEMF16018 Siddhartha Mitra
UEMF16019 Soumendra Dalai
Contents
Introduction ..............................................................................................................
.............................. 2
Organisational Culture
............................................................................................................................ 2
Major Customer groups
...................................................................................................................... 3
Stakeholders
Involved.................................................................................................................
........ 3
Category 1
...............................................................................................................................
............ 3
Vision:.................................................................................................................
............................. 3
Mission: ..............................................................................................................
............................. 4
Category 2
...............................................................................................................................
............ 4
Determination of target customer and market
segments.............................................................. 4
Determination of key customer requirements and expectations
.................................................. 4
Category 3
...............................................................................................................................
............ 5
Customer Service Plan
.................................................................................................................... 5
Service Blueprint
............................................................................................................................
.6
Customer Service Measures
........................................................................................................... 6
Customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction
...................................................................................... 7
Customer data and information sources
........................................................................................ 7
Category 5
...............................................................................................................................
............ 7
Determining and Defning Key Customer Service processes
.......................................................... 7
Improving customer service processes
........................................................................................... 9
Category 6
...............................................................................................................................
............ 9
 Service Recovery Plan
..................................................................................................................... 9
Service
Guarantee...........................................................................................................
.............. 10
Customer Perception
.................................................................................................................... 10
Cost of Lost Customers
................................................................................................................. 10
Category 7
...............................................................................................................................
.......... 10
Employee Education and motivation
............................................................................................ 10
Service Design
............................................................................................................................
... 11
Category 8
...............................................................................................................................
.......... 12
Pricing and Distribution
................................................................................................................ 12
Category 9
...............................................................................................................................
.......... 13
Managing Demand and Capacity
.................................................................................................. 13

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Introducti
on
Green Trends is a chain of unisex hair and Style salons mainly having
operations in southern and eastern India. Green Trends is a subsidiary of
Trends by Vogue Pvt. Ltd., a CavinKare group company. Green Trends offer
wide variety of haircut and colour services, Skin care solution and other
beauty treatments.

Green Trends is owned by Trends in Vogue Pvt. Ltd., a CavinKare Group

company. Trends In Vogue Private Limited came into existence in July,
2002, with the sole aim of providing customers with the best grooming
solutions. The need for exclusive salons that can ofer world class styling
for the whole family, resulted into the birth of Trends in Vogue. It has two
successful salon chains Limelite and Green Trends.

Both the chains have expanded across the country serving customers with
its wide range of hair and skin services. Trends in Vogue has set up its
salons with high-end equipment, infrastructure and delivers high-end
services through highly skilled stylists.

Trends in Vogue reflects the brand becoming the largest and most-
advanced chain of hair and beauty salons in India, and to be the first to
bring new changes in the industry through new product innovations,
customer centered service delivery mechanisms.

The parent company CavinKare has successfully transformed itself from

personal care solution provider to a FMCG company with strong presence
different sectors. Such as Dairy,
Snacks, Food and beverages
businesses.

Person Profession Foo Snac Dair Beverages

al al d ks y
Car Car Product
e e s

Chick Ruchi, Garden Cavin' Maa Fruit Drinks

Shampoo, Raag Chinni's Namkeens s
Nyle, Indica, a
Meera oil Profession
al

Organisational
Culture

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Majority of the salons are Company Owned Company Operated (COCO). By
doing so company ensures that the quality of the services across the
salons are same. In any city, initial salons are COCO. Later company gives
the franchisee to expand the operations.

The Chennai head ofice keeps very close eye on daily operations of each
salon centers. They have employed centralised data and billing system to
ensure the smooth data flow. The
Cluster Managers of each regions and the Area Managers of respective
areas visit the salon on regular basis to ensure smooth functioning of
centers.

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e
The above chart describes the hierarchy at the Green Trends.

Major Customer groups

60 % of the customers are women and 25 % are the young men.

1. Style conscious youth Men/Women of relatively young age who

are style conscious, primarily students and professionals
2. Women Women of medium age group seeking hair and skin care
services.

Stakeholders Involved
1. Customers
2. Employees
3. Suppliers
4. Beauty Experts

Category 1
Vision:
Stay on time, be consistent, and provide the highest level of customer
service in the field of

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cosmetology.

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Missio
n:
To ensure that our clients are always valued individuals who are
respected and treated in a consistent and professional manner at all times
in a friendly environment, where excellence prevails in everything we do.

Being a unisex Hair & Style salon, Green Trends is into a segment of
providing highly customized services to their customers. For leadership
following things matters the most for keeping the services they offer to be
in line with their mission and larger organisational goal.

Evaluation at personal level

Shared Vision
The collaborative Process at each level
Communicating the vision to all the stakeholders

Categor
y2
Determination of target customer and
market segments

Type of segmentation Variabl

es
Geograph Tier 1 and Tier 2 towns in
ic Southern and
Eastern
Demograp Young and middle aged
hic women

Young urban
Psychograp Urban and semi urban
hic lifestyle, style
conscio
Othe Brida
r l

Determination of key customer requirements and

expectations
Through developing understanding and trust with the customers.
Through clear communication between the service provider and the
customer.
Obtaining feedback after service and suggestions for improvement.
Providing of professional and affordable services for the target
groups.
 Registration and tracking of services availed by customers.
Tracking new trends in customers based on demand.
Category 3
Customer Service Plan

During Post consumption

Pre consumption consumption Readjustment if
unsatisfed with service
Minimize waiting time
Pre booking of Engaging servicescape Loyalty card
services (Waiting area - provision for reduced
Hospitality with tea, rates for services
reduction of waiting cofee , magazines) Customer
time Creation of a relaxing feedback(Expectations
Promotional environment with calm and unmet demand)
music immediately after service
ofers for loyalty and post leaving
Clean and hygienic Personalised message for
card holders environment complaints and
Friendly and Engaging suggestions via call and
staf to understand email
expectations pre
service

In the Pre consumption stage, the components of customer service plan

include appointment facility for pre booking of services which would
reduce the waiting time of the customers. Also information regarding
ofers to the Green Trends members is sent via text.

In the during consumption stage, the components of service plan include

provision of servicescape including hospitality with tea, cofee and
magazines to minimize the sense of waiting time. The servicescape
includes provision of an environment which is calm, relaxing, clean and
hygienic. The staff is friendly and engaging with the customers.

In the post consumption stage, the plan includes readjustment if

unsatisfied with service. Loyalty cards are provided whose benefits
included subsidised rates of services. Customer feedback is taken at
diferent levels - immediately after consumption at the reception level and
a text is sent with the email to the Chennai headquarters for complaint
redressal.

Other stakeholders inputs are considered in the

following ways -
 Frontline employees (hairstylists, receptionists etc) inputs are
taken to improve service process and quality.

The suppliers communicate with area manager and cluster manager

on marketing and sales aspect.

The partners communicate with cluster manager and Chennai

head about new products and latest trends in the market.
Service Blueprint

F F

Category 4

Customer Service Measures

Emotion
al
Satisfacti
on

Custom
er
service
Measur
es

Loyalty Repurchase
Measureme
nt
6|Page
Customer satisfaction and
dissatisfaction
Customer satisfaction is the most crucial step in delivering quality service.
Knowing what the customer expects from the service is very crucial.
Customer satisfaction can be judged from three parameters service
quality, product quality and price. Green Trend measure customer
satisfaction on the basis of these 3 factors.

Customer Emotions: Green Trend measure customer satisfaction by

understanding customer needs thoroughly and evaluating customer
satisfaction throughout the service process. They believe customer
emotions play a huge role in making them understand about customer
satisfaction. If a customer is satisfied, a sense of fulfilment which is
followed by happiness and contentment is seen in customers face and if a
customer is not satisfied a sense of ambivalence which is sometimes
mixed with sadness and anger fills the environment.

Loyalty: loyalty is also seen as a parameter by green trends to evaluate

customer satisfaction. They believe if a customer is satisfied, He/she will
be loyal to the saloon and will be a repeat customer to their organization.
They also believe that he/she will also recommend the service to others
through word of mouth and will be hugely loyal to the organization.

Feedback form: They generally ask their customers to fill feedback form
which gives them an idea about customer satisfaction /Dissatisfaction.

Customer data and information

sources
Centralized server: Green Trend has a centralized CRM Server in
Chennai. They have nodal server in each of their branch which they use
to enter customer data every time a customer make a purchase in their
organization. Details which are added in the server are name, contact
number and membership card number (If applicable).

The details are used to understand customer purchase criteria, whether

that customer is 1st time customer or a loyal customer. They manage a
Loyalty customer database which contain a list of loyal customers.

Categor
y5
Determining and Defning Key Customer Service Processes
To be successful in the intensive competition of Salon Services. A
company needs to differentiate from the competition based on their key
services processes. The following are
the solution used by Green Trends in determining Key
Service processes

Understand your customers needs and meet them

 How can you meet your customers needs, if you dont know what
they want? To understand what they need, just listen to the voice
of the customer and take action
accordingly.

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 Customer listening is done in many ways, for example feedback
forms, mystery shopping, and satisfaction surveys. Green Trends
involve senior employees in customer listening to ensure decisions
benefit the customer as much as the company.
Since, it is a highly customizable service. It depends on the
requirements of the customer. So, one of the best way of
determining the key service processes is through the customer
themselves. This can accomplished by:-

Feedback/complaint management

Surveys

Free trials and discussion sessions

Benchmarks
For example, if customers have been complaining about long wait times
to be seated set a goal related to that. Would your business want 80%
of the customers to be happy with
their seating? More? Would there be a different kind of benchmark that
could be set?

Open all communications

channels
The customer wants to contact you in many ways face to face, by mail,
over a phone, and email - and will expect all of these communication
channels to be open and easily inter- mingled.
This presents a technical challenge, as it requires an integrated,
streamlined solution providing the employee with the information
they need to effectively service the
custome
r.

Attracting new customers costs more than retaining

existing customers
A satisfied customer stays with a company for a longer period of time,
spends more and may deepen the relationship through repetitive
transactions. For example a happy credit card customer may enlist the
companys financial services and later take travel insurance.
This is an easy sell, compared with direct marketing campaigns, and
other dedicated and expensive approaches to attract new customers.
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Improving customer service processes

Identify
key
operation
al and
support
processes

Contniou Assign
process
sly owner and
improve targets
processe
s

Organize Conduc
process t
benchmarki process
ng
activities effcen
cy
audits

Categor
y6
Service Recovery
Plan
Green Trends Approach
As with any company, Green Trends also faces service failures. As said by
the store managers, sometimes a service does not meet a customers
expectations e.g. customer does not get the desired look after the haircut.
Unlike other organizations, Green Trends does have a customer service
recovery strategy in place. As Green Trends customer acquisition also
depends on Word-of-mouth, they ensure necessary service recovery
eforts. However, there is no question of a service recovery paradox.

The service recovery approach for Green Trends can

be divided into:

Fixing the customer Green Trends follows the below approach for
addressing any service failures:
a. Apologize for mistakes, accept the service failure
b. Assess the damage done and what are the immediate options
available to ensure the customer is satisfied.
c. Discuss with customer available options and decide on the best
alternative.
Fixing the problem Green Trends has different ways of
collecting feedback. Most customers voice their opinions to the
employees or the front desk.
 a. Take opinions of voicers/passives on the feedback form. Advise
them to record areas of improvement as well
b. Green Trends has a Mail to CEO scheme where customers can
directly address
their problems to the CEO for immediate grievance redressal.

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 c. Learn from customers and improve their service
Service
Guarantee
In very rare cases, Green Trends offers the customer a free visit to the
Salon and also allows customers to try out other services like hair spa for
free. There are also consulting services for customers on how to use
diferent products, what best suits their hair and skin types. However, this
guarantee is personalized and off the books.

Customer
Perception

The customers of Green Trends can be classifed into:

Passives They do not complain about the service usually.

However, the employees ensure they are satisfied with the
service.
Voicers They are the customers who voice their opinion
and complain actively. Green Trends employees say they do
not spread negative word but give them second chances.
Green Trends thrives on building excellent customer relationships and
hence there is a lot of scope for learning from customers and making the
service fail-safe.

Cost of Lost Customers

According to the store manager, the percentage of irate customers is in
the range of 3-5% only. And there is no franchisee model as in case of
competitors like naturals or finesse, they already have a fail-safe service
delivery process. The USP of Green Trends is high service quality at
affordable price. The cost of lost customers is low, due to low switching
and afordability of services provided by Green Trends.

Categor
y7
Employee Education and
motivation

Green Trends hires only high skilled professional for its salon.

Green Trends parent company CavinKare has its own TRENDS ACADEMY
School of hair and beauty training institution in Chennai. Along with
technical skills, it focuses on soft skills and etiquette of the employees.
CavinKare is planning to open its second such academy at Siliguri, to tap
the north-eastern market.

Being the LOral Professional salon, the employees are also trained by
the experts of the L'Oral. Such experts from L'Oral do conduct trainings
and workshops for the hair dressers on regular intervals. Also in-house
experts from the Chennai head-office also visit the different salons to
conduct the special workshops and provide advanced trainings. Keeping
the growing demand in the eastern sector (Bhubaneswar and Kolkata
region), Green Trends is also thinking about hiring dedicated expert for the
eastern region operations.

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Service Design
The flower model

Informat
ion
-
Appointme
nt Consultat
Exceptions
-Package ion
-Complaints
Info
-Feedback -
- Personal
Reminder Advice
s s
-
Treatmen
t
Suggestio
ns

Skin care, Hair

care Hospital
Payment ity
-Cash
& -Waiting Area
-Credit Beauty -Staf
card treatmen Behaviour
-
Membershi ts
p card
-Loyalty
Points

Billing Ambian
-Soft Billing ce
-Mail Billing -
- Dedicated Cleanlines
billing s
software -
Comfort
-Salon
furniture
&
Equipment

The core product that customers seek in Green Trends is skin care, hair
care and beauty treatments. There are many other supplementary
services including beauty consultation, information on beauty packages
etc which increase the value of the core product.

The facilitating services which are required in the use of the core
product include -

Information
Appointments is taken over call to avoid waiting time and
to ensure that demand can be smoothened so that it does
not exceed maximum capacity.
Information on diferent beauty packages and discounts
is disseminated to all the loyalty members.
Information on reminders for appointment timing is
disseminated.
Ambience
Cleanliness is a top priority for Green Trends. In the beauty
industry, aesthetics is necessary, for which cleanliness
cannot be compromised.

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 Comfort is ensured in pre consumption and during
consumption stages. Comfort is ensured during waiting
time with beverages and during consumption based on the
customer's needs.
The salon furniture and equipment is neat and of top
quality.
Billing
Soft billing - the bill is verbally communicated to the
customer.
Mail billing - The bill is emailed to the customer and also
sent via text.
There is a dedicated billing software which is connected
across all Green Trends stores centralized in Chennai. The
prices are determined at the Chennai head and the bills
are generated based on the fixed prices.
Payment
The different payment modes include cash and credit/debit
cards.
The membership card can also be used to redeem points
and gain subsidized rates on services.
The enhancing services which increase the value of the core product
include-
Consultation
The staff is trained to identify visible problems like
blackheads and suggest treatment for the same.
Personal consulting with staff members is allowed to
increase customized solutions to the customers' needs.
Hospitality
The waiting facilities includes seating area and beauty and
fashion magazines to reduce the waiting time appear
shorter. This is because occupied time feels shorter than
unoccupied time.
Food and beverages is also ofered to the customers to
reduce their sense of waiting time.
Exceptions
In provision of services, if the customer demands using
their preferred brands such as LOral, its facilitated.
To handle special communication such as complaints and
suggestions, there is a suggestion book in the receptionist
counter. Also, post consumption a personal message is
sent to the customer to write to the Chennai Head's email
id with complaints and suggestions.

Category 8
Pricing and Distribution
As all the store of Green Trends are Company Owned Company Operated
(COCO), Pricing for each service offering and retail products sold at the
salon is decided by Chennai corporate office.
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Prices in different cities are not same. Based on the socio-economic
factors, base prices for each city is determined and then premium is
charges based on that particular salon type and location.

As far as the competitors are concerned in Bhubaneswar city, Green

Trends had positioned itself at a unique position because of its superior
customer experience. As salon and spa industry is all about customized
services and service experience which difers from salon to salon, so there
is no role of competition based pricing when it comes to pricing the
services.

The pricing strategy of Green Trends can be identified as the combination

of both the Prestige Pricing and Value Pricing. As for the customers
visiting the salon is more concerned about the get component of the
services rather than the monetary price. Unlike LimeLite, Green Trends is
not an ultra-high end salon, so customers will not be paying arbitrary price
set by the company. So understanding what customer means by quality
and matching the price level to that of the quality level is essential.

For the city of Bhubaneswar having six different Salons the prices are
different for each salon. Such differential prices are based on the salon
location and Salon setup. Some salons are categorized as premium service
providers which are priced 5 to 10 % higher than the normal salons.
Differential pricings are done keeping the services ofering and the Salon
setup keeping in mind.

Categor
y9
Managing Demand and
Capacity
Being a Spa & Salon, the demand for such services increases during the
special occasions such as Durga Puja, wedding season etc. During such
period Green Trends encourages people to visit the salon by taking prior
appointments to avoid the rush at the salon. Also annual seasonal trends
are analyzed for each city and salon to forecast the possible footfall at the
salons. Salons having a capacity constraints shifts the demand to match
the capacity by

Communicating peak days/hours to customers to encourage

them to take an appointment and visit.
Modifying timing.
Giving priorities to the loyal customers by giving them early
appointment.

Green Trends using the same strategy to keep the check on the
inventories. It employs the monthly physical checks of the inventories of
the supplies. Based on the past seasonal trends, the demand for upcoming
month is anticipated well in advanced and based on the available stock,
new stock is order to ensure that it reaches the salon at right time and in
right quantity. Because of unforeseen reasons, if the inventory stock out
takes place, the salon takes the help
of the other salons present in the city to meet the
immediate need.

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