“We constantly deliver Wow Experiences to our customers”-Mr Kunal Mahipal, CEO Onsitego.

NishaHarshwal: Share details about the inception of Onsitego? 

Mr Kunal Mahipal: Onsitego was founded in 2010 with the idea of providing hassle-free and reliable post-purchase services to repair and maintain electronic devices and consumer appliances. We are based in Mumbai and have a Pan India service with regional offices in key cities. We conceived the idea after seeing that the customer experience in India is broken and that there’s an unmet need for quick, easy and reliable after-sales services.

Nisha Harshwal: What is your mission and vision for 2019? 

Mr Kunal Mahipal: The company’s vision is ‘To be the most customer obsessed company in the world’, and our mission / core purpose is ‘To constantly deliver Wow Experiences to customers’.

Nisha Harshwal: What are the challenges and gaps faced by consumers in the Extended Warranty segment?

Mr Kunal Mahipal: The service request journey of the end customer is incredibly complex with the involvement of retail/acquisition partners and service partners. Apart from deep rooted integration with our retail and service partners, we have also empowered the overall service operations by a number of automation engines and tools. For any repair journey, there are a large number of things which need to go right, for the customer to have a good experience overall. Take any one of them out and the service delivery falters. With the help of technology, we have ensured that, at all steps of repair journey, the allocation from 1 team to another and 1 owner to another is fast and real time, without any manual intervention. There have been dozens of processes which have seen a transformation via automation, leading to a significant reduction in TAT. The most important of them all, was to empower the service delivery agents using technology.

For example, a pick up executive would have to pick up the broken device and bring it to the regional office for data entry and verification, before dispatching it to the repair  center. With the adoption of Livtrack mobile app for field executives, the data entry and validation happens on the go and an executive is empowered to deposit the device directly to the service center, without bringing it to the regional office. This helped us in cutting red tape and removing a significant lag in the logistics process. For smaller cities and towns, with no presence of field executives, Onsitego operations was empowered with a multi layered integration with various shipment partners. Not only is the shipment request created in a split second (from a potential 2-3 days), it also recommends the best shipment partner, based on performance history of partners and geography of the customers.

Nisha Harshwal: Why do consumers purchasing new phones face the same old problems of screen damage? 

Mr Kunal Mahipal: Screen and display are fragile components of each device and will always be prone to physical and liquid damage. Repair costs of such a damage can cost up to 40% of the device price.

Nisha Harshwal: How consumer’s investment in Extended Warranties and Protection plans proves to be beneficial in the long run? 

Mr Kunal Mahipal: Manufacturers usually offer a standard warranty on products which is basically a promise to repair or replace a product within a specified time frame in the event of any manufacturing defect. An extended warranty is a service agreement that helps to increase or extend this period of time. Simply put, if the standard warranty offered by the manufacturer on your new air-conditioner is 1 year, you can opt to extend this up to 3 or 4 years by purchasing extended warranty plan for additional years. Extended warranties are offered by service providers other than the manufacturer and consumers are often given the option to include the additional coverage, either at the time of purchase or when the standard warranty is approaching its end date.

The manufacturer also does not cover incidental or accidental damages to devices and appliances. Damage protection plans from service providers also protect consumers from such problems, helping them save thousands on repair costs.

Nisha Harshwal: What are your future plans?    

Mr Kunal Mahipal: We are currently serving a customer base of 4.5 million in India, and adding 1.2 lakh customers on a monthly basis. We work in collaboration with some of the largest online and offline retailers in India like Croma, Vijay Sales, Amazon India and Ezone to name a few. Our plans are also available at regional specialty stores like Sanket, Great Eastern, Value Plus and Viveks. We have also extended our reach to smaller retailers through our partnership with leading consumer finance companies like ICICI, Axis, HDB and Kotak. This year, we are expanding our services with brand warranty services for international marquee brands like Toshiba and Hamilton Beach Brands. We also recently launched new plans like AMC, Annual Maintenance Contract for Air Conditioners and Water Purifiers, and Assured Buyback for Smartphones.

Nisha Harshwal: What were the key achievements of Onsitego in Year 2018-19? 

Mr Kunal Mahipal: Having an established root in the market for the last 9 years, Onsitego has gained a strength of 250 employees across offices Pan India, with a planned annual revenue of over 300 Crores for FY 19-20. We also boast of having the highest customer satisfaction / NPS scores globally in our category.