The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR, FEB 12, 2021
India’s leading green cement producer and part of US$12 billion JSW Group, JSW Cement has digitized its Sales & Marketing operations to provide channel partners ease of doing business by leveraging AI-based digital interventions. The Company has partnered with Yalochat to introduce AI-based Anytime Anywhere Business transactions for its trade customers. The Yalochat partnership enables JSW Cement to upsell, transact and provide better service to its customers over messaging apps like WhatsApp. It’s likely to differentiate JSW Cement as it traverses from current 14 MTPA to 25 MTPA capacity by FY2023.
JSW Cement is among the first Indian cement companies to introduce conversational commerce services to its trade customers.
Conversational commerce is e-commerce done through various means of conversations and uses technology such as speech recognition, speaker recognition, natural language processing and artificial intelligence. Research has revealed that the ongoing, trusting and personal connections developed between brands and customers through personal conversations leads to better service for the customer as well as new business opportunities for the company. Hence, conversational commerce is emerging as a huge opportunity in driving customer service as well as digital sales.
According to JSW Cement Managing Director Parth Jindal, “Digital Technology is shaping the long-term sustainable growth strategy of all JSW Group businesses. We are in a unique position to deliver integrated home-building solutions to Indian consumers. Our digital transformation will ensure the ease of doing business to our customers through continued improvements in the overall Brand experience combined with efficient operations for well-synchronized and timely deliveries.”
“As we march towards our target of achieving 25 MTPA capacity in the cement business, we will ensure more investments in technology and research to develop and deliver innovative products that meet the evolving needs of our customers,” he added.
“Putting the customer at the center of everything you do is easier said than done. JSW Cement is a testament to customer centricity. They have not only digitized its dealer relationship but used Yalo to transform it by bringing everything they need through WhatsApp. Now the sales force of JSW Cement has been empowered to focus on building meaningful relationships with dealers while technology takes care of the rest. We are excited to be partners of JSW in this transformation,” said Yalochat Founder and CEO Javier Mata.
As part of this digitization initiative JSW Cement is rolling out AI-based MobileTech interventions including conversational commerce services for its trade channels across all the markets. This digitization effort, combined with its field-force interventions, is expected to achieve higher efficiency in business and better customer service to the market.
“The digital transformation of our sales & marketing operations will help drive efficiency & effectiveness to create frontline impact. Introduction of mobile-tech in supply chain equips our sales force with data at their fingertips. This helps them analyze and evaluate channel performance and enables faster decision-making to support the requirement of our trade network. Continuing on this journey, we are now extending the benefits of these digital interventions to our dealers and have chosen WhatsApp as a medium to offer conversational commerce services. This will enable them to place orders anytime of the day wherever they are, measure performance, get their account statement, thereby remaining connected with their business,” said JSW Cement CEO Nilesh Narwekar.
JSW Cement has digitized the outbound marketing functions through MobileTech interventions. These technologies are enabling the Company’s sales force to seamlessly interact with its channel partners as well as receive orders. It has launched AI-based MobileTech tools specifically designed to facilitate its channel partners the ease of doing business with the Company. These include: WhatsApp-based Dealer Assistance Intervention to facilitate Order placement & transaction-related dealer interactions; Mobile interventions to enable Track & Tracing of dispatched orders; and Digitized sales planning processes for effective demand management, dynamic pricing management and AI-based demand forecasting for improved lead generation.
Commenting on the digitization of Sales & Marketing operations, JSW Cement Chief Marketing Officer K Swaminathan said, “Through our digital initiatives we are combining capabilities, processes, structures and technologies to scale-up interactivity with our customers and providing them optimal personalised service on a real-time basis to scale up their business as well as our business.” “We are establishing a centre of excellence to deliver best customer service through advanced mobile and AI interventions,” he added.
