Volkswagen India To Expand Dealership Base

Volkswagen India is taking steps to make their customers experience better. First and foremost, the company is in plans to extend its dealership network, making it convenient for their customer to reach them out in a better way. Currently, the company has around 200 dealerships across the country. By 2015, it would double the number of dealerships. The company would add 50-60 dealerships every year over the next few years to reach its target. Well, increasing the proximity of the dealerships for the customers will be surely a successful move, but what about the customer experience at these outlets?

The company has decided to spend a good lot on training of the personnel at the dealerships. Their main focus is on training the technicians. The existing 4000 technicians, working across all the dealerships, will be imparted training. Also, the prospective technicians who are going to join the force in future will also undergo the training. Knowledge of machine is a must today to help customers choose their pick and to also convince them of the product. The company has its regional training centre at Chandigarh. By September, such training centres will also be opened in Bangalore and Kolkata.

“We are planning to offer 20,000 training man-days during the current year and 35,000 training man-days next year,” Dietmar Hildebrandt, VW Group Sales Director, India said.

The company has a tie up with the city-based Geedee Technical Training Institute. They offer a course called VG-TAP which stands for Volkswagen Group-Technik Ausbildungs Programme. It is a course which is devised by the company itself. Currently, the company has VG-TAP in nine locations across India. The number would be increased to 12 by this year end and by 2015, we would see 25 centres. Apart from training, the company has also proposed to spend on opening the spare parts centres. Currently, the spare parts depot is present in Aurangabad and the proposal has been made to open them in Delhi and Mumbai too. Perhaps, these might look like a lot of planning on the company’s part to enhance customer experience. But, will they beat the cafes and the mobile showrooms the other auto giants are coming up with?

Source – Business Line