MNS:- Dr M Veerappa Moily, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, launched here today, new IT/web enabled initiatives to make distribution of domestic LPG more customer friendly and enhance transparency. Speaking on the occasion, he said, currently, the three OMCs together home-deliver over 30 lakh cylinders everyday across the length and breadth of the country, including far-flung areas like Leh and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, making it a mammoth and challenging marketing exercise. The Government of India has launched new initiatives, Project “Lakshya”, in the LPG business focusing on greater customer empowerment, better subsidy administration, enhanced transparency in the distribution chain; along with a slew of IT-based customer service initiatives. With the launch of “Transparency portal”, the Minister said, customers have already been empowered to know their consumption and enabled civil society activists to look through and flag anomalies in the distribution of LPG cylinders. This effort has started bearing fruit.
Dr Moily added, “Using technology, we are today further empowering LPG customers through new IT initiatives.”
Rating of distributors based on delivery performance
Customer rating of distributors has already been launched earlier.
Now each distributor is being automatically rated from 5 stars to no star (***** to no star) on a graded scale using transaction data. The distributor who supplies 85% of cylinders booked in less than two days is rated 5 stars and the distributor who supplies 85% cylinders beyond 10 days is rated no star, and others are rated in between according to their delivery pattern.Customers can now view the delivery pattern of their distributor and compare it with other distributors in their area.
OMC Sales officers have been asked to focus on lower star rated distributors and improve their performance. The performance appraisal will take into account the performance of their distributors.
Distributors will also be motivated to improve delivery times, when they see themselves compared to their peers. In just last few weeks there has been an increase in distributors that are rated as 5/4 star compared to a month ago.
This rating will enable the LPG customer to select his distributorship once portability is available.
When most of the distributors resort to fast and prompt deliveries, companies will be able to further optimize their resources.
Mobile applications
Around half the LPG customers have given their mobile numbers to OMCs and they are becoming more and more tech-savvy.
Mobile applications provide easy access to information and access to services and are being launched today by all the three OMCs.
A mobile application has been developed which can be downloaded by customers on their android based phones to perform several web functions from their phones.
Refill booking, booking for second cylinder, complaints, seeing history of supplies, hotplate repair, surrendering connections, rating distributors will become available in mobile also.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/pilot-on-web-enabled-distributor-portability-launched/
