Ashok Leyland Calls for Collaborative OEM-Dealer Approach in CV Customer Care

The commercial vehicle (CV) sector faces a dual challenge in an increasingly interconnected and competitive market: attracting and retaining skilled manpower and effectively managing the amplified customer voice on social media.

Sanjeev Kumar, President and Head of M&HCV at Ashok Leyland, offered insights into how his company, and the broader industry, is approaching these critical issues. Kumar acknowledged that the larger challenge is how to retain, how to train, and how to motivate the workforce, especially when young people have a multitude of opportunities both within and outside the auto sector.

Ashok Leyland addresses this by leveraging its own infrastructure. Its factories train thousands of apprentices, who are then absorbed by dealerships, providing a trained workforce and mitigating existing personnel issues. The company also collaborates with Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), creating large training programs tailored to their curriculum, with some graduates subsequently joining the company. However, Kumar emphasized that financial compensation alone is insufficient. "The aspirations of this workforce are not different... You need to take care of their motivation," remarked Kumar, implying that the task falls heavily on channel partners.

Kumar spoke during a panel discussion organized by FADA at the 7th Auto Retail Conclave held in Delhi on Wednesday. Bharat Chordia, Director, Khivraj Automobiles; Jyoti Malhotra, MD, Volvo Car India; Ashutosh Varma, Chief Business Officer–IBU, Hero MotoCorp; Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra; Anil Sekhar, Head, Salesforce Excellence, CV, Tata Motors; Tarun Garg, Whole-Time Director and COO (Sales, Marketing, Service & Product Strategy), Hyundai Motor India; and Yogesh Mathur, Director–Sales & Marketing, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India were other participants in the panel discussion, which was moderated by Hormazd Sorabjee, Editor, Autocar India.

As the discussion shifted towards social media, the top executive stated that it has undeniably amplified the customer voice in today’s scenario. In the CV segment, an issue with a truck directly impacts a customer's earnings, elevating the stakes of every complaint. Kumar views the solution as a "collaborative way" of handling complaints between the OEM and the dealer, rather than solely burdening the latter. Kumar concluded that these interactions present an opportunity for the company to foster a closer relationship with the customer.