FROM PRODUCT TO CUSTOMER - CENTRIC

Objective
Ravissant, India's first and probably the only luxury product and lifestyle retail chain has been in business for almost 2 decades and has retail boutiques in New Delhi, Mumbai and Agra with over 11000 Customers.

Ravissant retails exclusive Fashion wear, Home Textiles, Sterling Silverwear, Jewellery, Furniture and has the exclusive Jacques Dessange hair and Beauty Saloons. The Ravissant customers are crème de la crème of the Indian society including some of the world's best known names such as President Nelson Mandela, Prime Minister John Major, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, Mr. Laxmi Nivas Mittal, The Royal families of Kuwait, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Malaysia. Being a firm believer of the fact that 'happy customers always come back', the retail chain has been sensitive to customer needs and delighting the customer has always been a priority area.

The Supply-Demand Gap
Ravissant's decision to go in for a CRM Solution was based on the premise that 'it is more important to retain a customer than to acquire a new one'. There was therefore a distinct need of a solution that can empower executives at Ravissant with the customer intelligence to help identify customer buying patterns, sales analysis and predict future demand, thus filling the demand supply gap.

Why SAS?
Ravissant chose SAS to address its requirement for a powerful and sophisticated analytical solution that can empower Ravissant's executives to understand customer behaviour. The key driving factor for implementing SAS at Ravissant was on screen queries/programs of the SAS Customer Intelligence Solution, which was user friendly and menu driven, and gave due consideration to the response time. Keeping in mind Ravissant's operations across geographies, the SAS solutions provided the users the facility for processing branch-wise / division-wise reports and also consolidated reports for the company as a whole.

According to Mr. Ravi Chawla, Chairman, Ravissant said, "Ravissant has a history of being ahead of its time. Which explains why we went in for a technology solution for customer relationship management. We are a completely customer focused fashion and lifestyle store and want to retain our lead in this area. The retail industry in India is undergoing a rapid change. Retailers in India are adopting practices which are successful worldwide, and we at Ravissant want to be the pioneers in this segment."

Key Benefits
Using the SAS Customer Intelligence Solution, executives at Ravissant are empowered with information on customer-buying patterns, customer profiling, sales analysis and have the ability to predict demand thus filling the demand supply gap.

The warehouse builder solution provides details on:

• key/highly profitable customers
• popular and fast moving products
• shelf life of products
• inventory levels at each shop
• tracking of sales per item category
• profitability analysis
• qualitative sales analysis based on quantitative
  information
• market basket analysis
• sales forecasting
  

The customer-centric data warehouse extracts data from the production, sales and employee databases.

In the first phase of implementation, SAS Consultants and executives at Ravissant carried out a comprehensive cleaning of the existing customer database and a data entry screen was designed. Customers were then clustered according to demographic profile and each cluster's buying patterns were tracked. This has facilitated informed marketing campaigns that translate into higher returns on investment. Ravissant is now able to attend to the individual needs of each customer with the qualitative insights provided on each one's mindset.

The Customer Intelligence Solution built a comprehensive warehouse for Ravissant's 11000 customers. This solution is customized for one branch store of Ravissant's at New Friends Colony in New Delhi. The application is scalable and can extend to other areas as well. Says Vivek Gokarn, CEO & Managing Director, SAS India Pvt. Ltd., “By providing them valuable insight into their customers' behaviour, SAS Customer Intelligence Solution has empowered Ravissant in making meaningful business decisions and cater to specific needs of each individual customer. Ravissant today can predict demand accurately and design informed marketing campaigns, translating into higher returns on investment.”