There are reams of research to prove that unemployment and job creation are the bugbears of India’s growth story. Therefore, it is no surprise there are education companies who plan to go the extra mile in order to bridge this gap. Noida, Uttar Pradesh-based Budding Futures India (BFIPL) is one such education company that started with the fundamental belief that there exists a huge gap between the industry needs and what is being taught in the courses today, thereby resulting into many students remain unemployed or unemployable. BFIPL have taken the onus on itself to bridge this gap. In fact, in an attempt to resolve this widening gap, the company has even signed up with Ficci (Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry) and MESC (Media & Entertainment Skill Council) to set up an academy of excellence (AoE) and has its campus in New Delhi as well as in Noida.
Sure, BFIPL had all the necessary facilities in place such as infrastructure, workforce and the awareness, considering it was in the professional education segment. However, the company needed a reasonably good conversion rate from the potential students. They were able to generate great interest from potential students. Still, final enrollments were lower than expected. The company was forced to assume that maybe this is the norm and most of the potential candidates were only inquiring. Also, since this was a new area, BFIPL felt that there is possibility that the idea will take time to grow, although they were anxiously looking for a solution to increase conversions.
For over five decades now small and medium enterprises like Budding Futures India PVT LTD. have contributed to 40 per cent of job opportunities and exports in India. The sector has been responsible for and has shown a lot of potential in innovation and entrepreneurial spirit including employment creation. However, lack of finances, less spends on mass marketing mediums, lack of customer data, absence of customer track records and no products in the pipeline are some of the obstacles that the MSMEs are still trying to overcome. A Mumbai-based mobile technology company Mobilox has been trying to address some of the issues plaguing the SMEs and MSMEs. As their service motto reads on their company website,, the company wasconceptualized “with a vision of getting mobile as a media its due credit”.
A New Lease Of Life
As the Indian market evolves, the digital ecosystem has now paved the way for MSMEs to gain an online presence and reach out to customers with campaigns at affordable costs. Going digital provides a boost for many of these businesses to gain recognition in an extremely competitive environment. The technology also provides access to social media platforms which creates more opportunities in connecting with various customers and advertise products and services to a higher audience and an affordable rate. With the advent of schemes such as ‘Make In India’, ‘Startup India’ and ‘Skill India’ the MSME and SME companies have grasped opportunities to grow their businesses. And in keeping with the current technology requirements of the companies and also taking into account the current competitive climate in India, Mobilox, true to its company spirit, has tried to provide custom-made solutions to its clients.
After surveying many loopholes in the sector, Mobilox found out that what is missing is a turnkey tool that could manage all the utilities, which could resolve problems commonly faced in the sector. “Our experience with SME sector has lead us to understand the environment in which the SMEs work. They are typically impacted by inadequate access to marketing and lack of customer connect with active and non-active customers which arises due to poor systems,” says Abhijit Saxena, founder, Mobilox.
Saxena lists some of the common systems related issues -- no central repository of customer data, that is, customer data lying in various excel sheets managed by different individuals at different times; no history of past interactions with the customer, communications scattered around in individual e-mail inboxes, in case the employee quits, customer information and historical data gets misplaced and goes in trash; top management / decision makers lack complete view of the Conversation / Interaction Status of every past & prospective customer. This information to the Top Management is very critical and can result in higher number of positive outcomes d) New Leads generated through and Digital Campaign or Events is not acted upon or even if acted upon conversion is very low due to poorly recorded data, poor communication follow up.”
For starters, BFIPL used services and solutions provided by Mobilox and have witnessed an increase in the potential students who could touch base with the education platform. The interactions with students and analysis helped them in interacting and creating fruitful conversations. “With the help of the Mobilox, we are actually able to reach out the potential students with relevant information when they raise a query even before the first direct contact is made. This helps in imparting right information to the right contact at the right time. It is difficult to quantify exactly the impact but we have seen better conversion rates since the potential candidate is far better informed and, to a certain extent, convinced when the same is contacted. We feel it has truly helped us, “ says Atul Mathur, Director & CEO, BIFPL.
BFIPL is a new entrant in the education business and impart professional high-end courses in Media & Entertainment, Travel, Tourism, Aviation and Hospitality Sectors. According to the company officials, the initialresponse has been positive and they believe that five years from now, the company will become a substantial brand to reckon with.
BFIPL is not the only one singing praises of the services provided by Mobilox. Noted name in the music industry, Saregama Music Academy, also have found solutions to the issues they weren’t even aware of within their technology infrastructure before talking to Mobilox. “We weren't even aware about the issues that we were facing. We are a small company and were just struggling to grow our business. During one of our discussions with Mobilox we realized that we possibly were missing out on significant amount of business because of lack of knowledge,” says Nagendra Dubey, Dean, Saregama Music Academy. “The most important aspect for us which Mobilox addressed is that, we are a small team and it is just not possible for the team to be able to be consistent in reaching out to all the contacts on a regular basis. The solution helped us to be able to maintain a dedicated communication with the candidates and their parents,” says Nagendra Dubey.
The Era Of Customised Solutions
While laying down Mobilox’s interests, Saxena also spoke about how customer relationship management tool is playing an important role in client companies. “Our CRM is a low-cost tool that helps SMEs connect with their active and inactive customers by defining and implementing the automated communication plan integrating all the direct communication mediums. Additionally it provides the dashboard for easy monitoring and managing the conversations with all the customers,”explains Saxena.
The research conducted by Mobilox pointed out two critical objectives, which the SMEs of India must focus towards dissemination and continuous connect with customer to develop trust and confidence while delivering services. The core of the problem for MSMEs and SMEs lie in the lack of customer repository and fluctuation in creating updated data banks. These companies also have absence of old customer data that results in the decision makers of the company with an unclear vision of conversations and interaction status with their present clients.
It is here that Mobilox scores high points. Customers struggle with customisation and are not able to use the products optimally. Additionally the competitive products lack customised and automated communication,point out Saxena. On the solutions provided by the company and what makes them unique, Saxena says, “It is a solution that is highly customised for client requirements. It will also have a customised and automated communication plan which again will be customised and include creative communication support as per customer requirements.”
And the clients vouch for Mobilox’s solutions. “We have seen a significant improvement of our conversion rates with the help of Mobilox solution. The biggest difference that we see is that we are now getting more call-ins from the candidates and the conversion rates are significantly higher when we receive a call-in rather than a call-out as earlier. In terms of quantification we have seen nearly a 3x jump” says Nagendra Dubey , Dean, SMA.
Saregama Music Academy also says it has seen a significant growth in the next five years with at least 10 centres in Mumbai, 50 across other Indian cities and 15 in the international markets. With continuous support from Mobilox, they are also planning a foray in digital academy, which will take the academy global with thousands of students (both Indian and foreign nationals) benefiting from learning Indian music.
