potential house buyer is confronted with builders who promise to lay on every conceivable feature or service. Newspaper supplements overflow with details of builders, architects and designers. Faced with this puzzling array of choices, a customer would like something that cuts through the clutter and offer simple solutions. Cement major ACC has attempted to do just that.
It recently launched www.askacc.com, a website that offers customers advice through help centres in select cities and towns. Customers can find the answers to all their queries: from planning a house, designing it and every other detail that might help. The company has also spread its services through its dealer network. Customers can go to ACC dealers, who stock literature on cement, concrete, construction, maintenance (these the website too). ACC can also, if there is a need, assign a customer services engineer for advice.
Awareness is being created through mass media and various on-the-ground activities like customer meets. The information on the website is exhaustive. It gives customers a list of architects, civil engineers and vaastu consultants in a select list of cities (though, consumers need to register on the site). While the list is meant to help customers, there is no attempt to authorise any individual to act on ACC�s behalf. The website also gives a 52-week schedule from planning to the finalisation of a house. This would help a consumer to keep the builder in control since they have a tendency to prolong construction and find new reasons for cost escalation.... more