TVS Auto Assist offers ‘Women Assist’ service in 6 major metros
TVS Auto Assist (TVS AA) launched its 24x7 breakdown assistance services specially designed for women vehicle owners on the Women’s Day 2018 in Chennai. The service includes emergency breakdown services, call centre monitoring and followup, in-person assistance from a well-trained custodian from TVS AA, and cab support for customers.
K Mahesh, CEO, TVS AA said, “As one of the largest automobile companies in the industry for more than 100 years, we have taken an initiative to provide 24x7 breakdown assistance for women in 6 cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. We chose these cities as they have the highest percentage of around 60% women drivers. Across the country, the ratio of women drivers is around 15%. Our idea is to implement ‘women assist’ system in cities where women drivers are more. We will learn from these exercises and will take further steps in a phased manner. We provide our services to 2.5-3 million customers a year.”
“TVS AA is one of the largest road services company. It has around 4500 touch points in India. In terms of roadside breakdown assistance, it is common for anybody who needs help. We offer this programme specially for women because about 15-20% of the 22,000 breakdowns we work on in a month involves women drivers. To contribute our part to women empowerment, and to make them more mobile, we started this significant ‘women assist’ initiative,” he added.
TVS AA provides breakdown assistance to automobile owners across India and has partnered with Paytm Mall. Car and bike owners can purchase breakdown assistance services on Paytm Mall and choose to receive breakdown assistance from any of TVS AA’s 5000 authorised service providers covering over 28 States and 1795 cities. Users who want to avail the assistance services, can visit Paytm Mall and tap on the ‘Roadside rescue’ service within the ‘Cars & Bikes’ category. Women Assist programme caters to women passengers who travel during late/ odd hours (8pm-5am). The service provider will take less than 60 minutes to reach the customer in the city and around 90 to 120 minutes in highways or hilly terrain.
“We have started with Paytm as it is one of the largest mobile platform companies in India. It has 240 million active users. There is a special section especially dealing with cars and bikes which is a large platform where people engage daily. We will gradually expand it in the future. We have a dedicated toll-free number and a Call Centre team, exclusively to attend the customers. This team is completely integrated with solutions for the customers,” Mahesh said. Amit Sinha, COO, Paytm Mall said, “The automobile segment on our platform is gaining massive traction. We are currently focused on building this further and diversifying into newer offerings. TVS AA will be a key partner in driving this agenda and in helping us become a one-stop shop for all automotive needs. We expect to sell over 30,000 road assistance service packages in this quarter.”
TVS AA’s breakdown assistance services are being offered through the annual membership programme under 2 categories – Gold membership for Rs 1499 (limited times) and Platinum membership at Rs 2999, which includes emergency breakdown assistance unlimited per car a year, cab and car towing assistance free up to a specified range. Members can avail the emergency assistance support which includes towing, fuel, key, flat tyre, cab assistance, first-aid, accidents etc.
“We believe this partnership is a game-changer as it is truly digital, including payment options, for tech savvy users. This unique tie-up would digitally connect millions of car and bike users across the country by providing world-class breakdown assistance within an hour across all major towns and cities. In a first-of-itskind move, we are extending our services to even non-members of TVS AA through ‘pay-per-use’ model,” Mahesh said.