Vivek Burman Some Indian dealerships say they can offer extended car warranties and related products.

New Delhi: The warranty market extension is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. High maintenance costs, efficiency and better customer experience will contribute to the growth of the warranty market. Take an interview with Vivek Burman (The Warranty Group (TWG)), Director, South Asia, ET, as we discuss the warranty market and future prospects in India. Edited excerpts:

How big is the warranty market in India?

India is rapidly adopting extended warranty and combined services and the market is on a fast growth trajectory. According to a report by IBEF Automotive, the Indian automotive aftermarket is expected to grow by around 10-15% annually, from $7 billion in 2016 to $16.5 billion by 2021. It has the potential to generate up to $3,010 billion in revenues by 2026 year, adding $65 million million jobs annually.

Factors that positively influence aftermarket warranty decisions include scheduled maintenance costs, benefits and coverage, and overall customer experience.

How big is your business in India? Who are your large customers?

Warranty Group (TWG) set up a joint venture in India in February 2014 through TVS Automobile Solutions. The company provides extended warranty and related services and solutions for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and off-road agricultural equipment in India. In a very short period of time, our company has achieved a market leading position in the Indian automotive warranty and co-servicing sector.

TWG Extended Warranty and Joint Program, is the largest automotive brand management program in the Indian industry.

What is the USP of TWG? What are the advantages/benefits you can bring to your customers?

TWG manages the entire customer experience, from customizing products and solutions to handling the post-sale process. Additionally, the industry has traditionally been slow to use data for decision making, which was a big differentiator we brought up.

Data is a global development. In India, data is driven by business intelligence and data analytics to deliver custom-branded customer experiences. By summarizing a variety of data from your customers and markets, we want to help you generate insights for better data-driven responses to deepen your relationship with your customers.

What are all verticals doing to offer warranty in India? What are your expansion plans?

In India, extended warranties and related products are available for automobiles, home appliances and technology products (mobiles, laptops, tablets, etc.). With exciting opportunities for extended warranty and after-sales services in India, TWG is looking to strengthen and aggressively expand its presence in India.

In India, we offer branded customized customer experience and data analytics based on business intelligence. Our business model is focused on finding best-in-class companies to partner with, innovate products and services, improve existing products and services, and address risk transfer and compliance challenges. These partnerships are based on our expertise as a service provider and the customized solutions we develop to help you acquire new customers, improve customer loyalty and increase revenue.

Recently, Assurant Group acquired TWG. what are the complementary strengths of both parties in this transaction? How will this impact the India business?

Assurant’s acquisition of TWG it will help boost TWG’s strategy and vision for India. Both companies will be able to leverage each other’s strengths to diversify their growth and expand their global reach.

How can data analytics be used to improve risk analysis and manage customer service?

Data is the way forward and one of our unique selling points. TWG has a greater focus on business intelligence and data analytics. By summarizing a variety of data from our customers and markets, we work with them to get better insights, create deeper interactions with our customers, and help us generate insights to better respond to data-driven, deeper relationships with our customers (some examples). Japanese retailer TWG helps them figure out how many of their members make repeat purchases.

On the risk side, data analytics helps TWG understand claims and TWG’s various potential developments in loss ratio calculations from seasonality to basic consumer behavior.