Just Dial

JustDial.com – A Case Study in Services

Ravinder Pal Singh Dhillon

09BM8039

Vision & Philosophy

The company's goal is to create long-term shareholder value by enhancing its

position as a leading local search service. The company’s philosophy focuses on

end user experience through feedback, innovation, teamwork and integrity.

What does it do?

Justdial is India’s no.1 local search destination. It provides comprehensive

updated information on all the B2B and B2C products & Services. The company

caters to over 57 million unique users spread across 240 cities in India. This

unique local search service is available on Phone, Web, WAP and SMS. Just Dial

services receive approximately 26 million phone calls a year.

Justdial in India employs a 4000 strong work force and has more than 1,35,000

paid advertisers.

How did it start?

Founded in the year 1994 on a modest 50,000 Rs investment, it returned

revenues of 1.34 Billion for the Fy 09-10 and holds 90% of the complete market

share. Started with some borrowed furniture and rented PCs in a small (10×30

feet) hired garage, today JustDial has over 86,000 customers across the nation

with offices in major cities across India. In a very short time, justdial.com has

become probably the most frequented local search website in the country.

How good is it?

While year on year, the number of users for this kind of services are on the rise,

JustDial has managed to keep pole position right from the start, and still

commands a leading share of the market.

JustDial.com commands over 89% of the total localized search market in India, a

125Crore Market

Armed with this phenomenal success, JustDial is expanding into other countries as

well, replicating its very successful model there. Even though Yellow pages

services are much more widespread outside, JustDial is confident of its success.

Justdial has launched its local search service in North America, and has plans to

expand into Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

As for the Current Scenario, the total number of Unique Daily Hits to JustDial.com

have generally been on the rise. The trend in daily hits varies as the number of

89%

11%

Market Share

JustDial.com

Others

hits is somewhat seasonal, although the numbers seem to have stagnated a bit

over the last year or so, and are even falling.

Let us try and understand the way JustDial operates with the help of some

analysis tools.

The Revenue Model of JustDial.com

JustDial.com basically earns from clients which invest in their listings to make

them sponsored listings, and from the percentage of sales that happen through

JustDial.com.

The Basic Revenue generation steps can be outlined as follows:

Small/Medium enterprise registers with JustDial.com

JustDial.com verifies the information provided and puts it up

SME's are offered prime services, sponsored results for added fee

Customers ask for information and suggestions through Internet/Phone

Customers recieve results with sponsored results getting priority

Customers buy products/services from a sponsored client

JustDial.com recieves a % of the client sales

The Current Scenario at JustDial.com

Centered in Mumbai, it has over 4000 employees nationwide, with over

700 only in Mumbai.

It serves over 247 cities in India with offices in 8 of them.

It receives over 25k Unique visitors daily, with over a Lakh calls.

More than 2.4 Million businesses and vendors have been cataloged by

JustDial.com so far.

It has expanded into North America, with plans for Canada, the USA and

Europe, among other places.

It had revenues in excess of 1.4Crore INR for the Financial year ended 2010.

The Macro Environment of JustDial.com

The Political Environment:

There are Government guidelines to which services are considered legal, and as

such JustDial must evaluate each clients request to ensure that the service being

offered must fall within the legal purview and only then can they put it up.

Besides this, there is very little interference or regulation on a call and assist type

of service in India

The Social Enviromnent:

India is a fast growing market, and growing disposable incomes mean more and

more people entering the target group for the services market. Also the advent of

newer enablers like mobile fones has made life much easier for the customer, and

as such there is tremendous scope for a referral system like JustDial.com

The Economic Environment:

The overall market for location specific search is increasing rapidly with more and

more people moving to in the urban cities and distances increasing to local

amenities and services.

Also, economic development has fueled the pockets of the Indian middle class as

well as brought the world to their door. The promise held in this huge market is

immense.

The Technological Environment:

Technology has been a great enabler for most businesses, and JustDial.com is no

exception. The web has taken this services to new heights. Telephone, Web based

Service, Sms and now Mobile Web access give users a multitude of ways to access

information, and it has benifitted JustDial.com and the search industry greatly.

Growth in users of this service sees a linear growth with technology penetration,

and every new technology gives it a shot in the arm.

GPS services in mobiles and 3G services promise a seamless and integrated

localized experience, which can be leveraged by JustDial.com to provide results

based on nearness to customers immediate location.

The Micro Environment for JustDial.com

(a) Understanding Customers:

What needs are being fulfilled? For the customers, we fulfill the need for information, although the scope

of this information is unlimited, and we try to provide information on any

and all services and products the customer might need.

The clients also get promotion in areas which might otherwise be outside

their physical radius of promotion.

How does it make their life better? Customers save time, and find a multitude of options with ease, enabling

them to get the best prices and ease of access to services and goods /

customers.

What meaning does the service bring to their life? It basically provides a one stop shop for all the customer’s needs, and

provides them with value and much more time on their hands, while taking

away the frustration normally associated with searching for any goods and

services, and bridges the customer-client gap.

How does it help build their identities? Customers are able to make a well informed choice in a matter of minutes,

thus exercising the freedom of choice which makes them feel in control.

What emotion is related to purchase and consumption of

service? The Exercise of choice makes customers feel in control, and in charge of the

transactions, giving them the satisfaction of making a good choice.

Analyzing Decision Making Process:

Problem Recognition: Need to buy goods and services like groceries, cab service, house rentals,

telephone connections, movie bookings etc.

Information Search: Search for this information is mostly through promotional campaigns on

most frequently visited websites, as well as popular magazines and

newspapers across the country. The largest proponent for growth has been

word of mouth advertising.

Evaluation of Alternatives: Most people start out with using Yahoo or Google for their serach

requirements and then slowly learn the use of localized search portals.

Even then, there is competition in the form of asklaila.com and guruji.com

sulekha.com which offer very similar services and are only held back by a

smaller market share, while JustDial.com enjoys a first movers advantage.

Purchase Decision: Once awareness spreads, there is no reason why customers would not use

this service as it is a very convenient way for them to search for data.

Post Purchase Evaluation: JustDial.com needs to have a strong filtering process in place, which insures

that no fraudulent or sub standard promotion is being done through their

website, as it takes very little to take a customer away from a service.

(b) Understanding Competitors:

We use Porters Five forces analysis to understand the market forces better:

Threat of new entrants: High, as it is pretty easy to setup the basic

infrastructure needed to put in place a similar service atleast for the web.

Bargaining power of suppliers: Low, as JustDial.com is the undisputed

industry leader in India, and the Clients have to come for us if they want

maximum exposure.

Threat of Substitutes: Low, for the type of service being offered here is

pretty all encompassing, and there is little to no scope for an alternative.

Bargaining power of Buyers: Low, as there is nothing being charged to the

customers and this service is being provided to them free of cost. As for the

Clients that we serve, we provide the best service at a reasonable price.

Inter Firm Rivalry: High, as several players are in the market and are

competing fiercely among each other for the growing market, some with the

backing of large group companies.

(c) Understanding Collaborators:

Most of the clients that we serve have the one basic need, of maximizing their

visibility. We section them and categorize them according to the services that

they provide, and the segment that they wish to target and provide a priority

listing based on their criteria among our query results to our customers. This

provides them with visibility where they need it, thus fulfilling their need.

Other than our clients, there is little to no influence on our business by any

other forces, besides the obvious dependence on the telecomm service

providers. We depend entirely on telecomm providers for getting our service

to the end customer and any changes in the way they function directly impacts

us.

(d) Understanding the Company:

The leading local search brand in India

Large customer base and nationwide coverage

Highly scalable platform

Excellent track record in user experience

Very high customer satisfaction

Modern infrastructure and constantly updated technology

Vastly experienced management team

Benefits Provided:

Services benefit: Better visibility, Convinience

Value benefit: Provides better value to client/customer

Personnel Benefits: Friendly and helpful search assistance

Costs to Customer:

Money: Cost of Service/ Cost of priority listing

Time: Time spent in receiving required results

Energy: Effort spent in getting availability of goods or service in

remote location

Psychic cost: Uncertainty about reliability of critical data obtained

through this service means psychic cost

S.W.O.T. Analysis:

Understanding the Core competencies of the Organization and what areas it

needs to focus on can be done with the help of a Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities and Threats analysis.

Strengths of JustDial.com:

The leading local search brand in India

Large customer base and nationwide coverage

Highly scalable platform

Excellent track record in user experience

Very high customer satisfaction

Modern infrastructure and constantly updated technology

Vastly experienced management team

Weaknesses of JustDial.com:

Reluctance among SME’s to sign up for services

No concrete way to gauge mediums effectiveness for a

particular Retailer

Lack of awareness among customers

Lack of technological penetration (Internet access)

Lack of familiarity with technology ( Inability to use the

Internet, VAS etc)

Opportunities for Improvement:

The Advent of Mobile technology gives a whole new way

to get to potential customers

Rising penetration and literacy of Internet in India

Increase in disposable income of the great Indian middle

class

Telecomm offerings like free sms removing the cost barrier

to accessing our services

Entering newer markets like North America, Canada,

Europe etc.

Threats to JustDial.com

Low visibility in areas with limited internet penetration

and literacy

Threat of players with big corporations backing them, like

asklaila.com

Threat of foreign entrants like yellowpages.com which

would bring with them a large investment base.

The Marketing Mix for JustDial.com

The various mediums in JustDial.com’s Marketing Mix

Advertising

Public Relations

Web 2.0 / 3G

Voice Query

SMS

Email

Website

Segmenting the Market:

Behavioral Segmentation attributes applicable to the company are listed

below with the specific applicable clusters:

Need: Casual/Moderate/Strong

Ocassion: Regular/Special

Benifits: Service/Speed/Value

User status: Non-user/potential user/First time

user/regular user

Usage rate: Light/medium/High

Readiness: Unaware/informed/intending to buy/aware

Demographic Segmentation Location based segmentation isn’t applicable

here, since this service is available and equally accessible to everywhere there is a

presence of the underlying telecomm technology.

Psychographic Segmentation would classify the

customers/clients under the following heads:

Occupation: Student/HouseWife/Businessman/Self

Employed/Serviceman

Education:

Students/Graduates/UnderGraduates/PostGraduates

Income: MIG/HIG (LIG are being included because they

wouldn’t have access to the underlying technology which

is needed to avail of this service.)

Measuring Segments would prove to be very difficult as most users that

visit the website or call in with queries are not required to furnish any details

about themselves. But according to the type of service being consumed, it is

possible to find out how many people of what composition are using the

service ( for example, how many people booked air tickets or hotel

reservations would indicate how many of the HIG composition is there)

Accessibility to these segments should be reasonably good, for these

segments have exposure to the Internet and Telephone at either home or

office or both.

Differentiation services to suit the individual needs of a specific section of

our customer base can cater to them better. A good example would be

JustDial Tourism started with the Tamil Nadu government.

Actionability Catoring to specific needs may not always be possible, as the

service being offered is a very broad service, and maintaining several SKU’s

would make it impossibly difficult to manage.

7 P analysis of JustDial.com

The major marketing management decisions can be classified in one of the

following seven categories: Product, Price, Place (distribution) Promotion, People,

Process and Physical Evidence. These variables are known as the marketing mix or

the 4 P's of the marketing. They are the variables that marketing managers can

control In order to best satisfy customers in the target market. The marketing mix

is portrayed in the following diagram:

The firm attempts to generate a positive response in the target market by

blending these four marketing mix variables in an optimal manner.

Product: Product The product is the physical product or service offered to the

consumer. In the case of physical products, it also refers to any services or

conveniences that are part of the offering. Product decisions include aspects such

as function, appearance, packaging, service, warranty, etc. In case of Just Dial, the

product can be referred to as a link or a bridge between the

manufacturers/retailers/sellers and the potential consumers. Just Dial Offers a

Advertising

Public Relations

Web 2.0 / 3G

Voice Query

SMS

Email

Website

variety of services and information related to : Entertainment, Institutes,

Consumer Durables, Travel Assistance, Facilities, Workmen, Assistance etc

Price: Pricing decisions should take into account profit margins and the

probable pricing response of competitors. Pricing includes not only the list price,

but also discounts, financing, and other options such as leasing. For a company to

prosper, the pricing should be suitable taking into consideration the company’s

objectives and also importantly the worth of the product/service offered in

return. To generate revenue, Just Dial charges retailers/suppliers/companies a

specific amount on a contractual basis for customer references. This helps them

to offer the best service to the customers and also attain company goals

effectively and also helps companies to sell their products and increase their

customer base. Eg- Just Dial Free Service.

Place: Just Dial gets 2 Million calls a day in India, from all over the Place (or

placement) decisions are those associated with channels of distribution that serve

as the means for getting the product to the target customers. The distribution

system performs transactional, logistical, and facilitating functions. Just Dial

currently has its own offices in 11 cities which are in major metros and Tier II

cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune,

Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Vadodara & Jaipur.

Promotion: Promotion decisions are related to communicating and selling to

potential consumers. Break Even Analysis is considered while doing promotion at

Just dial. It is useful to know the value of a customer in order to determine

whether additional customers are worth the cost of acquiring them. Promotion

decisions involve advertising, public relations, media types, etc. and the

Communication Channels are Newspapers, Direct Mails, Radio, Television,

Mobile, Posters, Individual Referral, E-Mail, Internet, (company website)

People: An essential ingredient to any service provision is the use of

appropriate staff and people. Recruiting the right staff and training them

appropriately in the delivery of their service is essential for competitive

advantage. Consumers make judgments and perceptions of the service based on

the employees they interact with. Staff should have the appropriate interpersonal

skills, attitude, and service knowledge to provide the service that consumers are

paying for.

Physical Evidence: The product offering caters to consumers via internet,

telephone and SMS on mobile phones. Just Dial services are accessible from 45

cities through the phone. Physical evidence is an essential ingredient of the

service mix, consumers will make perceptions based on their sight of the service

provision which will have an impact on the organizations perceptual plan of the

service. This service also operates out of 8 offices located in all the metros, and

headed out of the Mumbai office.

Service Blueprint for JustDial.com

A service blueprint is basically a visual map, a way to represent the various steps

involved in the service delivery.

It should cover the following:

Process Delivery

Role of Customers and Employees

Visible Elements of the Service

What it does is, it breaks down a service into logical components and easily

definable steps.

Gauging Service Quality

With the help of the Gap model of Service Quality, we can identify the following

gaps:-

(* - Gap does not exist)

(1) Customer Gap: This is the difference between the customer

expectations and perceptions of his expectations. This gap exists

because JustDial.com feels that all the customer needs is information

about his query, but what he actually wants, and is unable to convey

owning to the inept interface, is his specific requirement with that

information.

(2) Knowledge Gap: This exists when we do not know what the

customer wants, what he needs and what he expects all distinctly.

Knowledge gap exists with JustDial.com because there is no direct

feedback that is collected after providing the service, and it disengages

the customer once the service is delivered. It needs to engage

customers in an active feedback process, instead of a passive one.

(3) Performance Gap: This gap arises from inability to comply with

customers needs, and generally occurs in high growth markets with few

options for customers. There is little to no innovation on the service

being provided and customization is also an area that people are

interested in, and is not being addressed.

(4) *Design and Standard Gap: This gap arises when the

organization has an inherent Design flaw which makes it inaccessible or

problematic for the customer. There are no blatant design flaws with

JustDial.com and it seems to be well designed.

(5) *Communication Gap: This Gap occurs when performance does

not match the promise. This gap also does not exist for JustDial.com as it

does deliver all that it promises, that is, information.