The students of customer relationship management were excited to visit IKEA in Bengaluru. They arrived at 11:00 AM and were escorted inside by their team. The IKEA team was warm and friendly.
The store is large and is around 5,00,000 sq ft. It employs nearly 800 -1000 employees and around 1000+ indirectly in services. The IKEA store has around 2000 parking spaces and a 1000 seater restaurant serving Indian and Swedish delicacies.
The students got to visit the market place,the display store and the back office.The manager at IKEA briefed the students on how the furniture retail sector works, how effective customer service is and why a customer is the key to any business.
Additionally, they learned how the Netherlands based, international giant IKEA operates as a furniture retailer. The sorts of furniture, home decor and designs they produce.
Reaching Hand reaches out to the underprivileged and marginalized youth in and around Bangalore. Through their skill development program they conducted short term courses for these youth such as customer relationship management, digital marketing, computer aided design courses and core employability skills.
It was interesting to learn that IKEA also has a philanthropic wing called the IKEA Foundation which currently supports projects centered around livelihood.
The students from Pratishtha were happy to have this exposure visit.With this kind of visits the students now have a clear understanding of CRM.