is perhaps inconceivable that anyone would buy a car over a mobile phone but car makers are realising that the mobile will play a big role in how the customer engages with the manufacturer through the life cycle of the car maruti suzuki is using the mobile to improve efficiency at service stations and to optimise the customer experience at its showrooms at maruti suzuki service stations service managers take down servicing details of a car on a tablet the information is transmitted to all departments involved in the servicing engagement this has brought down the visit time by half from 16 minutes to eight minutes and the car is also returned faster after service says rajesh uppal cio maruti suzuki people may not buy cars on smartphones but customer expectations at our dealerships or service centres are different we have noticed this change in expectations in the past two years and are using smart devices wherever possible pharma major lupin is using mobiles to give customers the power to ensure product authenticity in an smsbased authentication programme 300 million drug packs were printed with a unique number to authenticate the product we are using mobiles as an anticounterfeit solution to verify whether a drug is genuine says mayur danait cio lupin the company also uses 3g tablets for its 5000 member field force to eliminate paper work reduce time to generate doctor call reports doctors feedback on a drug leave expense and performance management system not all companies though are making rapid progress ecommerce companies and a few private banks are moving quickly to mobile others like auto pharma fmcg will take about a year says googles anandan users are less likely to download a maggi or a kellogs app and more likely to go for a cab rental or mcommerce app but fast food chains are moving ahead globally fast food giant mcdonalds and starbucks are separately trying out smartphone apps that let customers place orders and pay for it at a store or before they enter one eliminating queues and cashiers such apps will find their way into india sooner than later mcdonalds is already planning to introduce a deals app and a virtual loyalty programme on its mobile app says kedar teny director marketing and digital mcdonalds india west and south 25 of our business comes from online and web ordering this could move to smartphones now old economy companies have to think different to tap smartphone customers says subho ray president internet mobile association of india mobile natives at the other end of the spectrum are a bunch of successful companies like mobikwik paytm ezetap freecharger that birthed all their businesses only on mobiles ezetap which counts state bank of india amazon and myntra among its customers sells a rs3000 device which syncs up with mobile phones to complete credit and debit card transactions etailers offering cash on delivery and even delhi traffic cops use this device to facilitate mobile payments our device is helping