In old gold exchange scheme melting should be done right in front of the customers in a transparent manner.Cost of gold and precious metal & stones should be mentioned separately with quality and weight and labour/ craftsmanship separately. Hallmark specific criteria requirements will be covered by Hallmark standards.
This is a great initiative by IRF, launched in record time. The “Trusted Jeweller Mark” would set new benchmarks in the way jewellery retail is carried out in the country. Jewellery is a Trust based business and the “Trusted Jeweller Mark” would be a great differentiator from customer point of view.
Key Agenda :
· To arrive at the Final Check-list to carry out the Audit Process for the “TRUST MARK” involving committee members from various business verticals
· Go through the Check-list framed almost an year ago (with few times iterated) and firm up the final check-list
· Enable Launch of the program at the earliest.
Major Areas of Audit
• Legal and Regulatory Compliance
• Practices and Systems
– Sustainability
– HR Practices
– Communication
– Goods & Services
– Terms and Conditions of Sale
– Transactions and Accounting
– IT Eco-system
– Customer Care (1, 2)
Audit Scope
• Company / Brand Level for Policies & Legal / Regulatory Compliance
• Outlet level for Implementation
Applicability of Audit
• A – Basic essential – Those which are universally required to operate a retail outlet / e-commerce irrespective of product/service
• B – Product/service specific – Those which are product or service specific such as FSSAI for food, and are dependent on the segment to be audited
• C – Location/other requirements specific – Those whose applicability are not universal and will vary from location to location
LEGAL COMPLIANCE
• Every Brand / Outlet to have necessary Legal and Regulatory licenses to carry out the business.
• It will be a self-declaration.
Our View: Not to be part of Audit. Whoever is abiding by the rules are eligible to participate.
Practice and Systems:
1. P & S Sustainability
• Primarily discussing about the Environmental sustainability, viz,
– Waste Management
– Eco-drive
Our View: Company’s effort towards Eco-Friendly products / services / Supporting Go Green to be assessed
2. P & S – HR Practices
• Policy and Implementation
– Staff Hiring
– Staff Appointment
– Staff Capability Building
• Grooming Standards etc.
Our View: This is an internal Matter of any organization. Also there are franchisee run stores for certain companies. Companies will give guidelines to the Franchisees to maintain the Brand Standards. The larger picture is to know whether the brand delivers its promises and create customer delight.
3. P & S – Communication:
• Communication to Customers on Products / Offers etc
• Ethical Communication in brand
Our View: To be restricted only to customer communication
4. P & S – Goods and Services
• Policy on Procurement / Sourcing / Quality of products
• Vendor Certification Policy
• Incoming Material Quality Check / Removal of outdated products etc
• Hall Marking for Jewellery – Currently Not mandatory. Therefore not part of the Scope. However Customers are encouraged to see the purity of their / our jewellery in any of our retail outlets.
Our View: This is an internal matter of any company. To be kept away from the scope of audit. We believe company is responsible for its products and services.
5. P & S – Terms and Conditions of Sale
• Policy on Guarantee and Warranty
• Notification of the same
• Policy on Refund, Exchange or Compensation and Redemption.
• Right to Refuse
• Order Cancellation Policy
Our View: Any brand has to adhere to their laid down policies. Incase of audit, the auditor should audit the policy versus actuals.
6. P & S – Transactions and Accounting
• Policy on Ethical Transactions,
• Retail Tax Invoice / Clarity of Billing
• Records of Transaction
Our View: Every brand has to ensure legal tax invoice. Pricing is internal matter of the company. However every customer will have to be informed about the product pricing before every transaction. Product Quality Authenticity card is mandatory
7. P & S – IT Ecosystem
• Policy on Information Security
• Adherence to IT Regulation
• Data Safety
Our View: Brands to have their own IT policy and adhere to the same. Also to ensure the safety to customer data.
8. P & S – Customer Care (Service, Feedback, Resolution)
• Facilities for Informed Shopping
• Store Ambience / Amenities
• Customer Service Department
• Redressal of Complaints
Our View: It is important. Also to focus on Customer Engagement by the sale staff. Every Jewellery Store to have a Karatmeter ( XRF machine) to enable customers check the purity of their gold or anything they are buying from the jewellery outlets.
P & S – Customer Care (Customer Data, Safety & Privacy)
• Policy on Use of Customer Data
• Policy on Safety and Security to Customers
• Policy on Customer Privacy
Our View: It is important. Every company should adhere to its Policy of Customer Data Safety
All points discussed, incorporated and circulated to members of Focussed Retail Committees, Certification Committee and Technical committee for final check.
1. Regulatory compliance: Further, the role of compliance officer is getting changed due to digitalization of some of the Government Offices and currently some of the licenses are being applied online.2. Sustainability: Some vertical functions are handled at different level and different place and these works are more than routine works. For conducting a standard level with uniformity across Company an SOP is also required across the functions. The rules relating to waste management and allied orders are to be followed without any exemption.3. HR Practices: The HR practices should be same across the entire Company and it should address all the issues, worries and other concerns of the employees with regard to service of employment.4. Communication: Communications should be neutral and should not cause any hurt to any religion, caste and creed. Further, all communications should be in conformity to the morality and public policy. Communications shall not only be ethical but also transparent. The employees on the floor should be well informed and communicative and should help the customers in addressing their queries. Further, the internal signage’s and communications should be clear and visible for the customers and should help them in their decision-making.5. Goods and services: Appropriate SOP for identification of vendor at Company level and Store Level is always required. The vendor should possess all the required licenses and comply with the applicable rules. VRF is the crucial document for registering any vendor. A proper agreement to be executed with the Vendor and the Vendor should submit KYC documents. The Company should be able to identify customer demand and procure products at a desired level.6. Terms and conditions of sale: Warranties should be as per the Sale of Goods Act 1930 and guarantees on goods and services should be with respect to quality and performance. REC policy should be uniform across outlets. Though certain items should be exempted in REC policy but mention of the same at suitable places should be a mandatory practice.7. Transaction and accounting: Ethical approach in T&A is a must and all transparency in this regard is good for customers.8. IT Ecosystem: Regular updation of IT policy is very important and it should be in accordance with IT Act 2000. Appropriate level of controls; encryption during transmissions and transactions with its customers is another crucial area of winning customer’s trust.9. Customer Care: Most of the standards mentioned in the document are being met by our company as well.10. Annexure A: Please include “Public Safety Measures (enforcement) Act 2012 ( AP and Telangana)” in the list.11. Annexure B: Please include following permissions in the list-o Advertisement Board, Backlit signage’so Fish & Meat Liceneo Amusement License ( west Bengal)o Police Permission for operating stores
Dear Mr. Srikkanth,
We are glad to inform you that comments/suggestions made by you have been suitably addressed in Standard document as you would have also noticed. It is encouraging to realise that the Standards which Trusted Mark Secretariat has enlisted are the same as thought by an industry expert like you. In regard to your suggestions about inclusions in Annexure A and B we have made a note of them and would incorporate them suitably.
FICCI’s engagement in discussions on Technical Standards and Certification Process for the IRF Certification Scheme was very fruitful.
Talking ‘CUSTOMERS’ for a week almost with a single focus, “How to care for customers” was the objective of deliberations on every single criteria. Indian consumers will surely benefit once a large number of retailers comply with the scheme requirements and get the Trusted Mark.
LEENA JAISANI, Senior Director, The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
I really appreciate the painstaking effort in putting together a code of retailing for Indian retail. While all the laws/ licenses/ regulations listed in the document(s) and deliberated at length had it’s own place and relevance, some of the points that you could review are:
1) it’s applicability for e-tailers. I suggest that you may audit them at a later stage after ensuring that laws, etc that are applicable are included and discussed with a cross section of e-retailers.
2) seeing the whole phenomena from a consumers’ view point. Getting a cross section of consumers to rank these criteria in terms of relevance and importance.
With Best wishes for a successful launch of TRUSTED mark at IRF 2016.
All points discussed in the Technical Committee have been incorporated. Standards for E-retailers are being reviewed with all stakeholders. Interviews have been conducted among consumers and feedback shared with TC. Accordingly Standards were fine-tuned and finally passed by the TC on 20th Sep Meet at IRF, Mumbai.
Faculty and students of IIM Ahmedabad has been involved with IRF for many years and has seen its power to push the retail industry to achieve excellence. We are happy that feedback from consumer interactions have been discussed for the purpose of finalisiing standards for Trusted Mark. The document makes a complete manual for anyone wanting to enter or operate in the Indian retail business in the right manner. However, it was felt that many of the criteria may not really matter for customers such as whether the retailer pays all applicable taxes, complies with all regulations – as long as the expectations of customers are met. It is, therefore, important that retailer does everything to follow the standards that are needed to build a conscious and quality retail business. We welcome a set of stringent criteria incorporated in the standards and maximum weight age being given to customer care related issues.
The ‘Criteria’ are now called as ‘Standards’.Retailer’s compliance to Laws and Acts of the land and possession of applicable licenses and permits etc establishes his credibility and accountability to build customer trust. However for all practical reasons his adherence to applicable laws/acts has been made part of declaration in the Application form under Annexure A but possession of licenses & permits have been retained as part of assessment under Annexure A of Standards document (Trust 150). Even that list under Annexure A has been further split into mandatory, product/service-specific and location-specific requirements. The list have been pruned to 33 such licenses and permits to make it more meaningful.
From Brijesh Goyal on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From Trusted Mark Secretariat on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From Shweta Pandey on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From Trusted Mark Secretariat on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From C K Venkataraman on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From Trusted Mark Secretariat on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From Sunil Nayak on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From Trusted Mark Secretariat on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From Pankaj Patel on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From N VAIDEESWARAN on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From Trusted Mark Secretariat on TRUSTED JEWELLER
From GR Srikkanth on Standard Document
From Trusted Mark Secretariat on Standard Document
From LEENA JAISANI on Standard Document
From Sibichan Mathew on Standard Document
From Trusted Mark Secretariat on Standard Document
From Piyush Kumar Sinha on Standard Document
From Trusted Mark Secretariat on Standard Document