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By Lai Yi Ming
ATLAS Sound & Vision, which is the sole distributor of Accuphase, Ad Notam, Bose, Kimber Kable, Loewe and WBT products in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, is not new to awards.
Its latest triumph is the prestigious Enterprise 50 (E50) award given to 50 of the most enterprising private local enterprises.
Its chief executive officer, Dr Michael Tien, says: 'Awards are invariably testaments to our company's direction. The E50 award affirms everything that Atlas is already doing right, and I'm naturally delighted.
'This award is a valuable endorsement and a mark of recognition for our company. E50 companies are the ones to watch in the business community.'
The theme of this year's E50 Awards is business resilience in the current economic climate.
Says Dr Tien: 'We definitely felt the effects of the economic downturn, but in the recent year, we saw the opportunity to embark on a time of refreshing. We were able to employ our 3Rs strategy - to retain, redevelop and reinforce, which stems from our belief that 'good staff make good products better'.
'We are proud to say that even in the face of the recent economic turbulence, we have successfully kept to this principle and retained our good staff as well. Additionally, with the Government's Job Credit scheme, we were able to maintain our salary levels.'
The scheme subsidises the wages of Singaporean workers, mitigating the scale of job losses.
Since 2006, Atlas has consistently invested in its staff in terms of educational opportunities and training courses. This year, it increased its funding and support for training and development programmes by 73 per cent.
Dr Tien identified its Proprietary Service Blueprint in AC²ES (Atlas Customer-Centric Engagement Strategy) as the key trait that differentiates the company from its competitors. AC²ES is a continual assessment and evolution of its service standards.
Employees undergo a stringent training process to instil in them the right customer service attitude. The service blueprint is derived from interaction with customers and implemented into the learning process.
Usually, employees start serving customers after three months of training and understudy in a showroom. Subsequently, they receive feedback evaluation for one month from their mentors. The process is to bolster employees' approach and confidence with the goal of improving customer experience.
Dr Tien says that the company's business models revolve around 'fulfilling consumer needs'.
He says: 'Good customer service and relationship management have been key to Atlas riding out the economic turbulences, not just recently but in our entire history.' The company also maintains brand confidence with its Care Centre, a service and call centre.
'Atlas recognises the importance in maintaining the excellent service standard beyond a sale closure. This investment in running a service centre is a rarity for Atlas as a small and medium-sized enterprise, but strategic in garnering customers' confidence,' he says.
Atlas began in 1962 as a record library in Market Street. Later, it began offering advice for sound systems and providing premium equipment for quality sound.
In 2006, Atlas rebranded itself and unveiled a new generation of Atlas Experience stores. Its retail concept has won international accolades from its principal partner, Bose, in its assessment and comparison among its worldwide network of stores and distributors.
On a business-to-business level, Atlas has also won high-profile projects to provide audio-visual solutions for St Regis Hotel and Pan Pacific Suites.
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
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