Ankit Shah in Conversation: Navigating EVM India’s Dynamic Landscape

An Exclusive Interview with Mr. Ankit Shah, Chief Operating Officer, EVM India

In an era of rapid digital transformation, Mr. Ankit Shah, COO of EVM India, stands at the forefront of local manufacturing. Under his strategic guidance, the brand has redefined reliability in the IT and mobile accessories landscape through localized innovation.

India’s consumer electronics market is extremely competitive. Why did EVM decide to focus so strongly on service instead of only product features or pricing?

Ankit Shah: The Indian market is often described as price-sensitive, but in reality, it is value-sensitive. Most customers today can compare features online in a few minutes. Charging speeds, storage specs, ports—everything is visible and similar across brands.

What actually stays with a customer is how the brand behaves after the sale. In our early years, we noticed that even when customers liked our products, their biggest concern was always the same:

“If something goes wrong, who do I call?” That question shaped our thinking. A customer may purchase based on features, but loyalty is built when the brand takes responsibility during moments of friction.

In a country as diverse as India—with variations in infrastructure, access, and consumer familiarity—service becomes not only a differentiator, but also an equalizer. It ensures that customers in smaller towns feel as supported as customers in metros.

We realised that if we could solve that anxiety properly, half the battle was already won. Service became our way of showing seriousness as a brand. It’s easy to sell a product once; it’s much harder to take responsibility for it over years. That’s where trust is built, especially in India.

EVM received two industry recognitions this year—Best Powerbank Brand of the Year and Best Made-in-India SSD Brand. How do you view these awards?

Ankit Shah: These recognitions are encouraging, but we see them as validation rather than a destination. The Best Powerbank Brand award reflects the acceptance of our products across a wide consumer base, while the Best Made-in-India SSD recognition underlines our focus on building reliable storage solutions locally.

For us, the importance of such awards lies in what they represent—consistent quality, dependable performance, and customer trust. They reinforce our long-term approach of investing in product reliability and service capability, rather than short-term market visibility.

EVM’s free pick-up and drop service is still uncommon in this category. What led to that decision?

Ankit Shah: This actually came from observing real customer behaviour. Most people don’t complain about defects as much as they complain about the effort involved in fixing them. Travelling to a service centre, waiting, calling multiple times—this is what frustrates customers.

We asked ourselves a simple question: Why should the customer carry this burden? If we’re confident about our products, then service should be our responsibility, not theirs.

Our objective was to remove friction from the process and make service feel like a continuation of the purchase experience—simple, predictable, and respectful of the customer’s time. With our model, customers can initiate a service request easily, and the rest—pickup, logistics, resolution, and drop—is owned by EVM.

Free pick-up and drop was our way of saying, “Once you buy from us, we own the experience.” It’s made a big difference, particularly outside metros, where time, travel, and access can be genuine issues. Customers feel relieved when they realise they don’t have to chase the brand—we chase the resolution.

How large is EVM’s service network today, and how do you manage consistency across such a wide geography?

Ankit Shah: Today, we have over 500 service centres across India, and honestly, reach alone doesn’t impress us anymore. What matters is whether the experience feels reliable everywhere.

Consistency is always the hardest part. You can’t depend only on people—you need systems. Over time, we’ve put clear processes in place: how issues are diagnosed, how long resolutions should take, how escalations work. We review service data regularly and step in wherever something doesn’t feel right.

The idea is simple: a customer in a smaller town should never feel like they’re getting a “lighter” version of the brand. That’s a line we’re very careful not to cross.

You are setting up a state-of-the-art service center in Delhi. Why Delhi, and what role will this facility play?

Ankit Shah: The Delhi service center is something we’ve been thinking about for a while. As our product range has grown, service has also become more specialised. Not everything can—or should—be handled at a basic service level.

Delhi made sense for multiple reasons. North India is a large and growing market for us, both in retail and enterprise. Logistically, it allows faster movement and better coordination. But more importantly, this facility is being built as a capability hub, not just another service location.

This centre will handle advanced diagnostics, complex cases, technician training, and quality checks. It will also support large retail chains and institutional partners where service timelines really matter. In many ways, it’s our way of preparing service infrastructure for the next phase of EVM’s growth.

EVM offers warranties that go up to 10 years on some products. That’s a big commitment. How do you look at this internally?

Ankit Shah: Long warranties are not a marketing decision—they are a governance decision. You can only offer extended warranties if your product quality systems and service infrastructure are robust enough to sustain them. Long warranties force discipline. You can’t offer them unless you’re confident about what goes into the product and how you’ll support it later.

For us, warranty is a reflection of how seriously we take quality and service planning. When you know your components, your suppliers, and your failure rates well, you can make long-term promises responsibly.

We focus heavily on quality assurance, supplier validation, multi-stage testing, and continuous improvement based on field feedback. When you build products with strong quality control and you maintain service mechanisms that can respond efficiently, warranties become not only feasible but also strategically valuable.

They reduce consumer anxiety and strengthen the purchase decision, especially for first-time buyers or customers upgrading from unorganized or low-support categories.

As EVM grows into more categories, how do you ensure service quality doesn’t suffer?

Ankit Shah: This is something we’re very conscious about. Growth can be exciting, but it can also break systems if you’re not careful. We’ve learnt that service cannot be reactive.

You have to design it before volumes come in. That’s why we make a point to invest in processes, training, and infrastructure early—even when it seems expensive in the short term.

Facilities like the Mumbai & upcoming Delhi technical service center are part of that thinking. They help us centralise expertise, train teams better, and maintain standards as complexity increases.

Growth is important, but growth without reliability doesn’t last. Our long-term approach is to build service as an institution within EVM, not as a department.

In such a competitive market, does service really influence repeat purchases?

Ankit Shah: Very clearly, yes. We see it in our data and we hear it directly from customers. The first purchase might happen because of price or availability. But repeat purchases happen because customers feel safe with the brand. When someone has a smooth service experience, they don’t think twice the next time they need a similar product.

In India especially, people rely heavily on personal recommendations. Service experiences travel faster than advertisements. When service works, the brand works.

Looking ahead, how do you see EVM’s service model evolving?

Ankit Shah: Service will become smarter and faster. We’re working towards better diagnostics, clearer communication, and quicker resolutions. But more than speed, the focus is on predictability—customers should know what to expect.

As our portfolio grows and as we enter more complex categories, service maturity will matter even more. Our aim is simple: customers shouldn’t worry about service when they buy an EVM product. That confidence is what we’re building toward.

Ultimately, Mr. Shah’s insights reveal a future where “Made in India” signifies global quality. His commitment to operational excellence and customer-centric service ensures that EVM India remains a pivotal player in shaping the nation’s burgeoning technology hardware ecosystem.

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