State of Customer Service in India

From what I have noticed in recent times, customer service, in particular, for telecom and DTH, reaching a customer service executive is becoming almost impossible. Instead writing an email to the respective id is bringing better results.

This is a reasonably good development for those who have access to email but it is highly restrictive to those who have limited access to email and highly discriminative to the illiterate.

Cost reduction efforts are great but this is an area service providers need to keep in mind. Explaining a service issue itself was a great challenge and now if one has to articulate, imagine the difficulty. If the issue is hot brought out properly, there is a good chance of getting a standard reply defeating the whole purpose.

I can't even imagine taking someone's help to write such mail in case I'm illiterate and lack of writing email in native language makes it further difficult.

Hope someone is reading and taking note of this feedback

A major battle won - Update

This is in continuation with my previous post with the above title. I must appreciate the telecom major for accepting my input, with resistance from the front-end though, and them taking action.

Here's the proof of their action and their attempt to cover a mishap and convert it into something positive for them:

A major battle won

I have been fighting a battle with one of the telecom biggies for more than a month now. While I have been successful at individual level, my interaction made me feel that these guys are not that customer friendly. They were trying to be legally correct, so I decided to take them on. But then somewhere in the middle I felt that to benefit all the customers like me, I must not first try to see if something can be done without making the issue public.

And I can now claim that I have been able to convince the telecom biggie about a practice of billing postpaid customers as wrong and made them change the practice. Considering that the financial impact is in the tune of 100+ crores, I consider this as a big achievement. As I have promised confidentiality, I will not be making the name of the company public. But I suggest that you check your postpaid bills (whichever company they are from) for the months of August, September and October to verify the following:
1. The monthly charges are for the previous period (which means a bill dated 10th August has monthly charges, say for the period 8th July to 9th August and not 11th August to 10th September, which is the next period - don't worry about the day but look at the month)
2. If the charges happen to be for the next period (as explained above), then make sure they are reversed in September or October bill (no monthly charges :))
3. If the charges are not reversed write to me to know about how to approach the company and get them reversed.

I know that Rs. 250 to 500 bucks may not be much but allowing charges for next period means you are negligent and amounts to giving away your right.

Hope I didn't bore you with this encrypted message but I hope you've been able to read between the lines and decrypted the message.

Customer Service in Retail - A small brush with reality

Having worked for 12+ years now in different industry verticals and functions, I'm always surprised why so many people cannot see their job linked to customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction to their job. For me it was always crystal clear, whether you talk about internal customer or the external customer and even others who are dependant on your performance including the boss, the cause was always first for me than the task itself. After I moved into training industry, I always find it very difficult to train people with experience in basics. Many times I feel isn't it obvious for these people, isn't the reality hitting in their faces but again I'm reaffirmed that these people really do need training and coaching.

Let me give you a recent example of employee indifference that could have made a zero-transaction into a negative transaction.

On the last Sunday I went to Central mall and did some shopping. Before going there I didn't know that a Sale was happening but just dropped in there as it is highly convenient (the "P"lace factor, one of the four P's). After buying what I wanted I picked up a T that had a 10% discount. I paid the bill, came home and then realized that I picked a wrong size. I checked the bills and found that you are supposed to exchange only between 11Am to 4 PM within 7 days. That was on Sunday.

I couldn't visit the mall on Monday as I was busy with work and my office is far off from Central. The next day that is on Tuesday I went again. Right at the entrance the exchange help desk was present, which is very nice. She made a note of the bill and item and gave me a printed slip. I went to the place where I picked the T and got the right size and asked the sales guy to help in completing the transaction. Till now this transaction was zero-sum. I was not expecting anything except to return the wrong size and pick the right size, I went in the right time and also before the due date. I expected that they do the exchange quickly without any hassle. If they did anything better it would have been a positive transaction, if not at least zero.

Now this salesman says that I have to pay the full amount as the sale is over, which means I have to pay the 10% discount that I got earlier. For me it was crystal clear, I made the transaction when there was a discount, I am just trying to change the size, same brand, same color, it was just trying to correct a small mistake. But for him it was totally different, I don't know what. His lack of empathy upset me immediately but keeping my cool I asked him to guide me to the customer care. I reached the customer care and the guy there gave the credit note. He didn't discuss the discount point as he didn't even notice or may be even understood that there can be a issue. I reached the counter now and I got the same answer that I got from the first sales guy. But this guy was little soft and was open to listening. His facial expression was soft and because of that I mellowed down and explained him my logic and then he said you have to go to a counter near to the place where I picked up the item. I realized from his body language that what he is not saying is not the key issue and told him that there was a 10% off and he was relieved. He quickly made the bill and handed it over to me and I made the exchange without paying any extra money.

If you look at the whole transaction, you can understand why employee indifference can make customers upset/irate and thereby even loose business.