Here's a true story which is proof that over the years customer service and customer satisfaction — in short, all that flows out of the American aphorism “Customer is King!” — have ceased to determine the behaviour of business enterprises.
The famous musician, Dave Carroll, flying recently with the United Airlines (UA), found on arrival at his destination that his expensive and treasured custom guitar, which he had checked in, had been damaged by rough and careless handling.
Despite a nine-month long battle waged by Carroll with the (misnamed) Customer Relations Department of the UA, the airline refused to entertain his complaint and asked him to do his damnedest.
What Carroll then did was something out of this world, an option which is unthinkable for ordinary passengers: He posted on the YouTube a retaliatory video describing in a bewitchingly melodious song accessed by six million netizens, the callousness of the UA.
Woven into the song are graphic and shocking visuals of the way passengers' baggage are thrown and trampled upon by UA's handlers. Poor UA, which had earlier shooed him off, has been chasing him ever since abjectly begging for a settlement in exchange for pulling out the video.
All suppliers of goods and providers of services in India should take to heart the moral of the story: That it simply doesn't pay to treat customers like worms.
Unfortunately, their universal real life encounter is with personnel indifferent to complaints and prone to excruciating delays in redressing them. Surprisingly, this infuriating tendency is coming to be pervasive among the private sector companies after liberalisation.
STEEP JUMP
The primary reason is that they are unable to cope with the sudden phenomenal increase in the number of customers, and the consequent torrent of complaints with whose volume they are not equipped to deal, in terms of either manpower or resources.
In their anxiety to keep up with the steep jump in the demand for goods and services, they are unable, in the prevailing work culture, to exercise tight supervision over quality and delivery.
There are two other factors which have come to the fore following the integration of the economy with the global trends and which are impacting on customer service. The first is the attrition rate.
A common experience that customers go through within a few months of developing personal relations with a customer executive is to be told that he is no longer with the company.
They are forced to start building up relations with a new person all over again. From a PTI news report of May 1, it would appear that the outlook on this count for India Inc. can only get worse. The average attrition rate, which was around 20 per cent in the January-March this year, is expected to cross 31 per cent in April-June.
The percentage would be highest in the retail (56), followed by services (40), IT /ITeS sector (31), biotech (35), telecom (26), construction (25), banking and financial services (23), capital goods(23), aviation and hospitality (22), Fast Moving Consumer Goods (21), automobile and manufacturing (19), and real estate (15).
DISTURBING TRENDS
The situation is not different in the US. There too the trends are disturbing, There polls are held every year by Gallop on the loyalty and commitment of employees for the organisations they serve.
As per the latest for 2011, only 21 per cent of the employees were “engaged” — that is, “emotionally attached to their workplaces and motivated to be productive” — and the rest were either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged”, looking out for better job offers and making plans to quit at the earliest opportunity.
Company loyalty is fast becoming extinct, taking along with it any concern or interest on the part of employees to cultivate customers and keep them happy.
India's federations of chambers of business and industry have for too long been shutting their eyes to the threat of folding up that this poses to many of the companies which are currently household brands.
They have to go into the root causes of the malady, without deluding themselves with mere advertisements or homilies from the Chairman's Desk in newsletters.
They have to take remedial measures without losing further time, for the boasts of the private sector being a superior performer are already been seen to be hollow.
Keywords: Customer service, customer satisfaction, phenomenal increase, torrent of complaints, remedial measures
Comments:
Unless middle level staff are taken to task for their wrong doing, there is no use complaining even to the PMO.
my opinion is that customer service is mainly to stop the customer from haggling with the managers and other personnel of the company.let them talk and be stalled by the sweet voice of a person on the phone and let the 'representative' hear the customer's anger, while the directors of the companies count their money.
A good one. The chain being the conglomorate operates through various subsidiaries/ associates/ franchises. They effectively distance themselves from the complaints/ grievances aspect and concentrate on performance and profit contribution. We are all subjected to the record voice telling us that " all our executives are currently busy, please hold or call later".
Thoughtful article but the author in a pathetic example wasted words on poor service in US which are of no concern to me as an Indian.Among the indian companies, I find the best and most Retail customer focused are japanese companies in automobiles and the bad apples are the Indian run behemoths like Tatas/Birlas/Ambanis or the central government run BSNL.Problem of bad customer focus is more with the higher echelons of administration where as the ones at the bottom of the rung are far more sensitive.It goes to say more money an executive makes the more unreasonable he or she becomes.It is better to scrutinise the functions of top executives especially if they have high qualifications.Yes, the problem starts from the Managing Director downwards.Finally, when will Indian journalists start providing their hands on real life examples in India rather than give examples gleaning from US networks?
Very true and appropriate article for current situation. I myself have a dozen stories to prove this point. I used to think that only I am the unfortunate customer who is facing such situations often. Now I am glad that it is universal. There is no doubt that private sector service providers have proved to be worse than public sector. After the initial euphoria about liberalisation, we have started realising that public sector provides better service than private - be it in civil aviation, telecom, automobile or insurance. I would like to mention a few names like Bajaj Allianz, Tata Sky, HSBC bank, Honda Cars & Toyota for their apathy towards customers.
You hit the nail on its head, Mr.Raghavan. About 20 years back, it was
the government departments, that used to be complained about. But now
even prestigious private banks, telcos and what not, are not free from
severe criticsm of the functioning of the customer care departments.A
no-care attitude is very much prevalent through out the country in all
sectors. This is miserable.
REAL INCIDENT:-Ram is proceeding from Chennai to Trivandrum in Santro car. Reaches Tindivanam, and decides to check air. In sudden spate of rain and the engine is off before reaching the air guage and fails to restart . Thanking the no on windscreen sticker , a call is made and they arrive on the scene. However they leave asking Ram bring car to s/centre. Emergency contact number becomes useless.
Ram arranges towing to take vehicle to Pondy dealer. Dealer declares water in fuel tank and blaming bunk for same.
Ram takes delivery after tank cleaning, late in the evening and forced to stay overnight in a hotel. Continuing journey next day in two minute rain on entering Kovilpatti for lunch the car faiks to start after lunch. After much persuasion a dealer provides an aux tank to bring the car to the service centre. There, after much convincing they find a crack in the inlet pipe. But you are heftily charged for repeat repair the very next day. CUSTOMER KING?????????
Truely speaking it is not all practised. Take for example BSNL we are
not able to see the broadband usage and the records are dispalyed as of 9th may. several calls made to their call centre but of no use.
Spare a moment for rather a cranky thought :
REAL INCIDENT narrated is of a car break-down. Initial diagnosis by a so called 'technician' was 'water in fuel tank'; but later diagnosed as 'crack in fuel tank'. Wonder how many have or not faced or heard about like true-life incidents but more worrisome- e.g. in relation to commonly-come-across human health complaints; and repeated diagnosis by a doctor, he be attached to a hospital or in private practice, the most popular ones being no exception. Individual perception of men and matters, of course, is sure to widely differ; depending mainly on whether his attachment is more to his car or lifeline. Still, the world goes on!!!!!!!!!
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