Three experiences in the last 6 weeks have left me wondering if companies/brands really understand what customer service is? My experience tells me that it starts and ends with the CEO, the vision and mission statement document and with some obligatory training sessions. In real word in India customer service is just an added cost.

 

Let me elaborate. I have relocated to Dehradun a few months ago and after buying a house (that's a story for another day), I was setting up home. Having lived in a rented accommodation for a few months, with a prepaid SIM card and a gas connection to boot (no, there is no story there; I had a valid transfer certificate) I was now ready to be a regular citizen in my own house.

 

So I approached the local showroom of a prominent mobile service provider, the one who has been the only constant source of employment for a famous film star’s son. I was told that they have the best network and rates locally. So I marched into the showroom (that is if you can call a 12 foot by 6 foot of space with 4 employees and 8 customers crammed in, a showroom) with my wife in tow, wanting two post paid connections and 3G along with that. We had all documents in place and were given some packages to consider. Having made our choices we asked for a nano SIM for my iPhone and a micro SIM for my wife's Samsung. We were told that these were not available but we could go to the grey market area and any respectable shopkeeper there would cut our normal SIMS into the right shape. And this we were told is a standard process in Doon. The customer service executive seemed very surprised that I did not know about this. She then confirmed that within 24-48 hours after verification our SIMS would be operational and she would give us a call. She even gave us her number.

 

When no call came after 36 hours, I called her. No response. Tried for 2 hours, no response. Then magically she picks up and drawls that she was about to call us and our numbers have been activated. But the SIM problems we will have to sort out ourselves. So I took out some old phones and first confirmed that the SIMS were operational. No surprises! Only one was working. Second one after confirming with the customer centre number also was not working.

 

Not wanting to try my luck on the phone I marched down to the “showroom”. Uh oh sorry sir, the fault is actually in the SIM card. We will replace it. Hello, I haven't even used it and it is faulty? Well it happens sometimes. But I still need to go to the grey market dealer to cut my SIMs.

 

By now I had decided to act. So I find the name of the CEO of the company, find his email id ( not very difficult, you just need the email format and most companies have one of the three types types!) and shoot off a long mail with my woes. And then I sit back.

 

Next day morning 10 am the local head along with his technical chief are at my residence. With brand new nano and micro SIMs and within 15 minutes my new numbers were operational, my 3G was on and I had been advised to switch to a more economical post paid plan. So you see the CEO had understood customer service but no one else had.

 

Around the same time I wanted to shift my DTH connection. Now my service provider has an international tie up and I am one of their oldest customer and also have multiple connections which are HD. So I call the customer service number tell them my requirement and other details. I am assured this will be taken care of and a local technician will call me. And he does. Within 15 minutes. Takes down my current address and also the new address. We agree on a date and time and he promises to be there. So far so good.

 

24 hrs before the agreed date and time, the technician lands up at my place. You see he had decided to be proactive. I politely informed him that I could not shift that day and needed 24 hrs more. No problems, he shrugs. Will be there tomorrow.

 

25 hrs later he was still not there. I call and call and call. And he picks up. Running late, he says matter of fact. Will be there in 30 minute. Well he did land up but after 60 minutes. Got to work immediately. Disconnected all the connections, removed the dish and all wires, dumped them in front of me, thrust a paper for me to sign and wished me goodbye. I had been dazzled by his speed but recovered in the nick of time to ask him about fixing up the connections in my new house. Sorry am too busy today, and you have to start a new work order he says and zooms off.

 

Time for me to get in touch with the one person in the company who understands customer service! I remember that a friend of my friend on Facebook is the CEO of this company. I immediately write an impassioned Facebook message to him, praying that he is a 50 plus youngster who always has FB on on his smart phone.

 

And he was a 50 plus youngster addicted to smartphone FB app. Within 15 minutes of my message I had a rather pompous sounding lady on the line speaking from Mumbai who assured me that everything will be sorted out in the next 2 hours.

 

And it was. My connections were up and running in time for World Cup Football. Because one person in the company took customer care seriously and I managed to get my message across to him.

 

So I shifted and was just getting used to my new digs when the elevator in the building decided to conk off. I stay on the fourth floor but don't forget that I am approaching my fiftieth birthday too. The elevator is serviced by a German company who are still not well known in India but globally are a big player in all types of heavy industries. The building management society informed me that it will get repaired in a jiffy. Well 3 days was not my idea of jiffy. So I decide to investigate ( you see the Famous five were my first heroes since I was 10 years old). I spoke to the local rep who assured me that they have finally found the fault. The motor had burnt off and now they were trying to remove it and take it for repairs ( it's called rewinding). That's when I realised they had taken 36 hours to diagnose the problem and another 24 hours to organise to remove the offending part and send it for repairs. And they were non committal about how long it will take to get it back.

 

Since my 71 year old mother in law who had recovered from a breast cancer operation was staying with me I decided to….yes you are right. Get in touch with the one man who understands customer service in the company.

I promptly send him a mail and no surprises, I got a prompt response. No further surprises when the north zone head got in touch and explained that the repairs will take 3 days more. He tried to throw some jargon at me but what's the use of a management degree if you can't handle some jargons. I remembered some of my physics lessons ( I did study for the exams) surfed a bit on the net an told him that if they prioritise this job could be done in less than 2 days. Of course all these conversations were also marked, yes yes, to the one person in the company who understands customer service.

 

So the fancied designated north zone person lands up in Dehradun on the weekend ( of course the fact that he belongs to this place and has friends and family is a sure shot magnet), meets up with yours truly and the building management people assures us that our work is prioritised and the elevator will be operational in the next 6-7 hours.

 

Smiling like a Cheshire Cat having impressed the building committee people I wait. After 8 hours a smug looking mother in law looks at the elevator and shakes her head. I immediately send a message to “Mr Right Person in the company”.

 

The next morning a spare motor with a motley crew had been despatched from Delhi. By lunch the elevator was purring again and my marriage was safe. For now.

 

So the moral of this story. Well….if you haven't got it till now then do wait for my next blog. It will be on the moronic consumer.