I have done great deal of work in customer facing jobs to date, and have very strong opinions about what the measure is for ‘quality customer service’. I think I deserve the right to opine since I consider myself a good advocate of customer service, having won Microsoft’s ‘Direct Measure of Quality’ award when I did work for Microsoft.
On the other hand, I am a consumer of many services in India like any of you – starting from broadband internet to milk delivery. I have, until now, seen very few instances or companies in India provide ‘quality customer service’. I have written about my customer service experiences on this blog earlier here, these were my experiences and what I perceived of incidents around me.
Lately, I have been noticing poor quality of service more often than not from various places. Here are some of my experiences:
The Good:
I am a customer of the ‘world’s local bank’ and have been very impressed with their customer service staff every time I call them. I was impressed when I recently received an email and SMS stating that their systems would be undergoing upgrades and I will not have access to all services for a period of time; I received these messages well ahead of their maintenance and promptly received a message when the upgrades were completed apologizing for the inconvenience caused.
My Rating: Excellent!
The Bad:
I have been a very loyal customer of one of the US banks that operates in India, and use their credit cards, had a personal loan with them, and also held two savings accounts with them. When I called to pre-close my personal loan it was a nightmare! First, they need 30 days of notice, so when I called to say I want to pre-close, they would ask me to callback after 30days and will charge me the subsequent EMI, they wouldn’t send anyone to collect the cheque, would have me visit their offices (not any of them but a specific office) within a stipulated time that doesn’t work for me, the office is open only between 9am – 1pm and is closed on weekends, and when I actually visited their office to drop the cheque, they would take 15days to process the pre-closure and if it exceeds the 20th of the month, I will be charged the subsequent month’s EMI and I have to provide a 30day notice all over again and repeat the process. Okay, all these are company policies, but when I call the customer care center I would expect someone to say ‘we will try to help’. Both the rep and his manager I spoke to ‘refused’ to help and did not even tell me they will try. I would have been happy if they told me they will try and callback in a couple of days to say they tried but it didn’t work.
My Rating: Bad.
The Ugly:
I ordered pizza today and I was promised a forty minute delivery; when it was beyond fifty minutes and I called, I was informed that there was a ‘problem at the outlet’. Don’t I deserve the right to be informed about the delay if there is one? Its not that I will die of hunger after forty minutes, but the main reason we ordered pizza was because I was running out of time to get ready and leave for work. I would have expected a phone call to inform me of the delay. The rep that answered the phone sounded anything but apologetic and also had sarcasm when he asked if it was the delivery when our door bell rang while I was on the phone. [apparently, it was not the delivery].
My Rating: Ugly.
I use a datacard for Internet usage while I commute to work, it is so critical to me that this worked at all times because I spend two hours in commute and that is when I catchup on reading and writing. I have only begun using the datacard since August this year and the bill has never reached me on time, neither email nor the hardcopy. Since the bills never reached me, I did not know about the billing dates and missed payments. Ironically, every time I use the datacard and connect to the internet, I receive promotional SMSs through their software but no notice of bills due. So they never told me my bill was due, they charged late payment fee, disconnected my service on the card, refused to waive off late payment fee when I called to explain, refused to send me bills on email and hardcopy stating they could only do either and not both, said they can’t ’see’ my information because their systems are down when I called another time, refused to transfer me to another technician whose system is up so I could be helped, and finally refused to put me on to a supervisor so I couldn’t complain! It took them a very lengthy email from me to their service assurance cell to cancel the late payment fee and agree to send me bills on time. However, I am still waiting for the bill for November when the bill date has passed!
My Rating: Ugly.
Don’t we house customer service operations for most international banks in India? Don’t we house technical support operations in India for most technology companies? Isn’t India supposed to be the ‘outsourcing hub’ for the world?
So why is the customer service situation in such a sorry state throughout the country? Why should I always have to complain to get a treatment that is supposed to be given to every caller and every consumer otherwise? I don’t ask for the fake ’sir’, ‘thank you’, empathy or phone etiquette, all I ask is that you man the phone with people that are at least capable of doing their jobs right.
Will this ever happen? or would you say ‘Sorry this is India, that’s all you get’!