Jun 17, 2015 09:18 PM
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We talk a lot about customer service orientation in our country . Businesses can't stop shouting from the roof tops about the investments.
They are making in improving their brand perceptions via agile business practices, partnering in customer journey, integrating their customer channels including social media, call centers, emails and what not to provide a seamless customer experience and using innovative technologies to assess customer's best next action. So I decided to put this to test. Well this was not really a voluntary effort but was brought upon by an issue I encountered with my DTH TV service provider(Reliance Digital TV erstwhile Big TV).
Almost a week back, I switched on the idiot box to find that I am greeted with a First Installation Screen. I have been a subscriber of the service for little over 3 years now, so found this somewhat baffling . I picked up the phone and called the Reliance Big TV call centre . After several big moves my fingers had to make to circumnavigate to talk to a live person.
I was greeted by this person asking me to tell him my 20 digit Smart Card number all over again. I thought that with my mobile number registered with them, this information would be available to the call centre agent who addresses my call . Well I had fish out the paper that had this 20 digit number . We struggled around for next 5 minutes to get the number right.
Either he was hard of hearing or I am turning incoherent. So next in the script is . How can I help you. I describe my issue and I am told that in next 48 hours someone will come to resolve it. Then the person asks me if I had any other issues that could be addressed. And I was thinking how stupid is that . I am stuck on the screen that says First Installation, how in the world can I have any other issues. I smiled to myself and realized that this would not be in their script and perhaps I just created a teachable moment for them.
Within seconds I receive an SMS giving me the complaint reference number citing that an engineer will visit in next 48 hours to address the problem which kinda made me happy . I thought that at least they have that part of the technology hacked out.
Anyways 2 days go by, no communication from the fabled engineer. I call up the call centre on 3rd day pretty angry . Because that was their friggin SLA not mine. Once again my fingers do all the dancing to reach the call centre agent, once again we play the comprehension game of 20 digit smart card no for next 5-6 minutes. Then I am asked on how can I be helped . My god don't they see that I have raised a complaint. So I go on describing the issue and give him that Complaint reference number . Another 2-3 minutes gone . Thank god this was just 9 digit number. Effort expended was halved. Once again apologetic noises and a promise that their core team is looking at the problem and it will be addressed soon. There is no definition of soon mind you . Soon can be a day, 2 days, a week, a few months or eternity! I ask this agent to put me on to his Senior Manager . I presume that every call centre has a manager of sorts who is supposed to monitor how things are being addressed and takes escalations and mitigates them. After many more clicks and Reliance tunes I get to the manager . He also asks me last 4 digits of the smart card number. My god, how stupid is this company I think . He also fails to give me any commitments on when it will be resolved.
Same thing has been repeating for last 4 days, This is like that movie Groundhog Day! I have written to Anil Ambani . Posted on their Facebook page, tweeted about it . But a stock response that our core team is looking into it. This core team must be really on the cusp of making some ground breaking discoveries! Incidentally no response from the offices of Anil Ambani. Obviously acquired customers don't matter to the company.
The company has no refund policy. So if you have paid in advance for one year, they just keep deducting money till it runs out. So no chance of getting my money back.
In some ways, having no TV is a bit of relief also as I am missing out on the daily cacophony called News! But I don't like the idea that something doesn't work. I got serious beef with that.
I went on to some other businesses Facebook pages and was horrified to see other tales of woes from paying customers. Whether it's auto companies, insurance guys, telecom companies . Any company that is in B2C segment is doing a pretty shabby job of customer management. I don't know whether these companies actually care about their reputation or not or our market place is so big that attrition has become a way of life and all these noises on deploying technology to serve the customers better are just a sham.
I wonder what these kind of experiences does to their brand or do they even care?
