In a country like India where most people live in rural areas, poor and technologically ignorant, companies must invest in hiring more men and women and training them
Published Date – Monday, 4/17/23 at 12:30pm
Arun Sinha
At first glance, technology makes our lives easier. You and I order groceries on our phones and the basket arrives within minutes. Sometimes you’ve just placed an order, and the doorbell rings, and you frown, “Who’s this?” Never thinking the delivery guy will arrive before you can even blink.
You’re looking for a specific type of thing — a kurta, a saree, a grinder, a lamp, a container. In the old days, you had to go from market to market, from one end of town to the other looking for something, and come back empty handed. Today, you don’t have to go to the market. The market is coming to you. It shows you a thousand things, one better than the other. Once you decide and pay from your phone, it appears lightning fast.
bless?
Isn’t technology a blessing? You cry out. You don’t have to waste any time or fuel looking for something from the North Pole to the South Pole. You don’t have to face the psychological torture of shopkeepers trying to sell you something else, swearing they’re better than what you’re looking for. You find it instantly, pay for it instantly and get it instantly, just by pressing a few keys on your phone.
But imagine arriving at something that isn’t exactly what you wanted. A kurta isn’t the light turquoise color you want; it’s a dark turquoise color. That’s when hell begins, and your new love for technology takes a vertical plunge from summer into winter. Of course, there is also a customer service line. But it’s not a line. It was a more labyrinthine chakravyuh than the one Abhimanyu was asked to traverse. The automatic lady’s voice asks you to press this, that, or that number on your phone for this, that, or that question, and you often can’t decide which one is right for you. The getaway lady is more impatient than your grandfather, and will disconnect if you don’t press any keys before she breathes again.
Even if, after a lot of time and effort, you manage to hit the right keys, you may not be able to hear the vocals. Going through customer service is like roaming on a ghost planet where you hear only disembodied voices. But just because you’re lucky enough to hear a human voice doesn’t mean your grievances will be resolved. No, this voice will berate you for your fate: “This item is your choice. We can’t do anything about it.” When you say the kurta looks light turquoise on their website, The voice will tell you, no, it’s dark turquoise and looks just like the last they did. You ask the voice to change the kurta to a light turquoise one, and you’re told, “Sorry, we don’t have a light turquoise one.”
Frustrated, you say, “Take it back, and give me my money back.” “Sorry, our company doesn’t have a refund policy,” the voice replies; “but you can return it and order another color.” You say, “But I Want light turquoise. I don’t want another color.” The voice said impatiently like an automatic lady, “Then you can keep the item. Dark turquoise looks good too. It’s a best seller Color.” You end the call angrily. You’re stuck with dark turquoise.
curse?
Can we consumers still say that technology is a blessing? We’d say: sometimes yes, but not always. It can even be a curse. Technology is a real blessing for companies, not for consumers. They use technology to boost sales through flashy websites, enticing ads, promotional calls and product displays. They deploy an army of salespeople to entice customers to buy the product. But once customers pay for the product, the sales force disappears. Then there’s the ghost planet with disembodied voices.
These companies invest far more in sales than in after-sales customer service. In the name of customer service, they have automated voice systems and cheap labor. Often, frontline customer service doesn’t know how to solve your problem. The company is not investing in data pools. As a result, not all data about customers will be available on the computer screen of a frontline customer service executive. They also don’t have all the data on their screens about the grievance resolution process. Therefore, your call will be transferred to a supervisor. You have to wait an age before hearing the voice of the supervisor. You had to tell your story again, only to be advised to send a detailed email with invoice number, transaction number, product code and God knows what else. For days, the emails went back and forth, and the Greek of executive emails put your intelligence to the test. Finally, while you wait for the issue to be resolved, you will receive an email saying your appeal has been satisfactorily resolved! Please click here to provide your feedback! Five stars is “excellent” and four is “very good”….
Who suffers?
You swear you will never buy anything from that company and switch to another. Not only that, you told your family, relatives, friends and acquaintances about your bad experience and they didn’t buy anything from this company. You tell your story on social media posts and on your company website. Who suffers? company. You just have to wear a dark turquoise kurta instead of a light one. Your losses are insignificant compared to the damage a customer migration can do to your company’s sales and revenue. A company with poor customer service can end up boosting the sales of its competitors!
Why doesn’t the company understand? It is foolish to spend 99.99% of your money on production and sales and 0.1% on after-sales customer service. Brands cannot thrive without great customer service. They must balance the use of technology and human agents in customer service. In a country like India where the majority of the population is rural, poor, semi-educated and technically ignorant, companies must invest in hiring more men and women and training and equipping them to work in a timely and rounded Solve customer dissatisfaction. They have to inhabit the ghost planet with intelligent beings.
