I also need to let go of my habit of saying it like it is... turns out people don't appreciate it all that much. Huh. Who'd've thunk?
The year that was, 2021 edition
2 years ago
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
It strikes me...
It occurred to me the other day that I can no longer afford to be as flippant and contemptuous on my blogs as I have tended to be ever since I began blogging. A certain amount of political correctness seems to be the order of the day, especially since sundry colleagues and clients have mentioned going through my other blog. Which is an interesting proposition, seeing as I don't think I've been diplomatic or politically correct in my life.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Take that
One of my main cribbing points for India is that its customer service orientation, well, sorta sucks. You call any customer care helpline number, and I can guarantee that you'll be ready to tear your hair out within minutes.
In the last few days, I've had two interesting experiences; one which proved this opinion completely wrong, and then one that proved me completely right.
I'm supposed to coordinate all IT requirements for the firm I work in; we recently needed to order two desktops, so I was coordinating with the company we usually buy our machines from. The desktops were delivered last Saturday, and by Thursday, no one had showed up to configure them. When I emailed the contact person in Chennai, he replied someone would be in touch asap, and sure enough, someone called that afternoon. This guy, on hearing that I wanted someone to show up at the soonest, asked me to hang on, and turned to his colleague and said something fairly rude about me. When he came back on the line, I let him know that I had heard what he had said. Forget apologizing, he coolly informed me that all the engineers had visits already scheduled, and we couldn't have one visit us till the next evening. Which was the point when I lost it.
Not only did I give it off to him, but once I got off the phone, I emailed our contact person telling him what had happened. Within minutes, I received a call from him asking about what had happened, and apologizing profusely. Half an hour later, I got a call from a fairly senior guy from the company apologizing again, and assuring me that he would schedule an engineer visit at the soonest, and that he would call me as soon as he could confirm a time for me. Not only did he call me back later (twice, actually), he also had me talk to another senior guy who apologized yet again, and even thanked me for being so patient and hearing them every time. By evening, I had actually been apologized to so many times that I was heartily wishing I had never shot off that email. Plus, I'm pretty sure the guy who had spoken to me so rudely would've been sacked by then, and I was beginning to feel quite guilty about it.
On the other hand, Friday evening I hit the malls in Gurgaon and went to two-three departmental stores. The last one I visited, I paid with my debit card. The guy at the counter swiped my card and returned it to me; however, a minute or two later, he asked for my card again saying that there was some problem and that he needed to swipe it again. As I was giving him my card, I received an SMS notification saying that the bill amount had been debited from my account. When I told him this, he said that wasn't possible because the machine hadn't processed my card, and went ahead and swiped my card a second time. Immediately, I got a second SMS notification that the same amount had been debited again. When I showed this to him, he called his manager who told him this wasn't possible, and he therefore told me that I must be mistaken.
I immediately called my bank's customer care who informed me that yes, the same amount had been debited twice. Fortunately, I was able to block payment on the second transaction.
On telling the guy at the counter what the bank had said, he called his manager down. The manager came down and asked me what had happened. He heard me out with a smirk on his face, and informed me that that wasn't possible because their machines were just fine.
I can understand a machine giving problems, I can understand the guy at the counter making a mistake, and it wasn't a particularly big amount that had got debited. What annoyed me was that I was told, repeatedly, despite me showing them my SMS notifications as well as what the bank customer care officer told me, that I must be mistaken and that they have not charged me twice.
Simply making the sale to a customer very often isn't enough. We have six-seven different products of one particular electronics giant at home; we are planning to replace all of them sooner or later because their customer care is lousy. Almost everyone I know agrees that while the cars of a certain company are excellent, they wouldn't buy those cars because their service centre in Gurgaon is completely inefficient.
When companies talk about increasing sales, there are two ways they can do this, as far as my understanding is. They can either get new customers, or they can get existing customers to buy more of their products. If they want the latter to happen, their customer care needs to be, at the very least, customer friendly!
As a customer, I've seen that most companies in India either don't care about this aspect or aren't able to handle it. The company I dealt with for our desktops did excellent damage control, if not a little over the top. Whether it was because they know my firm has given them quite a bit of business in the past or whether they genuinely want to ensure that their customers are satisfied, I wouldn't know. What I do know is that I would go to them if I need more computers or laptops.
The departmental store which charged me twice and where those idiots refused to even accept that they had charged me twice? Not for a long, long time.
In the last few days, I've had two interesting experiences; one which proved this opinion completely wrong, and then one that proved me completely right.
I'm supposed to coordinate all IT requirements for the firm I work in; we recently needed to order two desktops, so I was coordinating with the company we usually buy our machines from. The desktops were delivered last Saturday, and by Thursday, no one had showed up to configure them. When I emailed the contact person in Chennai, he replied someone would be in touch asap, and sure enough, someone called that afternoon. This guy, on hearing that I wanted someone to show up at the soonest, asked me to hang on, and turned to his colleague and said something fairly rude about me. When he came back on the line, I let him know that I had heard what he had said. Forget apologizing, he coolly informed me that all the engineers had visits already scheduled, and we couldn't have one visit us till the next evening. Which was the point when I lost it.
Not only did I give it off to him, but once I got off the phone, I emailed our contact person telling him what had happened. Within minutes, I received a call from him asking about what had happened, and apologizing profusely. Half an hour later, I got a call from a fairly senior guy from the company apologizing again, and assuring me that he would schedule an engineer visit at the soonest, and that he would call me as soon as he could confirm a time for me. Not only did he call me back later (twice, actually), he also had me talk to another senior guy who apologized yet again, and even thanked me for being so patient and hearing them every time. By evening, I had actually been apologized to so many times that I was heartily wishing I had never shot off that email. Plus, I'm pretty sure the guy who had spoken to me so rudely would've been sacked by then, and I was beginning to feel quite guilty about it.
On the other hand, Friday evening I hit the malls in Gurgaon and went to two-three departmental stores. The last one I visited, I paid with my debit card. The guy at the counter swiped my card and returned it to me; however, a minute or two later, he asked for my card again saying that there was some problem and that he needed to swipe it again. As I was giving him my card, I received an SMS notification saying that the bill amount had been debited from my account. When I told him this, he said that wasn't possible because the machine hadn't processed my card, and went ahead and swiped my card a second time. Immediately, I got a second SMS notification that the same amount had been debited again. When I showed this to him, he called his manager who told him this wasn't possible, and he therefore told me that I must be mistaken.
I immediately called my bank's customer care who informed me that yes, the same amount had been debited twice. Fortunately, I was able to block payment on the second transaction.
On telling the guy at the counter what the bank had said, he called his manager down. The manager came down and asked me what had happened. He heard me out with a smirk on his face, and informed me that that wasn't possible because their machines were just fine.
I can understand a machine giving problems, I can understand the guy at the counter making a mistake, and it wasn't a particularly big amount that had got debited. What annoyed me was that I was told, repeatedly, despite me showing them my SMS notifications as well as what the bank customer care officer told me, that I must be mistaken and that they have not charged me twice.
Simply making the sale to a customer very often isn't enough. We have six-seven different products of one particular electronics giant at home; we are planning to replace all of them sooner or later because their customer care is lousy. Almost everyone I know agrees that while the cars of a certain company are excellent, they wouldn't buy those cars because their service centre in Gurgaon is completely inefficient.
When companies talk about increasing sales, there are two ways they can do this, as far as my understanding is. They can either get new customers, or they can get existing customers to buy more of their products. If they want the latter to happen, their customer care needs to be, at the very least, customer friendly!
As a customer, I've seen that most companies in India either don't care about this aspect or aren't able to handle it. The company I dealt with for our desktops did excellent damage control, if not a little over the top. Whether it was because they know my firm has given them quite a bit of business in the past or whether they genuinely want to ensure that their customers are satisfied, I wouldn't know. What I do know is that I would go to them if I need more computers or laptops.
The departmental store which charged me twice and where those idiots refused to even accept that they had charged me twice? Not for a long, long time.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Jet lays off 1900... and then reinstates them
So a huge topic for discussion over the last 24 hours, both at home and at the workplace, has been the layoffs of around 1900 employees of Jet Airways. The media went beserk, the blogosphere was buzzing, and Raj Thakeray, of all people, started making his wonderful pronouncements.
My thing was, yes, times are bad. Yes, layoffs are happening all around us; I know quite a few people who don't know if they'll be employed next week. But to do it in such a clinical and cold-blooded manner, and to go on the record with saying this is for the economic benefit of the company, leaves a dreadful taste in the mouth.
However, just minutes ago, Naresh Goyal has announced that all 1900 employees are being taken back. And the blogosphere is buzzing already.
I'm wondering why these airlines do everything at midnight. They meet to discuss alliances late at night, they announce reinstatements at midnight... it's like they're trying to ensure they miss the next day's nespapers and that people forget about it by the day after that. In this country? With the news channels we have? Not happening.
Ok, so that's the first post for this blog, and it's not the one I planned. Neither is it exactly on the job. But it's rambling. So we got one thing right.
My thing was, yes, times are bad. Yes, layoffs are happening all around us; I know quite a few people who don't know if they'll be employed next week. But to do it in such a clinical and cold-blooded manner, and to go on the record with saying this is for the economic benefit of the company, leaves a dreadful taste in the mouth.
“As painful as it may be for every single person affected, this adjustment was inevitable in the greater interest of regaining viability of Jet Airways and to securing its economic health,” said CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer.
However, just minutes ago, Naresh Goyal has announced that all 1900 employees are being taken back. And the blogosphere is buzzing already.
I'm wondering why these airlines do everything at midnight. They meet to discuss alliances late at night, they announce reinstatements at midnight... it's like they're trying to ensure they miss the next day's nespapers and that people forget about it by the day after that. In this country? With the news channels we have? Not happening.
Ok, so that's the first post for this blog, and it's not the one I planned. Neither is it exactly on the job. But it's rambling. So we got one thing right.
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