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Impatience and Customer Service

Anger and I have shared a long relationship. A short tempered beast inside me would awaken at  the slightest hint. At times, no reason was required. I used to get angry even if someone shouted at me. I used to get angry if someone played some harmless prank at me. I used to get angry at almost everything and everybody. 

Then I joined Customer Service department in my present organization where my team consists of only ladies and most of them are elder than me. I learnt to have milder, no shouting and no high pitched conversation. I knew I succeeded to some extent when my colleagues  started telling me “How come you are always so cool and calm? We have never seen you getting irritating on anything or anyone.”  

I am writing about this entire anger thing because my dear blogger friend LEB has tagged me. 
Over the period my temperament may have got better (Zoobie disagrees) but my impatience to bad customer service has increased. In this post, I am sharing such instances of my impatience. 

“Obviously” replied a cashier to me at a food joint when I checked with him whether a certain item from bill is deleted or not. I think word ‘obvious’ has become a sort of takiya-kalam in India and lot of youngsters use it anywhere in a conversation. I have always felt that this word brings some kind of arrogance in a person’s attitude and tone and should not be used at all if you, even remotely, deal with customers.  
Once I waited for more than forty minutes to exchange my stuff for another product in an organized store. The staff had long list of their reasons for not doing it fast. I was frustrated, irritated but somehow managed not to show it to staff.  
Long billing lines and long time taken during billing in organized retail stores can make saints shout. Products do not get scanned, mismatch in pricing and freebies not getting scanned are common reasons for delay. Whatever may be the reason, long billing lines raise my temper. 

“I will call you after my meeting is over” is definitely the most overused excuse. I heard this so many times when I am chasing someone to get some work done and service provider is too busy to take up more work. But he is too courteous to refuse me outright. I have always felt this is height of unprofessional behavior and it does make me frustrated.  

Customer following up with service provider, for which he has already paid, is somehow becoming a norm in Indian service industries. Ramesh wrote a post on how Indians are unable to work without follow ups. This poor work habit is being fast imbibed in Indian service industries and this irks me a lot. 
Sales persons are busy on mobile phones while customer is waiting for their attention, is a sad sight and tests my patience. Are there any calls which are more important than customers? I doubt.  

“Sir, I am calling from _____ company and we are offering blah, blah, ……, blah. Are you interested?” said the voice. A curt ‘no’ was my reply. “Thank you.” said the voice.
Attending calls of tele-callers which dole out scripts in mechanical tone is serious wastage of time, money and do bring me on the verge of losing patience.   
Discounted products are promoted as full length advertisement in a newspaper by a retailer and he forgot to mention the stores where it is applicable. I once drove 60 kilometers to avail a certain promotional coupon but on reaching the store, it was communicated to me that promotion is not applicable in their store. I shouted at store staff, told them that you are losing a customer but nothing worked. I learnt to be more careful in reading ‘Terms & Conditions apply’. 

Interacting with any call centre is a pain. After dialing the call centre number, punching more numbers, waiting for service representative for 30 minutes and then a call drop. Phew! It is a tough task and needs a truck load of patience which I do not have. 

Biggest test of patience comes when stern processes and not common sense drive service professionals. Once my Delhi bound flight landed in Ahmedabad because of bad weather. Flyers were hungry and thirsty as there was no water on flight. Flyers could see shops open in airport but were not allowed to leave flight as it was against the process.  

With these ten vents on impatience, I am through with my longest post on this blog.  
In case you have something more to add to this list, please do share. 

PS: - There are some other tags which I need to fulfill but will do after sometime. Let me give some rest to my grey cells.
 

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What's in a name?

What’s in a name? Juliet asked this question to Romeo in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet.
 


I entered Tast of Tibet (Taste is minus ‘e’) after reading its name. I presumed that it was a mistake and entered restaurant to confirm whether it indeed was a mistake or some regional word. It turns out to be a mistake as at various walls and glass, owners have tried to paste ‘e’ but it did not stick.  
Inside, restaurant was clean and had a homely feeling around it. Once inside, I ordered coffee, Momos and Thukpa.  Being a restaurant run by a Tibetan family, I was expecting authentic Chinese meals and not like Indian-Chinese meal available in most parts of India which is spoilt with excessive spices.  
When food arrived, it was sumptuous. Thukpa was colorful as it was full of varied colored vegetables and excellent in taste. Momos were equally delicious. Vegetables used were absolutely fresh and it seemed to me that they played a major role in the quality of dishes. Coffee is like what we make in home – lot of milk, sugar and coffee boiled together. No Italian would like to touch it but me being North Indian can gulp anything which has milk.  I loved the whole meal! 

On the menu, there was also something called Salt Tea which I came across for the first time.  Out of curiosity, I ordered for Salt Tea. When the guy came with the order, I told him that for the first time I am ordering it and do not know whether I will like it or not. He smiled and went away. I tasted it and did not like it. When I asked for bill, owner did not bill me for Salt Tea. I asked for the reason. “This was just for taste” he replied.  
Now coming back to my opening question, what’s in a name?  

I would say nothing much if you can provide products and services that will delight your customers. If you can touch them with small and thoughtful actions they will remember much more than the name. 

After all, Rose with any other name would have the same fragrance.

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On vacation - In action somewhere else

Zoobie and me are on chutti for next 15 days.

I will not be active in blogosphere but will be actively doing trekking in Sangla Valley (in Himachal Pradesh)  for next 7 days. After coming from hills, action will be in my village in Punjab where I intend to eat, drink and sleep.

For next 15 days no Internet, no blogging, no emails and no phone calls. Yes, you read it right.  I will shut myself off completely for next 15 days.

Will catch up with all my blogger friends on June 28.



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MBAs on road to nowhere

New sessions in MBA colleges have started or about to start. As usual, most of the seats in MBA colleges are already sold out. Colleges as usual have raked in their money. 


But this post is regarding students who passed out this year. May and June were anxious months for students who passed out this year. Some students end up with fairly good jobs, some settled for jobs which till last year they would have not considered and lot of students are still sitting with their fingers crossed and waiting for call from HR managers. 


Alumni mail groups are filled with please-help-us mails, calls are being made to all acquaintances and ex-colleagues that have some kind of network in corporate world and all those forgotten uncles and aunties are being remembered who have always vouched for their support. But these efforts are hardly converted into any positive results.


Yours truly have also received such calls. Most difficult part for me is what to say. Truth to be told, I can not help them in jobs as my network is small and mostly consist of junior to middle management level. A direct no always demoralize them. A not-so-frank answer ‘send your CV and let me try’ does not help much as follow-up call comes after few days. 


Couple of times I tried to suggest them to start doing two things – blogging and learn new skills.


I am huge fan of blogging and truly believe that in the times to come a compelling and insightful blog about your area of expertise or industry will help you in getting jobs. But then this is long term plan but one has to start some day and sooner it is better it is.


Regarding my advice on learning new skills, I suggest them to learn things like applying Macros in Excel, improve presentation skills by joining Toast Masters club, learn web-site designing, associating with an NGO, and learn and master techniques of digital marketing etc.  This choice will help them in utilize their free time effectively and frustration will not grow. This is again long term. But even this advice is not taken with an open mind as they feel I am getting into an unnecessary bhashan mode. And I do not have any ready made and easy solution to their problem.


This is tough year for all students are passing out in these gloomy times. However, a CV in word format will not help in anyway. Everybody has one. These are times when that ‘something extra’ is being sought by HR managers and Internet gives an opportunity to everyone to obtain this ‘something extra’ at no extra cost. 


Please contribute if you have some easy solution to suggest these wannabe managers.


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Kill expenses and not experience

Last month, I went to an organized retailer, Spencer's Express to buy my weekly groceries. It was four in afternoon and temperature outside was 45 degrees which seemed like way more than 50 degrees. I entered inside the store thinking that there will be some respite from this simmering heat. But I was wrong.

AC inside the store was not working and I felt as if I am standing in a furnace. I inquired from staff about non-functioning of AC. "We switch-off AC during non-peak hours" came the reply. I asked "What are your non-peak hours". "11 to 5 during the day are our non-peak hours" replied the staff.

"Great" I told to myself. When the temperature is highest and AC is required most, retailer has switched-off the AC and saved some cost but killed the customer experience. 

Cost cutting or managing costs is the order of the day. Every service organizations has taken certain steps - some harsh, some comical and some genuine to control their costs. Some Indian organizations have saved some important bucks by cutting their travelling cost and shifting to video conferencing.

Some software and real estate companies have saved money by cutting on toiletries, saving on AC costs by increasing temperatures, cutting back on tea bags and tea cups, newspapers and magazines and by not giving increments to their staff.

Hotels have also cut their costs. But they have done it in a way that is not noticeable to customers. They have reduced number of towels from bathrooms, reduced the number of flowers, reduced the number of pages in notepads and are making wiping cloths from discarded sheets. Hotels have not touched the amenities which directly impacts customer experience.

Hotels have not cut their staff strength as this will mean impacting customer service directly. Virgin Airlines have also not laid off as much staff (in proportion to other airlines) as it will help them in maintaining higher service levels and standards.  

Managing costs is good for the business but it should not be visible to customers. Kill expenses where you can but without killing customer experience.

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Indian Babus Rock


It is official now.
Indian bureaucracy is worst in Asia. 
India's "suffocating bureaucracy" was ranked the least-efficient by the survey, which said working with the country's civil servants was a "slow and painful" process.

Indian babus have worked hard for last fifty years to achieve this prestigious result.  This has not been an easy journey. They have imbibed certain qualities which have become a part of the DNA the of Indian bureaucracy. They have mastered certain skills and qualities which have helped them in achieving this glorious feat. 

They are taught not to cooperate with their colleagues and customers. The word 'trust' is absent from their dictionary. They are ready to sacrifice work for their daily dose of gossip, household chores and chai-pani. Because of all these qualities their productivity is zero, their engagement with official work is low and they are against any kind of innovation. Lethargy, lack of ownership and speed with which they do their work will put  even a snail to shame. 

Three cheers for the Indian babus who have achieved this shameful feat for our country.  I strongly feel that number of Indians who will be proud of this result should be zero. Sifr. Shunaya. 

At least I am not.

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Evolution stages of Indian retail

In India, retail sector is in dire straits. Dwindling footfalls, low sales, strained profit margins and high rentals is giving many big names of Indian businesses a nightmare. 

Though organized retail in India started in early 90’s and it picked up steam in 2000 with the launch of Big Bazar. After 2005, it was in top gear with host of big players making foray in retail business. 

Then we have slowdown. Consumers got cautious, controlled the spending and retailers started bleeding. This sector was crying for funds. Some retailers have resort to huge cost cutting exercises, some have renegotiated the rentals, some have shut down some of the stores and shutter are down for Subhiksha, one of the biggest retail chain. 

Is this happened because of slowdown? I do not think so. According to me, most of the retailers evolved through four stages in last three years.  

Beginning/Next Big Thing: With retail touted as big thing, investment came easily. Most of the stores were fitted with great store infrastructure, spic and span stores, high quality flooring, invested lot of money in making stores a world class shopping destination. I do not see anything wrong with it. To attract customers from local kirana, all this was required. 

Product quality matters more in staples, fruits, vegetables, bakery and other loose products which are sourced locally by retailers. Initially, fresh fruits and vegetables were driving footfalls. Quality was good and pricing was competitive. There is not much difference in quality of branded packaged food like Britania biscuits, Nestle chocolates etc. However, retailer needs to be careful about expiry date of products.  

When a new store is launched, it used to be full with staff. Courteous and politeness was their strength.

Price was the trickiest one. Everyone wanted to offer cheapest products.

Next gear: Initially there was occasional dust on products especially the slow moving ones, shelves started to get dirty, and dirt on floor was visible especially in food and vegetable section.

 
As months passed, quality deteriorated and prices dipped. And the trend continued.

 
As stores gets older, attrition increased and staff was burdened with work. Polite staff turned rude as work related stress increased. SELs started going missing; prices were not updated regularly, expired products were on shelves, long check-out lines at billing counters. 

Everybody continued to be cheapest.

Only high point was retailers continue to expand and open new stores at breakneck speed.

Desperation: Slowly dirt and dust became permanent fixture in stores and equipment started giving away.

 
Fast moving products were not refilled and slow moving products were staring at you always from over filled shelves. 

Staff became scarce resource in a store and stores became self-service. Customers did treasure hunt to find out products of their choice. 

Being cheapest continued to be single focus of every retailer.

Clueless: Broken shelves were a regular sight and dirty and sloppy floors became an eye sore. All investment on infrastructure went down the drain. Empty shelves were always there to welcome customers. Service – let’s not talk about it. But everybody continued to be cheapest.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
So what comes next?

I see few local players’ retailers packing up with their tails in their legs. Some big players will try to sell their businesses to some foreign players (with new Government in place, FDI restriction may go off). Some will try to restructure their business and re-launch it.

In all scenarios, it will be tough for Indian organized retail. Kiranas can breathe easy for sometime, at least. 

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Travelling makes life tough

This post is not a business post.

For last three weeks, I have been inconsistent with my posts. I am not regularly updating my posts. From a daily post, my number of posts has dropped to two-three in a week. Worst part is I am not sticking to any schedule of updating posts. And I am reading very few blogs these days. 

Reason – my office is shifted and time consumed in my traveling is close to FOUR HOURS. Earlier it was only half an hour. Since I am driving on my own, I cannot utilize my time on any value-add activity like reading etc.

Driving in city like Delhi is tedious task. Cycles, two-wheelers, cars, trucks, horse carts and pedestrians jostle for space on cramped two lane roads. Apart from physical tiredness, it exhausts you mentally also. 

Below graph, explains my situation these days.


I am trying to get used to this new schedule and get my life back on track. I know it is tough but it needs to be worked out.

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