Options:

Tata Motors taking me for ride.

Tata Motors is absolutely taking me for ride. Literally!!

I have booked Tata Manza Saffire (Silver color) from Goyal Motors, Patiala. I was promised a delivery of vehicle in 20-25 days, which comes to March 24, 2010.
Well, the stipulated time period is about to elapse and I am yet to get a call from your dealer (which for me represents the company), and that when they have taken booking amount from me.

Nonetheless, I called up Salesman (Robin) to confirm the delivery of the vehicle but to my amazement, he was clueless about the delivery date. I called him 3-4 times and every time he told that he has to confirm it from his senior. In my fourth call,  I urged him strongly to inform me about delivery date. Then he put me to some team leader (Sandeep Puri). He was equally clueless and gave me some excuses of non-availability of car on the said delivery date. Then I requested him for the next earliest delivery date but he said that he will call me in exactly one hour to give me a confirmation. That one hour never passed.

After making five calls and spending almost 30 minutes on phone, with their salesman, I was able to get a delivery date for my vehicle.

After struggling to get delivery date from saleman (Robin), I am now struggling to get my car. Saleman assured me that I will get my desired car in my desired color on March 25.

Then on the morning of March 25, Salesman again called that he cannot give me a car in Silver color. Only car that is available is in White color, take it or leave it. My choice. He passed on the phone to his superior, Mr Bhupinder Singh (apparently branch manager), who also arrogantly told me that they cannot do much and this is the only car available and I can take it or leave it. 

Are we going back to Ford era?

Contacting Tata Customer Service is another obstacle race. There are fancy customer care pages all over their website but you cannot actually find any email id wherein you can lodge your complaint. They have comment box on their website but it restricts complaint to only 1000 words.

On one hand we have Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, who flaunts his email ID like his iPhone and on another we have India's most respected group which does not even give email ID of its customer support.

I called call centre number on their website. A polite person gave me the number of Regional Manager (Karun Grover). I called him and he transferred my call to someone who further gave the phone to one  of his colleagues (Shivangi). She promised me to give some solution in a couple of hours. She did call me as promised but with no solution. She gave me a dhobi list of reasons and problems why it cannot be done. She wanted me to settle for some other color but why? I chose this color after a lot of deliberation and I want only this color. 

Such pathetic service from a brand which makes India proud in designing Nano. I think Tata Motors feel that Indian common man will be happy to get cars at cheap prices and customer service can be compromised. But I think this is not true. Times are changing. Product development can be copied easily, but good customer service can go a long way in making a brand indispensable. I think I just made the biggest mistake of my life by booking a car with Tata Motors. I am not sure if I am unlucky or it is part of Tata Motors DNA.

Links to this post

Tata Motors Blooper on Customer Service

 
Dear Various Teams at Tata Motors,

Team at Tata Motors have done commendable job in designing low cost yet beautiful Nano. They have also done great job in turning around JLR. Team has also done some commendable job in making efficient and spacious cars like Indica and Indigo. Great work by every member of this team.

But they faltered at one place. It is not their fault actually because committing this fault requires less of brain. They have faltered in designing customer contact support form.
 
 
 
The above form is available on Tata Motors website wherein customers can voice their concerns, submit their complaints and give some suggestions to top management.

However, they have committed one mistake in this form. Mandatory field is Registration Number of car as issued by state governments once customer owns a car not before that. Now in ‘complaint area’ dropdown, there options of pre-sales and delivery. If a prospective customers has any issue with pre-sales process of the company, how is he supposed to fill in registration number. If customer has some problem in getting the delivery of his vehicles from Tata dealer, how is he supposed to put registration number of car.

I have absolutely no clue.

It seems this page is designed by some IT geek, who gave live demo to a guy sitting in a cabin wearing a suit and tie and sitting away from real action happening on ground.

I showed this blooper to some of my colleagues and their first reaction was ‘This link looks like a formality from Tata Motors’. I decided to validate their statement and posted a complaint from their ‘Contact Us’ form. And waiting to see whether I will get some kind of response or not. Will keep you updated.

I really wish someone from the team, who regularly interacts with customers and is aware of things that are happening on ground, have used this form diligently before rushing it to on their website.

I hope it gets rectified before more customers like me start encountering this strong wall, which makes customer feedback process difficult.

PS: - Yes, I am having problem with Tata Motors delivery process and a stinking post on their shoddy customer service is just brewing up.

Links to this post

Feedback Blackhole



In a lot of organizations, feedback is usually lost in the system somewhere. It is not that there are no processes to record feedback but things somehow go awry. Either people responsible do not go through feedback or feedback is just ignored.

Once in a while you come across an incident wherein a company listens to customers and try to implement things which are suggested, requested and demanded by customers. Wal-Mart is one such company which has recently caved in to customers’ request. Apparently, Wal-Mart removed certain products which were not selling well in their stores. This was pure business decision by the company. Some customers did not like this and they urged Wal-Mart to put their favorite products back on shelves. Nothing happened. Customers demanded again. Nothing happened much. Then customers said enough is enough. They completely ditched Wal-Mart and started shopping at stores which were carrying their products so that they can do their monthly shopping under one roof.

Once customers took their business away from Wal-Mart, apparently company woke up and started to go through feedback. Only then they realized that they awee losing their major chunk of business because they had stopped carrying few products which were not moving from the shelves fast. Wal-Mart took corrective action and re-stocked the product.        

Wal-Mart took these corrective steps reactively, by going through customer feedback after losing business. But it would have been a lot easier for them if they had done the same thing by going through feedback proactively.  At least, the customers would not have felt their feedback getting sucked into some blackhole.  

Links to this post

Cutivating Relationships

 
 
Yesterday, I visited one of my favorite magazine and CD shop. It is not any established chain which draws my attention and earns my business because of some heavy discounts or some amazing assortment. In fact, it is a small shop which has most of the popular magazines on their racks, and some of the most popular movies titles are in their inventory.

Good thing about them is that they remember which magazine I read often and know the genre of movies I watch.

Yesterday, as soon as I entered the place, owner was prompt enough to remind that my favorite travel magazine's new edition had come. I was awed by the fact that he remembered my choice. I am sure that I am not one of his high spending customers, whom he should target specifically. For him, I can just be another customer and he can treat me like a cog which can be replaced easily with another one.

I observe that a lot of small and neighborhood businesses are proactive. They are proactive in remembering my choices. They are also proactive in recommending products based on my previous choices. If a product I am asking for is not is stock, this small shop proactively notes down my requirement. Proactively they give me the time-line by when they can arrange the product for me. When the product has arrived, these guys call me to inform that the product is available with them and I can pick up. I love them for their pro-activeness.


And I will continue to be your customer because you make me feel special. And because I am earning this 'feeling-special-kind-of-thing', you continue to earn my business.

Links to this post

An Ode to Customer Service Professionals

Being a customer service professional is a courageous decision. Though I am sure most of customer service professionals are pushed to make this decision because customer service jobs are in abundance with none or very less prior experience required. After all, you can teach anybody to follow manuals.
 
But I still feel that we all customer service professionals are always doing spirited and courageous jigs. Spirited because when whole world is partying, we are serving them so that they remember their party for whole life. When whole world is going around with their loved ones on Valentines Day, we are working hard so that their bond of love gets strong. When whole world is preparing for Diwali/Christmas holidays, we work hard so that these holidays become memorable for everyone whom we touch. 
 
This is a courageous effort also because very few customers acknowledge the efforts of customer service people. It is always assumed we are doing their jobs and we do not need any bouquets for our efforts. After all, we are paid for doing this. And since we are the faces of many service oriented businesses, our share in brickbats is largest. We are responsible for every single goof-up. But we always try to remain cool and continue to do our jobs. If this is not courage, then what it is.   
 
For us, every transaction is a new begining. As we start our new interaction with a new customer, all our past interactions are wiped clean from the slate. After all, every customer is different and his needs and demands will be different from the last one. And our job is to be consistent in every interaction so that customer walks away with fine memories associated with brand. Any goof-up and all our past transactions will not be able to save us from the fury of an angry customer whom we have accidently rubbed on some wrong side. 
 
We customer service guys are a spirited breed and I am proud to be part of this ever expanding breed.

Links to this post

Best Customer Service Person - Woman

Dear Ladies in Customer Service Team,

Customer service without you would not be same. Your mastery at juggling work, multitasking, dynamism, great emotional connect and empathizing nature makes you extremely good at providing customer service.

Customers trust you because they know they are talking to someone who is high on integrity and is honest. By talking to you, customers know that they are in safe hands and they will get a deal which is fair.

Customers know that decisions will be faster as you can put yourselves in their shoes and help them get resolutions faster. After all your dynamism at work and at home is envied by most men.

Each woman who is a part of customer service department has done what is best in the interest of company, interest of customer, while remaining in the limits of a whole lot of processes. Maybe managing your own homes have helped you in achieving this amazing balance.

As a customer service person, any organization is glad to have you on board because you are the best. You are awesome when it comes to doing service to customers or family.

Happy Woman's Day.

Keep rocking.

Links to this post