Is customer satisfaction a fading art?

In today’s day and age customer satisfaction is a very passive term. Today the customer expectation from brands, specially the new age brands like e commerce or mobiles is nothing short of “extraordinary”. Therefore it surprises me when brands spend millions on advertising, raise expectations but the customer experience still leaves a lot to be desired.
I have been an avid e commerce convert and barring a few stray cases, my overall experience with the category has been good. I took a liking for Flipkart early on as they would deliver books at my door step and when they expanded I gladly lapped up their offerings.
Till I was hit by the Amazon technology tsunami. The experience with their app, right from a thumb impression login and automated instant call backs, not to mention their ease of use of the app, made me a Amazon follower. Flipkart lost out and even the offers seemed better on Amazon. The icing on the cake came, when Jeff Bezos replied to a mail of mine on an issue that I was facing with Amazon India (yes, yes, I know it was not him but one out of maybe ten assistants employed just for this who replied…but then not everyone gets a mail from jeff@amazon.com saying apologies!)
And my middle class Indian mentality is hard to beat (There, I said it!). I  still like to compare prices across all sites and that’s why Snapdeal and Jabong are still in play. I think I used both the brands at least 3-4 times this year.
Therefore last week when my clothes line mobile stand (which incidentally I had bought through e commerce more than 2 years ago) broke, I immediately looked for a replacement. I knew what I wanted exactly and I found it on Amazon. Just for a lark I searched for the same on Flipkart and Snapdeal and found that it was cheaper by almost Rs 700 on Snapdeal. My savings mentality kicked in and I booked it on Snapdeal.
The delivery was scheduled after a week, which was not ideal but acceptable. Don’t forget I was saving Rs 700!
The night before my scheduled delivery date range, I get a SMS saying that delivery of my order had been attempted but it had failed and so I need to reschedule the same. This was a surprise. Pleasant because my order was about to be delivered maybe before time. And unpleasant because how could the delivery fail when I was at home the whole day and no one even called me. A quick check with the building watchman revealed that no one had come and my mobile also did not show any missed call.
I anyways rescheduled the delivery on the app to next day, through the link provided. Situation still salvageable for Snapdeal, I said to myself. The next day came and went and still there was no delivery as well as no call. Feeling irritated, I tried writing a mail to customer service through the app. But to my utter dismay, I couldn’t. Because Snapdeal presumed that they are genius enough to have covered all possible reasons for any customer to write into them. So all reasons were listed in a drop down menu along with sub reasons and I had to just click on any option to get my answer! No reason to write at all. There was also an option marked “Others” which had some more options. But there was no option where I as a customer was deemed intelligent enough to have my own, different viewpoint and communicate on the same. Or if there was, then maybe I was too dumb to find it. Obviously Snapdeal do not expect to have dumb customers like me and I apologise for the same.
Now I was seriously angry. So I tweeted my frustration on the twitter handle of Kunal Bahl, the CEO of Snapdeal (if I cannot write to customer care then the CEO is a fair game) and I also wrote a mail to him. Within minutes the Twitter handle #Snapdeal_help got in touch and asked me for my order number, which I duly provided. I sent two tweets, one on the order delivery mess up and second about my inability to write a mail to customer care through the app. Both were replied to, incidentally by two different people. Promising swift comeback and a solution.
In the meanwhile, an ex colleague who now works for the advertising agency on the Snapdeal account saw my tweets and asked for details. I promptly sent the same to him too. Glad that my tweets had been noticed and some action would now be taken.
So imagine my shock, when next morning I receive a SMS from Snapdeal which said:
”Order Cancelled: We have cancelled your order for Kawachi Steel Self Standing Cloth Stand - I -32 as delivery could not be completed.
We have initiated refund of Rs. 1550 to your cardno. 5249-XXXXXXXX-6040 . It'll be credited within 4 business days. We look forward to another opportunity to serve you.
Track your refund on the Snapdeal App at www.snpdl.in/.....”
So here was I with my order cancelled without any reason or explanation or an apology. To me it seemed like a retribution. “So, you had the gall to complain to our CEO. Ok, we are cancelling your order.” In the single digit temperatures of Doon before sunrise, my temperature now was at boiling point. I shot off an angry mail to the CEO. My second mail. And I also tweeted about the same. Snapdeal was so efficient, so clinical and so disciplined on cancelling my order that by 8:53 am I had received a message from my bank that the full amount had been refunded into my account!!!
As you can imagine it was all downhill from here. But it was comical too. Around 9:30 I get a tweet from #Snapdeal_help about how this experience has not been good for me, but I should not worry as it will get soon sorted out on priority. Obviously the tweeter did not know that it had been already sorted out on priority, overnight! I tweeted back saying but haven’t you cancelled the order? Someone else from the same handle now tweets saying regret your experience, will ensure that such incidents don’t happen in the future!
Then came a call from a customer service executive wanting to know if I want to continue with my order. I asked him, how, as my order has been cancelled. Oh don’t bother, we will charge your card! Don’t have to do a thing, but just say yes. And when will it be delivered? Oh that will take time. But isn’t it already in my city? Err! I am not sure! So looks like it hadn’t reached Dehradun at all. Or it reached and the delivery guys did not bother to deliver and just sent it back saying delivery failed. Or it didn’t reach and one part of the company due to it “system” presumed that delivery had failed! The mind boggles at the mismanagement.
But it does not end there. After about 2 hours I get an automated call from Snapdeal.  First it spits out a eight or ten digit order number (obviously Snapdeal expects all its customers to be mathematics wizards) and then asks to press 1 if the order has been delivered or 2 if it hasn’t been!!! Thankfully they did not have an option for ‘Snapdeal cancelling your order”
I must give full marks to Snapdeal for the lack of coordination between various people or departments. You guessed it right. I got another call from another executive……
It’s now been more than 48 hours since I received the SMS. Kunal Bahl is obviously too busy to respond. Don’t blame him. He may be facing many such cases a day and obviously one cannot expect him to respond to all. He has much more to do. Maybe a new logo? Or a new advertising campaign? Or new automation? Human touch or intervention is clearly alien to him and his company.
But I also re learned some valuable management lessons all over again. That’s the reason I wrote this detailed post. So here goes

Lesson #1
Ultimately it’s how good your product is.
The Razmataz of marketing, the impact of big budgets and the the adrenaline of creativity cannot take away from the fact that if your product does not live upto expectations all the budgets are wasted. In this case had the brand focused on getting its delivery right, it would have not only closed a sale but also had a satisfied customer.
Lesson #2
An unsatisfied customer is not just a customer lost or a deal lost but it also means costs which will not be recovered.
So not only did I not buy the clothes stand but my tweets prompted customer service to follow up on my order, people spent time to follow the details, tweet to me. Calls were also made and time cost of executives was billed. Maybe even some senior management got involved. Plus the vendor cost. He must have packed the order. Maybe even dispatched it. Maybe there was a cost incurred in the recall too.
Lesson #3
Internal communication amongst all stakeholders that are responsible for an order is the key.
Brands forget that customers see them as one entity. They do not care about interdepartmental goof ups and the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. What they want is one response and some straightforward answers.
Lesson #4
Do not take unilateral actions without involving the customers
Customer relationship is a two way street. If a customer is upset about a non delivery of an order or similar goof ups, do not take decisions without involving him. Specially, about cancellation of orders. An upset customer does not mean a lost sale. But a cancelled order without customer consent could mean a customer lost for ever.
Lesson #5
If you have goofed up admit it.
Don’t leave the customer to imagine why a delivery is delayed. Or don’t send some untruths to the customer. If a delivery is delayed do not cover it up with a “we attempted delivery but could not find you/your address/your door/your lane/maybe your city type of excuses.
Lesson #6
Outsourcing is fine but what is your quality control
The first fundamental of outsourcing is not about cheap. Neither is it non core competency. It is about how do I still retain quality control. And it’s not just about manufacturing it’s true for any department, HR, Finance, even delivery partners or courier/cargo companies
Lesson #7
If senior management is addressed, they must respond
Every company must ensure that no one ignores a communication from the customer. And specially not senior management. They cannot afford to delegate it to customer service or sales. If a customer, howsoever small he may be, has taken the trouble to write to someone senior, for good or for bad, do respond. You may not do it personally, but do have a team or system in place that makes the customer think that the senior person has taken him seriously. Chances are you may not yet lose that sale.
Lesson #8
Be a good listener
This is an old adage. Sometimes what just matters is hand holding. Customers are trying desperately to find someone who can listen to their woes. Help them take out their bitterness and things could be back to normal. I am still awaiting that call.
Lesson #9
If you have lost a customer give him some space before trying to woo him back
Yes, you know you have goofed up. You want to win back the customer. Maybe give him some space. By calling him again and again, every time by someone different, adds to the problem without solving it. Call him after a few days. Maybe bribe him with an offer. But do not inundate him with calls and messages immediately. Not even with apologies or bribes.
Lesson# 10
Systems are good but don’t make human interaction extinct
Technology is a must but not technology in isolation. We talk brand personality because we believe our brand is being interpreted as a likeable person by the customer. Yet we try to minimise and maybe eliminate human intervention. Going back to point 8, you cannot be a good listener as people do not want to talk to machines. There cannot be a substitute for human interaction.
We have become so immersed in the science of customer satisfaction; systems, feedback, ratings etc that we forget that the practice of customer satisfaction is also an art form which needs to be understood. Unfortunately the art is now a forgotten blip.
And hey, I am still awaiting that call or mail from Kunal Bahl!

Star Plus- Nayi Soch...Naah

I came across a lovely ad from Star Plus yesterday. It showed Dhoni walking towards a press conference venue surrounded by journalists. They are intrigued to see Dhoni wearing the Indian jersey but with the name “Devki” on it and not the usual Dhoni. He clarifies that it is his mother’s name and when asked if there is any particular reason behind it, in typical Dhoni disarming style he replies “ I have been wearing my father’s name for so many years, then you never asked me ‘any particular reason’?” It ends up with the Star Plus tagline of Nayi soch.
Watch the ad here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZT7X9fv22E
The simplicity of the ad along with Dhoni’s charming rhetorical question lifted the ad to a new level. In today’s day and age when empowerment of woman has become a buzzword, an ad like this gives a new meaning and an impetus to the whole exercise. If Dhoni and in follow up films, the other members of the Indian cricket team are proudly flaunting their mother’s maiden name, they are not only paying a rich tribute to her but are also acknowledging the mother’s silent role in their own achievement. Breaking not only stereotypes but also shattering some cultural practices. And of course adding a lot of credibility to Star Plus philosophy of nayi soch, new thinking.
As I watched the ad I also realised that the ad was a missed opportunity. It is a great idea but unfortunately it has fallen prey to the lazy execution that Indian brands are often guilty of. Of feeling smug and satisfied for having cracked a good TV idea.
Now imagine this piece of communication playing out in real life. In one of the One day matches vs New Zealand, the whole Indian cricket team turns up in jersey’s sporting their mother’s name. All the cricketers. Including the support staff. Imagine the buzz it would have created. Imagine the chatter it would have raised. Now imagine a contest that Star Plus could have run during the match, inviting viewers to write in to solve the mystery of the names. It had the potential to overshadow the result of the match.
And then at the end of the match, at the presentation ceremony, Ravi Shastri asking Dhoni about the names. And now imagine Dhoni giving the same reply to Shastri.
Don’t you think the impact, the noise, the interest, the buzz and the far reaching effect would have been much more than the ad. This could have been a viral moment for women’s empowerment and for Star Plus as a channel. Not to talk about saving the film making costs.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not criticising the ad. I am just rueing a missed opportunity of not thinking beyond a TV ad.
Sure, doing a TV ad is easier. Getting to execute the idea with the Indian team would have required permissions from BCCI, maybe even ICC. But was it even tried? Did BCCI or ICC say no? I doubt it. With BCCI being under so much fire, this would have been a perfect opportunity for them to show their humane, non commercial face. In fact this would have been the best time for Star to pull it off.
As communicators we still think TV first. Because it is easy. Because it is controllable and because it is less hard work. So folks, next time you get an idea, remember it should be an idea. Not necessarily a TV idea.
Yes Star Plus, Nayi Soch. But unfortunately not in communicating it.

Do our soldiers deserve us civilians

The day India announced surgical strikes against Pakistan, I had gone to the Dehradun Airport to receive some guests. Having parked in the parking lot which is hardly 70-80 metres from the main building, I walked into at least 30-40 vehicles parked, all illegally in front of the main building. These were parked on both sides of the road, many even double parking. Almost half of these were the private taxis with yellow number plates, but the rest were all private vehicles, many with the occupants sitting inside the vehicles. What was more exasperating however, was the brazen flouting of rules, for I counted at least 4 big signages, some right next to these vehicles declaring the zone to be a no parking with a fine mentioned.
So I approached the CISF soldier who appeared to be the boss. When I enquired about the illegal parking he threw up his hands in despair. His complaint was that no one listens. And his soldiers who were armed with guns at a state of readiness, have got fed up asking the people to move the vehicles into the parking lot.
As if to demonstrate his point he went over to a car with two smartly dressed, middle aged gentlemen occupying the front seats. He politely asked them to move on but first they ignored him. When he became a bit firm, they simply rolled down the window and acted as if they did not know what is wrong in parking there. At this stage the CISF person told him clearly that this is no parking area, there is no flight that has landed, so they better move on to the parking lot. The response was typical. Why doesn’t he ask the others to move and what’s wrong in waiting at that spot. I was appalled at this behaviour of our aam admi and spoke to him firmly stating that this behaviour does not befit an educated person like him. Very grudgingly the gentlemen then made an attempt to move. Almost a similar story was repeated with 5-6 more private vehicles.
The taxi drivers were worse. With about 15-20 of them parked around, they were secure in numbers and were totally disdainful to the CISF jawans. The interesting thing is that the jawans cannot impose the fine mentioned as that is not under their purview. But the lack of respect for rules, the lack of respect for the CISF jawans who have been positioned at the airports for our security, the lack of respect for authority, was frustrating.
So why do we expect our jawans to do the dirty job when we do not give them any support? These soldiers, properly trained and armed have been stationed at sensitive places like airports for our security. Why should we make their job difficult by creating traffic snarls and crowds right next to the main airport building?
Our jawans definitely do not deserve this. Authority and discipline are his armour. How can we just strip him of the same? And then expect him to defend us! So on the day when most of us were thumping our chests at the bravery of our soldiers, there were many of us who were cocking a snook at him by not following some plain rules. We can do much better. Let’s not be selfish and demanding. Our soldiers make huge sacrifices. It’s time we too start making little sacrifices. Like parking in the parking area (for which no extra money had to be paid), walking upto the arrival area and standing and waiting for a few minutes.
Many of you may share this or like this. Before doing so, please promise yourself that you will make the task of our soldiers, our policemen, our civic workers much simpler by following simple rules. And you will get others to do the same. Otherwise we do not deserve our armed forces and para military forces and the police force and may I add, even our civic forces.

Traffic sense- an attitude that needs to be cultivated with two wheeler riders

An edited version of this blog appeared in TOI Doon about 2 months ago. I sincerly feel that the blog is true for the whole country.

“Traffic sense” is an oft repeated phrase I have heard in India, with most claiming that we Indians do not have any traffic sense. While I do agree with the statement what always puzzled me why was this the case? Why do we Indians break traffic rules with impunity? Of course, breaking rules is common for us in many more areas but why does this happen in traffic where the end result is loss of life and limbs?

The realisation dawned on me when I shifted to Dehradun. In the smaller, non metro towns, two wheelers are the backbone of public transport. They are not only ubiquitous in their presence but are for a large majority of the population the only mode of transport. Be it for personal or even for commercial or business use. It's not uncommon to see salesmen and distributors with at least 8-10 bags of goodies hanging from various nooks and corners of a scooter merrily going about visiting retail outlets. Or even worse, plumbers with pillion riders carrying long pipes on their shoulders. And during my morning walks it is a common sight to see fathers teaching 10-12 year olds, both males and females the art of riding a two wheeler. In almost all the cases without a helmet. So not only are they learning to drive at too raw an age, where they do not understand the significance and importance of their responsibility, but they also learn that it is ok to break rules.

And that's when the penny dropped. Two wheelers are very adaptive transport vehicles. As they occupy the least amount of road area and are manoeuvrable it is easy to do anything with these. Go up the wrong way of the road, slip into the main road from a side street without bothering to check the traffic on the main road, change lanes, take last minute right turns from the extreme left lanes, park on the roads, not turn on the indicator as he uses his arms if the need arises......

And these habits are carried forward by a two wheeler driver when he gets into a four wheel vehicle. He still changes lane without checking for traffic, he still takes an right turn from the extreme left lane, he still does not indicate, he still parks on the road......basically all his bad habits, acquired while driving a two wheeler are unleashed on the four wheeler. Not to forget that most of the small car families do not give up their two wheeler. It is used alongside a four wheeler or by a minor and then becomes the training ground for the next generation of four wheel user.

Currently because driving a two wheeler is easy, because two wheelers are the medium of transport for the large lower middle class, because two wheelers are difficult to monitor the focus of traffic rules, driving license, learning to ride is on four wheel vehicles and their owners.

It is important that we look at two wheeler riders seriously to inculcate the "traffic sense" in the Indian psyche. And for that it is important that driving tests becomes much more serious and more theoretical for two wheeler riders. When I spoke to some youngsters, I realised that the theoretical knowledge of traffic rules is virtually zero. The emphasis is only, whether one can ride a two wheeler. But the focus on safety, focus on traffic discipline, focus on knowing the traffic rules is ignored.  The dangers of lane changing suddenly and arbitrarily or say even driving up the wrong way for 100 metres is never drilled into the two wheeler driver. The knowledge of rules like not to turn blind into a main road or the first right of way to the traffic on the main road does not exist. And how many people know the fact that if such rules are broken and a mishap occurs it will not be covered by insurance. Surely that's a good starting point or motivator to ensure that the two wheeler rider knows the traffic rules.

The "socialist" thinking is also in some ways reflected in our traffic sense. A four wheel owner is obviously better off and it makes more sense to blame him for mistakes or mishaps. Haven't we seen enough scenarios where two wheel riders gang up on four wheel owner even though the blatant disregard of rules was from the two wheeler rider? This also results in two wheeler riders breaking rules with not a care in the world.

The Dehradun Police has done a commendable job by instituting a special task force to tackle the traffic menace and catch plus fine people who are breaking traffic laws. Even though its focus is on two wheelers, it mainly tends to fine people on not wearing helmets or riding three on a two wheeler. That to me is the second step, the punishment stage. The first stage of teaching, of giving lessons to two wheeler rider when they apply for Learner License is still missing. Not just a booklet of rules, not a one off lecture. But a proper series of sessions at the learner stage before a license is issued. And a theoretical test to boot. Learning to ride a two wheeler is easy. Can we make learning the rules about two wheeler driving mandatory? And then unleash the punishment stage more vigorously. Not just with a flying squad but also CCTVs, traffic wardens at signals to apprehend the violators and more stringent fines.

Even though there are preceedents; in the west riding a bike or scooter above 50 cc has to have a two wheeler license which means taking a written test; in the far east, where two wheelers are rented out to tourists and are a good source of income for locals, countries have started implementing stringent license norms; I strongly think that in our country we have a problem that has to be looked at from our own viewpoint. Our inherent lack of following rules and lax policing coupled with corruption means we have to take a wholistic and realistic view to the “traffic sense” issue

Unless we take the riding habits of two wheeler drivers seriously we are doomed with a generation of four wheeler owners also, whose driving habits and traffic sense will be disastrous. It is in the overall benefit of our traffic system that we focus on two wheeler riders and their knowledge plus awareness of traffic rules and traffic sense.

Teacher as a student

 

For the past few weeks I had become a student again. I spent almost 4 weeks at various business schools in Hyderabad and Pune. Ostensibly I was teaching. But actually I was learning. Interacting with post graduate students on the cusp of starting a career or charting out on their own, understanding how tomorrow’s customers think today, gauging the pulse of a small sample size of today’s dominant youth has been always fascinating. And this time was no different. So here is what I learnt. A few pointers.

1)      The youth are homogeneous yet are influenced by geographical nuances. Take the example of Patanjali. My experience with the youth show that youngsters are not too fond of the brand. It’s mostly being bought by the 35 or 40 plus who have been influenced by Baba Ramdev’s yoga or his Ayurvedic medicines. In the north youth know about Baba, have seen someone in the family try the brand, have tried it themselves too. But in the south Patanjali is more conspicuous by its absence. Youngsters are more amazed by it’s success story as they have neither seen or encountered the brand. Patanjali is clearly a north phenomena. Has someone access to its regional sales or distribution data?

2)      The thinking of the youth is very urban. All the business schools I went to, had a fair bit of the crowd from towns like Jaipur, Nashik, Haridwar, Ludhiana etc but their thought process on the whole was very urban. They seem to have either forgotten their roots or are embarrassed about it or worse do not realise the potential of these places. In one business school I was judging a competition where students were presenting how to position and launch some known brands in unrelated categories. One category which was spoken about was hotels. And almost every team focussed on big towns. No one even thought about a potential business opportunity which exists in the small towns. If tomorrow’s marketers also ignore Bharat then we and they are in trouble.

3)      The English hangover dominates. At least two set of students approached me to bounce off an ecommerce based home delivery business model. I was thrilled by their entrepreneurial spirit. They were targeting towns like Lucknow, Chandigarh. Aha! At last someone who was sensing business opportunity in Bharat. But their thinking, ideas, branding and even apps were all in English. There is no doubt that knowledge of English and its use is very critical to be part of a global system. But are the youngsters getting so brain washed that they were not thinking in Indian language or using Indian languages when it was really required? In my mind there is no doubt that mobile or digital based business models, apps or even money transactions will explode if we provide the interface in local Indian language. It’s not the lack of knowledge of English. But it’s a lack of ease of use of English. And yet when the business model demanded Indian language, the students were overpowered by the aura of English.

4)      Traditional media is dead. At least for the youth. They don’t read newspapers. They watch TV rarely. Their life revolves around the smart phones. You tube, whatsapp and even Facebook. As one student put it very bluntly, “the last time I read newspapers, watched TV and read business magazines was when I was preparing for interviews and group discussions for admission to B schools.” Viral seems to be the hottest media. But I must say I was surprised at the lack of attention towards LinkedIn. They were unsure about how LikedIn could help and how could they use it.

5)      Finally, I am convinced that AIDA is now AISDAS. After interest is search and after action is share. And if the share is positive then it generates new Interest and the cycle can go on repeatedly, unbroken. The youngsters are practicing this model. And brands which want to make a difference better start thinking how they can influence the two new S. Else they will be the third S. Stale.