Many years ago, I was making an STD call from an MTNL booth
in New Delhi. Right behind the cashier, there was a big frame on the wall, with
some of the best statements on customer service I have ever seen. They were not
like the ones we see in the jazzy receptions of posh offices today, which are
more for image building than implementation. They were 10 statements from
Gandhiji, who came from the trading community himself, on the significance of
the customer and what were the things to be done to serve him better. They were
supposed to be MTNL's guidelines for customer support.
I was in a great hurry but the cashier continued with his
works studiedly ignoring me. Angry and helpless, I read out aloud one of the
statements from the Gandhiji frame, which read something like this "When
the customer is there, serve him and do not do other work". He did not even
raise his head, and knowing government babus, I gave up and decided to wait till
he had finished his important work and had time to attend to an unimportant
thing like me - a customer. In my heart though, I was saying that let private
companies come and their legendary customer support will beat the hell out of
government monopolies.
A lot has changed over these years. Private companies, in
many cases along with MNC collaboration, are providing basic as well as mobile
telephony services. However, it seems that we have not moved far on the customer
support front. The complaints remain the same–customer care agents
pre-occupied with some other work and ignoring customers, unfriendly and, many a
times, not competent enough to handle all types of queries.
When there was only DoT and MTNL, it was so easy to blame
them. But it seems that most of the new service providers are not bothered
either.
What is the message that the subscriber, individual as well as corporate, is
getting from all of this? A majority of them believe that customer care in India
is a hoax, and will never improve. The unsatisfactory quality of service is
stated to be another reason why there is a huge potential subscriber base which
is hesitant to move in. Customer churn is a menace for most of them, and they
admit that. Yet, they seem to take customer care so casually. The service
providers might give a damn, but they should remember that customer loyalty in
the era of open competition is what will decide their future.