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The Hoax of Customer Support

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

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.

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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.

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