ike most urban resident Indians, I’ve been getting e-mails and calls from several consumer product companies. The 3 main types are telecom and banks. Each of them is competing with their rivals to gather new customers. Which is great. Competitions is typically good for the consumer since he ends up getting better deals. But here’s the twist in the tale. No one seems to care about their current customers. It seems strangely ironic considering that conventional wisdom and data has shown that retaining customers is much easier than acquiring new ones.
The customer service that one gets from the service providers, specifically telecom companies is pathetic. Let me give a few examples.
Telecom
Postpaid customers account for 5 - 10 times revenue per customer that the pre paid customers. Yet the offers and deals for prepaid customers are invariably better. A data plan that costs Rs. 199 for prepaid costs Rs. 299 for postpaid. A 33% additional premium to be paid. To their favored customers. They seem to think that all prepaid customers are Idiots. And maybe they’re right. Why would a postpaid customer want to remain postpaid or even a Vodafone customer ? Until recently the telecom companies knew we couldn’t shift because retaining the number had value. With number portability, this is no longer an issue. Fortunately for Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance are equally bad, if not worse.
Banks
Let’s take HDFC and ICICI, two of the premier banks. Recently I needed some information about a foreign remittance. Being a favored customer, I have the privilege of having a personalized relationship manager. So I tried calling them. Surprise, surprise, they had changed banks or were not available or were no longer linked to me. So after a few calls to customer service, I’m able to get the e-mails of my current relationship managers. And so I write to them. I have a timeline in which I have to complete the transaction. And so when I don’t hear from them, I write a reminder. This time after a few more days, I get a response that they have forwarded the queries to their foreign exchange department and are awaiting their response. A week later, once again a reminder, and same response. Finally I go to the Bank, sit with the Manager and since the timeline is now almost lapsed manage to get a part of the transaction done. Quite unhappy, I write to the person who sends out the Marketing Mailers, or at least signs them. Within hours I get calls from 5 people all willing and wanting to do in minutes what I was unable to get them to do in a month. I’m assuming the signatory must have been pretty high up. And kicked some serious butt.
Today the Indian consumer has several choices. However the quality differential is marginal. Hopefully in the near future, we’ll have options where the service provider is committed to doing what they set out to do, “Providing Service.” And that’s when we’ll have improved service levels and the question we ask today, “Why can’t a customer get service when he asks ?”, will become redundant.
p.s.: Isn't it ironic that all of the baseline revolve around the Customer
Vodafone - Power to you
Airtel - Express Yourself
HDFC Bank - We understand your world
ICICI - Customer First
The customer service that one gets from the service providers, specifically telecom companies is pathetic. Let me give a few examples.
Postpaid customers account for 5 - 10 times revenue per customer that the pre paid customers. Yet the offers and deals for prepaid customers are invariably better. A data plan that costs Rs. 199 for prepaid costs Rs. 299 for postpaid. A 33% additional premium to be paid. To their favored customers. They seem to think that all prepaid customers are Idiots. And maybe they’re right. Why would a postpaid customer want to remain postpaid or even a Vodafone customer ? Until recently the telecom companies knew we couldn’t shift because retaining the number had value. With number portability, this is no longer an issue. Fortunately for Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance are equally bad, if not worse.
Banks
Let’s take HDFC and ICICI, two of the premier banks. Recently I needed some information about a foreign remittance. Being a favored customer, I have the privilege of having a personalized relationship manager. So I tried calling them. Surprise, surprise, they had changed banks or were not available or were no longer linked to me. So after a few calls to customer service, I’m able to get the e-mails of my current relationship managers. And so I write to them. I have a timeline in which I have to complete the transaction. And so when I don’t hear from them, I write a reminder. This time after a few more days, I get a response that they have forwarded the queries to their foreign exchange department and are awaiting their response. A week later, once again a reminder, and same response. Finally I go to the Bank, sit with the Manager and since the timeline is now almost lapsed manage to get a part of the transaction done. Quite unhappy, I write to the person who sends out the Marketing Mailers, or at least signs them. Within hours I get calls from 5 people all willing and wanting to do in minutes what I was unable to get them to do in a month. I’m assuming the signatory must have been pretty high up. And kicked some serious butt.
Today the Indian consumer has several choices. However the quality differential is marginal. Hopefully in the near future, we’ll have options where the service provider is committed to doing what they set out to do, “Providing Service.” And that’s when we’ll have improved service levels and the question we ask today, “Why can’t a customer get service when he asks ?”, will become redundant.
p.s.: Isn't it ironic that all of the baseline revolve around the Customer
Vodafone - Power to you
Airtel - Express Yourself
HDFC Bank - We understand your world
ICICI - Customer First
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