Should the Indian consumer forget about good service?

BPO / KPO / “X”PO they are the buzz words of today. This segment has come as a boon to the youth of today. The job market has never looked better and the financial, social, economic, geographical, has permeated from the metros to other big cities and will soon shift to smaller cities.

We are proudly servicing the global customers.

And should we not be proud. After all the neighborhood supposedly “good for nothing” fellow (hold your horses…not my original comment…this is based on the famous Hindi saying – Padoge Likhoge banoge nawab, kelogo kudogo banogo kharab….so all the people who were in bottom half of class are not “generally” considered to have a good future….impact of bottom half and myth of importance of class X & XII marks we will discuss in subsequent articles) – coming back to current topic…..now this fellow who supposedly did not have a future is now speaking English with a twisted tongue and earning 10 grand plus a month! (to begin with)

Great so Employment opportunities are going up! People are earning more, spending more, country is on path of development and self reliance, I should be rejoicing!
Yes I am!.........but……

What about me the Indian Consumer who is also a “big” user of services of Indian Service companies (Lets not convert our spending from INR to USD. Look at absolute numbers – do not want to get into debate on purchasing power parity and conversion issues…again another issue for separate discussion – I too am a big consumer of Banking, Mobile phone, Travel, Insurance,  Tourism and other services for which we are getting an excellent name globally of doing a good job.

Is it only me, who keeps on getting calls from irritating call agents who have no clue how to handle a customer, or break my head trying to explain to customer care agent that I am complaining about a amount in my credit card that I have NEVER spend.

Lemme give you some masterpiece.

Your MOBILE rings, you answer though you do not recognize the number (if you do not answer or cut the phone, rest assured you will have 10 missed calls in space of 2 mins) the voice on the other end says – Sir I am calling from orange and you are an orange customer. (Thank you for enlightenment, I was always under the impression it was apple and by the way what happened to common courtesy of asking whether it is appropriate to talk to me right now, not to mention that the diction, and accent made you think the call was from bihar!)
Me: Yes I am
Perky voice: Sir are you a pre paid or post paid customer?
Me: You are from Orange, I am your customer, should YOU not know what customer type I am?
Perky Voice: That is fine, but please tell
Me: What is fine? I do not know you, why should I divulge any details to you, specifically details that you should be knowing if you are orange
Perky Voice: Sir we have a scheme for you by which if you convert from pre paid to post paid you will get a clock.
Me: Thank you not interested. Do your homework!

Another masterpiece

Call: you see a Chennai number, so answer the phone
Me: Hello Subir here
Another Perky Voice (APV): Sir can I talk to Mr. Subir Agrawal I am calling from Citibank,
Me: Subir
APV: Sir have you used our Internet banking site?
Me: (again courtesy of proper mobile phone etiquettes totally absent) – If you are calling from Citibank, should you not know whether I am using your internet banking site or not
APV: What do you mean
Me: I repeat my statement, in slow motion
APV: Sir that is fine, there is a reward, we are giving a CD of some vague songs if you login to the site before 30 November
Me: As you are obviously totally ignorant of my relationship with your bank, can you please tell me whether I will still get the CD if I have been using your bank website for last 2 years plus if I login.
APV: Sounding slightly lost, makes me repeat what I said. Still is lost, says, Sir scheme is till 30th November, so if you login you will win the cd.

Well I can go on and on……if I narrate the harrowing experiences of calling and talking to customer care agents to resolve a problem, it will require a book (Wow another idea, I should do a khuswant singh, ask people to send their harrowing experiences with customer care executives, compile it and get it published…just like his joke books!)

The issue that concern me are:

1. The service quality is bad. The way they talk, do not understand what you are saying, makes you think whether you are really a “wanted” customer or just another prospect who is quickly forgotten once the immediate objective is met. The refined voice, proper salutation and impeccable manners that was available as late as couple of years back is completely missing.  


2. Have the companies which are supposedly having huge IT teams, budget, latest BI tools, not doing ANY data mining. (Remember these are not isolated incidents and similar things are happening on a very regular basis and I can bet big that you would have experienced the same).


3. Does it not pose a security risk handling such type of calls. I do not know the person calling, I am not gullible (Hope so!), but I am sure if this trend continues, there will be people who will fall for the next line that can come, OK sir even if you do not have internet access or will not be able to access the internet in next three day, if you give me your password I will log you in, and you will win that CD for no work. Even if 1 out of 100 falls for it, the efforts are worth it!! (Have you heard of the famous case where one intelligent soul not only gave his debit card alongwith pin number to a person standing outside ATM for the promise of replacement of photo card for free!! Icing on cake – the fraudster after checking the account said, that the minimum balance needs to be 25K for card to be issued, so please deposit more money into the account, which our gullible fellow does and soon the fool and his money are soon parted…..so do not say it will not happen….gullibility is more common than common sense!)

And why is this happening:

1. Poor service quality: All the able bodied and good resources are handling global calls. Me poor Indian customer is low on priority for good service


2. Pay scales have escalated beyond expectations, so good resources are going for companies which are earning in dollars.


3. Booming job market means people changing jobs for a difference of couple of hundred bucks a month. Not to mention HR & Business Managers telling candidates, forget the notice period, I do not need your relieving letter, I will pay your difference in settlement, join from today. (conveniently forgetting that the shoe will be on other foot tomorrow and pinch them too)


4. Data mining and targeted communication (refer to the first article and flash link in the same…offline V/s online)…forget it, Indian companies are nowhere near what is globally best. All the BI tools are more of white elephants and I have yet to experience real power of the same “USED APPROPRIATELY” by any Indian company. We are still in the mode that cost of calling all customers for same service is cheaper than doing a proper targeted marketing. Business Managers are still satisfied with conversion ratios is low single digits percentage point. They still accept the fact that even is one customer in 500 converts it is fine. Hello wake up and smell the coffee, your manpower cost has gone up, competition has intensified, customer is more discerning and will appreciate a more personalized service. Guess till all are blind no risk. (for the sake of customers, I am keeping fingers crossed for the one eyed to come and rule!)


5. Security – who cares. Customer has a problem, let him call the customer care agent, I am sure with our excellent waiting process he will be so thankful once he gets to our executive that  he will forget his original complaint. After all we have stated in our very first communication, do not share your password with anyone. If now they do it or are conned their bad luck. We have taken all legal measures to ensure we are not risk!!

So what are the hopes for the Indian customers? Will we be treated as second class customers? Or should be hope for a weaker country to catch the BPO bug so that Indian companies outsource their Indian customer servicing to these cheaper countries! Then I am sure we will get better service as we are currently servicing others?

Now that’s a thought and business idea!

P.S.: Chetan Bhagat’s One night @ call centre is pretty decent and is highlighting other issues – of people working in call centres. So all is not goody goody there too!