Some days later

http://shashimused.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-happy-are-you-to-help.html

.......... few days later

He received a complimentary compensation offer of two months rental discounts from the service provider. He heaved a sign of relief assuming that the issue was resolved and sorted out.

.......... few days later

His phone rings, "Sir am i talking to ***, Sir our representative had visited your place for address verification but you were not present, so can you help me get your details verified now and also tell us when would you be at home so that physical verification can be completed"

"What is this verification for ?", he asked

"Sir, you had requested for converting your postpaid account into a prepaid"

"Oh gosh the beast is out again"

How happy are you to help ?

Consumer experience is still an area where most of the global conglomerates operating locally have not notched up to the kind of customer service experience they are lauded about in rest of the world.

A continuous connectivity is basic necessity today, next only to “roti, kapda, makan”. Our generation breathes to stay connected all the time and is sometimes asphyxiated by service disruption. Similar was his experience when he saw there isn’t any network connectivity on his cellular device. Suspecting major network breakdown he screamed immediately to figure out whether rest of his family member continued to enjoy connectivity. Sharing a common service provider has its own pros & cons on one hand it helps to save some penny and on the other you are completely out of the world in case of some serious network outage. He was dismayed to hear that there were no issues with any body and he immediately re-started his device. The reason behind the consternation was the newness of device as he had recently purchased it and last thing he wished was a premature end of warranty. While the device took some time to boot up he continued to wish that his premonition did not turn true. He was completely bewildered as he heaved sigh of relief that there wasn’t any problem with the device there was certainly some issues which he wanted to figure as he did not find the connectivity.

He did not choose to talk directly to customer care as he wanted to figure out himself the error upfront and try resolving or at least figure out the root cause. He knew he would be lost if he called up customer care. He started thinking and evaluating various possibilities; “There isn’t problem with the tower as rest of the family members are connected”, “Have even paid my last bill”, “Let me check my credit limit, may be i have used up all which is unlikely”. He immediately went to his laptop and tried logging in to his online account. He was completely shocked and terrified to see the error message “You are trying to log in with an invalid account id, please try with valid mobile number or account id”. He could not believe that and made another attempt with a hope that the error message did not repeat. But that wasn’t the case, he did not waste any time and rang up the helpline.

He patiently kept listening to phonetic IVR. His call was attended soon. “Welcome to *** How may I help you sir”. He explained his problem and customer care executive(cce) replied that she would help him with his issue shortly “Sir for security purpose may I know your complete name and billing address”. He quickly gave her the details. “Sorry Sir it does not match with our database, can you repeat your name please as i see that it is registered in the name of Ms Amita Jain”. He was agitated and he soon switched to final gear and vociferously explained her how loyal customer he was since last five and half years to the service provider. But as he continued speaking in the manner he spoke, he suddenly realized that he is speaking to deaf ears. “Hello, Hello, Hello are you listening to me?” The phone was hung up!!!

He tried on another occasion going through the rituals of connecting to the person, he was restless, but he did connect to a man. He explained his problem and further went on to give a background of his previous call while cce replied that they received a request of converting this account into prepaid one. “What rubbish are you talking, why on earth someone would switch his corporate account into a prepaid one and I am quiet happy with service, why would I do so?” The cce replied "sir, we received this request on 21^st of Sep 09". “This is ridiculous……” the talk was on and as he continued he soon realized that he was only screaming on to his device microphone. The phone was hung up long back!!!!!

He gave himself yet another chance with a thought that this time he would be heard and some one would take his issue to a logical conclusion. However that wasn’t the case. “Hi I have been trying hard to register my complaint and each time I get ridiculous answers, ….. This is what it is!” He explained his issue, the agent replied “Sir we are very sorry to hear that and let me get back to you while i try to identify the real problem, if you don’t mind would like to keep you on hold”, “ok please go ahead”. CCE replied, “we are extremely sorry for the problem you are facing but as per our database this number is deactivated since 2006”, He lost his cool…”What nonsense are you talking about, you are saying that a number is deactivated which I have been paying for until last month, have been using until this evening. please stop this crap and act upon, let me know what needs to be done to get me my network back, hello, hello, heloooo…..”. This is was unreal as the call was hung up again.

He was left bewildered and choleric still wondering and trying to correlate his discussions with the customer care executive. While his pursuit to get connected was on, this bitter experience certainly left a disdainful impression on his mind regarding the much hyped customer care service in this part of the world.

http://shashimused.blogspot.com/2009/10/some-days-later.html