Customer Service in India

I am being a customer / consumer using many of the services in the country. I have been doing lots of observations related to customer services in INDIA and i will be writing about them.

I have come across lots of services both online and offline. the moment you go online, there are different set of tools for customer services. In offline, there are different set of tools.

Let’s see what is customer service?

From wikipedia

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.

Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation

A Customer, always expects Value for Money or more for the money. For e.g. A Digit magazine associated with a Free CD / DVD.

Best Customer Service is one of the main reason in every successful companies we see. Providing customer care service is not that difficult. It is how we see it, matters a lot. When companies listen to their customers, they can build great products / services. Thats how many companies have become big and mints money.

Here are some of the questions i too ask myselves….

• How do successful big companies handle customer services?
• How are they able to engage with people?
• Are people sticking to these companies because they don’t find the better alternative?

I think there are lots of things like this if we want to discuss about customer service. Companies have to do lots of work if it wants to provide better and good customer service. Here is what i feel what a good customer services a company should provide to its customers.

• Respect and communicate to customer politely.
• Understand and listen to customer’s problems.
• Solve customer’s problems first than concentrating on the company revenue.
• Followup with customers with new services and value add services.
• Transparent in billing, update about new products / services.

our country is transforming into a consumer market, slowly i.e consumerism. we as consumers, need better consumer protections from companies who are cheating us. Going forward, i will write about companies in india and their customer service from my own experiences.

If you have any comments / suggestions, please write to me. Add your comments below too…

can VIPs violate the traffic law?

Question: can VIPs violate the traffic law?
Answer: Yes. They will. For SECURITY Reasons.

What are those Security reason?
i don’t know.

Today i was travelling from Parrys to Adyar in the evening. there was heavy traffic after foreshore estate upto Andhra Hospital. I was driving between the gaps where ever i could, to overcome the traffic so that i can reach home early.

suddenly i saw the siren sound. some 6 to 7 cars + 2 jeeps went. Its none other than chief justice of high court (chennai). Although police could clear up traffic upto ayyappa temple, they were not able to after that….

Immediately, police vehicle found a way out to the other side i.e opposite side and all vehicles got diverted on that side. I too saw, Judge is inside the car.

few questions i got at that instant

• Chief Justice of High court has violated the traffic rules by travelling in the opposite direction with the help of the traffic police. is it violation?
• I also know that due to security reasons (i am not sure what it is clearly), Police are clearing traffic for the judge. what about the people? why cant police clear traffic for people? so, Police will work only for VIP’s ?
  why does these kind of VIPs commute at peek hours of traffic when common people commute?
• why cant they travel late? this can help people i guess.. because here the entire path from office to home is blocked for them. this happens when our hon’ble Chief minister’s do such actions.
• is there any law or constitution bill that states “People should pave the way for the VIPs who are ruling in the government / Law etc ?”… if so, please let me know

I have heard people like Kamarajar who hate to use such kind of things for personal use. my guess is this will continue for ever and i / we have to live with it…

what’s your take on it?

Two Men and a 500 Rupee Note

Below is the video I saw it some time ago that was shared like anything by many people. see the views count in youtube

Let me come to the title. There were two men in this world. Both were earning in their own way. But there was huge difference in their earnings. Each lived their own way.

One men works as a software ‘S’ and the other works as a cashier ‘C’ in a petrol bunk. the S guy went to the petrol bunk and got his bike fuel tank filled with petrol. He made a conversation with C guy as below.

S: Add xtra Premium petrol for 200 INR.
C: ok.
S: how much per litre?
C: 70.33 INR.
S: how much will come for 200 INR
C: (goes to take calculator and calculates.)2.84 Litre will be filled for 200 INR
S: Then fill 3 Litre.
C: Ok sir. (His assistant filled the petrol) Total is 211.
S: (gave one biggest Indian currency)
C: sir, you have any change?
S: (gave change of 10 rupee note + 2 rupee coin and got the change for biggest currency) i don’t have 1 rupee.
C: sir, I will give.
S: is there Air?
C: Yes. but that boy went to a nearby shop.
S: ok (then he left to attend some important meeting).

Meeting was so good and S learnt a lot along with his another S friend. While starting back to home, he realized that he gave a 1000 INR note but he got only 300 INR back. he is supposed to get 800 INR back. S told his friend.

This made him upset very much. That’s when he thought about this youtube video that i had posted above. S’ friend said that its high chance that S would get that money back. Given that its a 2 hours gap. S suddenly started towards that petrol bunk. On the way, he ways thinking all sorts of things both +ve / -ve of loosing 500 INR, whether he would get it back or not or how to convince that cashier (by arguing the total collection for the day) or about complaining to the owner about it.

when S went their, again there was a conversation.

S: 2 hours back, i came here to fill the petrol. but i didn’t get change of 500 INR.
C (some other): which side? this side or the other side?
S: that side..
C (some other): Ask that cashier then. He is the in-charge.
S: ok.
S: Sir, i came at 4 pm and filled the 3 Litre Xtra premium petrol. but i didn’t get the full change. i got only 300 INR. i need to get 500 more.
C: are you sure?
S: Yes. (there was a seriousness in his face. guilty feelings as well)
S: Remember, I asked you to put petrol for 200 but then asked how much it would come? then i asked you to put 3Litre…
C: Yes. i can remember. (he instantly gave me a 500 rupee note)
S: Thank you sir.(got it and very much feel relaxed and happy.)

S guy went to fill the Air and had a conversation with Air filler.

S: what was the cashier’s name?
A: ‘Raju’. why? to complain with the owner?
S: no. why will i? he returned my 500 INR rupee. i won’t.
S: (thought within that he should do some thing for this honest person. not sure how and what to do.)
S: i don’t have 2 rupee. I have only one rupee. can you fill the air?
A: will you give 1 rupee extra next time?
S: yes. sure. (then left from there and reached home)

S was thinking about the honest cashier and his customer service. He could have taken this 500 INR note without any issue. but somehow it belong to S and that’s why S got it.
S immediately called the S’ friend and told that he got that 500 back. S’ said that you were lucky… but S said this
Money, if you earned it truly and honestly, It will always stay with you.

somehow, the above statement is true. I too agree and i think about it many times. S guy is none other than me Last few days, my mind and soul is thinking some thing else and hence i need to be careful when dealing with money especially when i am not in job.

I still remember and will never forget the stuff said by a director of a company where i left my job recently…
Be careful with the money… otherwise, you are going to loose it.

Let’s see whether i will do some thing for that Raju or not. I thought of sending a letter to that owner or Indian oil company. Will update it soon.

What I learnt:
Its not the fault of the cashier… because 500 and 1000 rupee note do not have much difference. Its my fault. I need to be careful when dealing with the money. Keep my mind sharp and concentrated where ever i go. Also this 500 is a big amount for that cashier compared to me. so learn to spend the hard earned money in a good manner. Also watch the above video again.

Please understand India…

I read a blog post titled The real reason behind India’s lack of startups/innovation.
I wanted to respond little later but it seems the comments are closed. I have crafted my responses

>>>> And now let me clarify that how I qualify to answer this question. I am founder of http://closest.in it’s now a 11 month old web startup. We started working on it right after college, so I am a young startup founder, with very radical ideas, inspired by silicon valley culture and what not. So I have 11 months of experience in this arena to back my answer.

Congratulations on running your start-up all these months.

>>> Now, why there are no web startups from India, because there are no early adopters. That’s not in our blood. Web startups come out of USA because Americans love to try new things and we Indians don’t.

I think the author did not understand India and its people’s mindset. His product is addressing USA and not India. As far as i have known, many great products like Google Finance came out of India. There are many web startups like InterviewStreet.com, Muziboo.com, Tenmiles.com that came from India. They have been developed targeting Indians in mind. Not the USA.

>>> What are early adopters? Early adopters are those people who actually use new services and accept them or reject them. I am not saying that early adopters always accept new products, they actually give their opinion. So if a product is doomed to fail, it fails early. That’s how it works.

when orkut came, people accepted it. when facebook came, people accepted it because facebook was better than orkut in many ways. now its happening for Google+ i guess. If your closet is good enough, it will get adopted. Try to look for the reason why its adoption is not upto the mark. Glad, you have found out how a Product works….

>>>>And I know the root of problem, it’s the faulty education system which is brainwashing innocent children and putting a belief in them that “your ideas are useless”, it’s such a small line and has such a vast impact on the whole nation. Students are literally discouraged to take forward their ideas, especially in the average engineering colleges, I can only talk about them because I was a part of them.

I too agree on this. but if one wants to do and have courage to do, he/she could have done it. if you have felt that education ruined your ideas, why did you take part in it?

>>>>Only solution to fix this problem is to destroy all the engineering colleges right now and convert them into “idea factories” let young people work on what they want. I cry seeing so huge human potential wasting. If anyone wants to fix something in startups ecosystem, fix the education system, that’s the root.

Glad you found the problem and asking anyone wants to fix it. Remember what Gandhi said “If you need a change, be the change!”. Please understand the audience on which your product is targeted. Do what ever it takes to satisfy that particular audience.

One small example. In a auditorium, its the responsible of the speaker to gain the attention of the audience… not the other way round.
That’s all i want to say.

Hello Chennai!

Hello Chennai,

I have relocated to Chennai after 5 years

For the past five years, I have been living in Bengaluru. It has been great and have gone through many of the life experiences which i will never forget. I have worked for two companies in Bengaluru. Amazon.com is one of them.

I am back in Chennai to start the new beginning in this new decade. you can look what i had accomplished over last decade here.

Now, I am living with parents, eating home food, experiencing humid climate etc. Hope for the next few Chennai will bring me the awesome experience. Also you can expect lot of things in this blog about those experiences.