Last week was my parents' anniversary and I had planned to gift them something nice. I settled on a gift worth several thousands as I wanted it to be a memorable one. Now came the dilemma , how was I to shift it safely from Hyderabad to Coimbatore without it getting lost and damaged . So I settled for the best(?!) known courier here - Blue Dart . Although they charged me five times more than the smaller couriers I went for it going by the brand name.
They collected the parcel from me on a Saturday and promised me a Tuesday delivery or at the most Wednesday .I waited and waited till Wednesday and when it was not delivered by 7 pm started a spate of calls. By 9 pm my hubby and I had to give up exhausted as there was no proper response from the offices at Hyderabad and Coimbatore or from their call centre . And I was left fuming as the usual helpless Indian customer who pays a high price for everything but gets pathetic service.
I was so irritated as I had paid a high price and didn't want to take it lying down . At around 9:45 at night fortunately I had a brain wave which urged me to do a google search for the Blue Dart MD . And surprisingly it threw up a result with the MD's details and his email ID. Within minutes I drafted off an angry email explaining about the pathetic service and how disgruntled I was . I didn't expect any response but at least was happy at venting out my anger on someone. And what a surprise ! Within 10 minutes I got a reply from his regional head apologizing profusely and telling me that the matter would be resolved at the highest priority. Another 10 minutes and I got a call from the Coimbatore office saying my parcel was on its way . My parents received the courier at 10:40 that night and I learnt a major lesson . In India to get any customer complaint resolved ,we always need to approach people at the highest level , no use raising a hue and cry at the lower rung . And it pays to actually contact people at the top of the hierarchy and they DO respond . Not sure it would work out always but guess I was lucky .I did thank him and ask him to train his employees at providing better customer service and he promised to do so :)
It’s almost routine that you can expect poor customer service in India, whether it’s a restaurant or store. Let's hope indian companies are challenged into being more customer friendly by increased competition.
Good that your stuffs went through, but sad side of it, people at lower level don't understand the value, to them it is just another parcel.
ReplyDeleteIf MD and regional head have to attend to a simple activity (basics of such organisation) just wonder what would the CEO be doing