India is a land of shopkeepers. This is quoted as the reason for holding off FDI in retail. Isn’t it? So, ever thought about the service levels the neighbourhood shopkeeper offers?
“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us – we are dependent on him” - Unknown
Does the neighbourhood guy lives by this statement? Or, the marketers of products and services in the organised sector. This isn’t a trick question! I am sure most of you would agree that organised sector has better service standards. And incidentally, this is not an article to sell my thoughts on FDI.
Spare a thought for the affable retailer who is always willing to help Bhabhiji and has offer products hidden in the store room only for her. One who sends even one piece of your daily bread to your house only because he understands your LTV (life time value) without understanding technicality of the term. Contrast this with 4 examples that I have faced recently.
I have a less than a year old European car. One day, I discovered a problem of coolant leakage. I had to send the car to the dealership at least 3 times before they even acknowledged the problem. For the first two times the effort on their part was to convince me that I was hallucinating and there was no problem with the car.
In another instance relating to my DTH provider, I decided to upgrade one of the boxes from regular to HD. We wanted the regular box to be attached to another TV set. For some reason the first box got de-activated. We made 5 calls over 20 days for the activation and every time we were told that our request had not been registered and the issue will be resolved in 48 hours.
One more. My bank decided to change my wealth management team for reasons best known to them. One day a trainee lands up at my home to “help” me. He has no homework done as to who I was and details of my relationship. No briefing from the previous wealth manager or his boss. On speaking to his boss, he apologised and promised to meet me up. For over 2 months, no sign of his wanting to meet me.
And the final example, from a MNC sports shoe brand who invites you to act. My young son’s shoe passed away within 3 months of purchase. Luckily, this time we had a bill of the purchase. So, we landed up at one of the brand stores for complaint hoping for a quick exchange as our case was genuine. We were in for a surprise as we were told that the purchase was made from another franchisee and therefore he just can't do it.
All the above examples are from large / MNC brands. These guys are clearly not in sync with, “Ask your customers to be part of the solution, and don't view them as part of the problem”. They are thinking of the customers as the problem. So, will they succeed or even survive? They will, till the time demand supply gap exists. Unlike the neighbourhood guy who has high service standard and a niche for himself which will ensure that he weathers the storms and hands over a strong business to his future generations.
My service horrors didn’t end as horrors. I luckily know some senior people around and can press the right buttons. So, the car dealer, the DTH provider and the Bank manager all fell in line with one phone call and my issues resolved in a matter of hours. What took multiple calls, visits or wait for months was solved in hours. How is that possible? Because with those phone calls the attitude changed. The same people were wanting to solve the problems and did so. The difference was not in what was possible but the intent! Service is about the willingness to serve. It is easy to surprise (positively) the customer. (if you were wondering what happened to the sports shoe, answer is nothing. I don’t know the right people)
On the other hand, what do successful brands do? Focus on complaint resolution or go beyond. Shift focus from complaint resolution to customer service to customer delight. One brand which attempts it is the iconic brand Apple. My son got an iPad bought in Canada exchanged in India without producing a bill. And my wife’s iPhone got exchanged without any questions asked. Apple agreed that the products belonged to them, they have a problem and the customer is right. Sounds simplistic.
Have you noticed in McDonald’s they replace the coke or fries when a customer (esp a child) drops it whilst carrying it. Because a happy child will always remember it and keep coming back to them. In return enhancing the LTV (life time value) of the relationship.
You are not in business for a day. The customer is not a transaction. If you can learn from Apple and McDonald’s. Look after the customer and they will look after you to survive and grow your business. It’s that simple.
You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter
