The Art of Customer (Dis) Service - Part 2

Is it really possible to ensure great customer service anytime and every time?

Recently, Shyam and I happened to drop by at the newly opened Reliance Digital store at Jubilee Hills (Hyderabad). And we were in for a pleasant surprise.

To begin with, the service reps greeted you with a Namaste and enquired if they could assist you. They were well groomed and had a pleasant disposition. What impressed us was that they were technically competent to help you make a decision about which laptop was good for your wallet or which printer had more value for money.

We checked out the home appliances section and got the same level of high quality customer service. At the routers section, the service rep asked the right questions regarding our requirements and gave us two brands of routers to choose from. And he didn’t mind spending over half an hour just helping us decide on which router to choose.

In short, this was a stark difference from other consumer appliance / electronics outlets where either you were totally ignored or constantly shadowed by the sales personnel.

A few days later, enthused by our previous visit, we dropped by Reliance Digital to buy some stuff.

And what a contrast it was.

None of the sales reps approached us as they seemed to be busy chatting in some corner. It was only when we made our displeasure known that we could get the attention of the sales reps and eventually make our purchase.

So what made the difference in service levels within a span of a few days?

We later came to know from one of the service reps that on the day of our first visit, a senior executive from the corporate office had paid a visit to the mall.

This just goes to show that in a young and growing economy like India, customer service is still a long way away even for large companies with deep pockets. No doubt these service reps were properly trained and did their job well (albeit only when the top boss was around).

The greater challenge (especially for service companies) is to ensure that their front line employees are sufficiently energized or empowered to deliver the ‘right’ customer service anytime and every time.