Evolution of the Experience

Earlier in India, universally, customer service was shoddy. Out of 100 companies that served you, you could bet 90 just didn’t give a damn. Esp if it was not for a luxury product. Like just another random restaurant. a railway ticket. the phone company.

Today, it’s 50-50. And I find this exciting. We have come a long way. I twittered that the landing into Delhi was bumpy and someone in Spicejet read the tweet and called me and investigated the episode and gave me an update. HDFC’s customer email address is managed by a smart caring team. Flipkart blows me away with how good and fast they are. Justdial, Meeru and EasyCabs customer service response time probably puts Amazon,Zappos and Apple to shame.

Airtel is a 50-50. ICICI is 50-50. Sometimes you meet a great rep, sometime a buffoon.

Air India, Indian Railways and The Govt are just proof there is nothing than cannot be bad and then made worse .

This is an exciting time to be involved. You have a chance to make a huge difference by helping the good get better because no company is more sincere than the one that is good and trying to improve. Really trying. They need the help and you as the customer owe it to them and the guy behind you in line (your neighbor, your brother in law, your kid, your mom) to help the enterprise go from good to AWESOME.

So tweet about what they else could be doing, email the customer email ID, blog about the experience, call the helpline. Don’t be malicious about a bad episode. Be constructive. And rave when they get it right.

Just don’t think your responsibility and the relationship is over when you are done making the payment.