How many times your telecom service provider has given you bloated bills and then forced you to pay for something you have not even consumed. Or, have you been promised of loads of free gifts, along with a pack of books/DVDs etc., by the reasonably well known direct marketing company, without actually bothering to deliver the free gifts, even after getting paid for the primary stuff? Examples like these are numerous. I personally have faced situations like this a few times. Sometime back, I was presented with a bill by one of India’s largest telecom company in the private sector for, my broadband connection that was about seven times higher than what I had normally been paying. Eventually, I could get a waiver of part of the bill, as their officials accepted that there was a problem at their end. However, the resolution did not come so very easily, as they tried all the tricks, so that they do not need to pay up for their own misdeeds. And, off course I also had my share of woes in getting access to their officials, as the customer service executives would simply not allow me to talk to any of the officials and blatantly refused to give the emails of their senior management.

On another count, I had placed an order for educational DVDs with India Today Book Club. They were prompt in delivering the DVDs and collecting the payment, but they faltered miserably in delivering the free gift that they promised. The gift remained undelivered for several weeks and then a communication was received from them, stating that the same would be delivered within the next few days, as they have run out of stock. What to talk of few days, more than 8 months have passed by, since I received that communication and nothing has happened. And, the worst part is that these organizations create a veil of secrecy around their operations and the poor consumer not knowing as to how these issues can get resolved.

In the quest for making some quick sales, businesses often fail to see the underlying risk of losing larger ground, in the medium to long term. And, due to the faulty adoption of technology in customer service, several of these entities don’t even leave any room for the customers, to bring such glaring slippages to the notice of their higher ups. Who told these irresponsible companies that functional automation means, they need not give physical access to their customers for service and other resolutions and instead just use bots and faceless customer service executives, lacking the willingness to delight the customers. They forget that customer is the king and not the seller. If they do not get the desired attention, they would never return.

It is high time that organizations adopt a more balanced mix of customer service delivery, leaving enough scope for the customer to get a quick resolution.