Quality service

Quality service is what matters for the growth of any firm whether it is small or big. But I have my doubts whether the corporate realizes it or not. Service quality is the responsibility of delivery staff as they are the face of the company.  Training, a sense of belongingness, and efficiency of the delivery staff can be achieved only by training, motivation, feedback, and empowerment.

I am of the view, that the corporate does not realize and many a time they think, it is unnecessary expense or conduct as a matter of routine.

I am narrating some incidents involving big corporates of India or I can say Icons of India or market leaders.

Incident no 1.

I have requested a parcel of a medium case, and it is supposed to be delivered to me by the world-renowned courier company and the name is big in India too. When I was checking on the tracking app, it said the package arrived at a place just 2 KM away from my place and no action has been taken for delivery for a week. After a week, the just was changed to unable to deliver as they could not find the address and hence, they have started the process of returning the package to the sender.  The delivery person could not even have the sense to call my mobile and seek directions. When it takes it up strongly with the complaint mechanism and posts the issue on X page of the company, within 4 hours my package was delivered to my address without any phone call to me to find my address.

Where does the problem lie, is it with the delivery boy or the people who need to supervise him and monitor exceptions in delivery?

This is not case with only one company by and large by others too.

Incident no 2

This is connected to a Communication Company, and they are also a multinational company providing service across the globe. With the Broadband connection, they do offer some additional service for free for the first year and thereafter they will charge for renewal.  Although I have not available the additional facilities, they have demanded renewal charges, and with great difficulties, I can clear it by taking up the case with various levels.  Recently, I was getting whatsapp message from them informing me that they would be debiting my account with a renewal fee, but I checked through customer service and through their app to confirm that they have not provided the facility to me. The customer service personnel have also informed me that I have not subscribed to it. But suddenly, I received a bill for renewal charges and my process started to take up with them for the removal of the charges.  This shows that a world-class company depends on a useless technology that is inconsistent. They do not have proper communication between the customer service personnel and the management regarding this.

Incident 3.

In this case, it is a very big financial institution that cannot even respond to the Phone (Landline) as no one will pick it up. No response if called to the Mobile number of the authorized official. No emails will get a response from them. Despite this fact, they have a good training system to impart the value of communication and customer service since there is no accountability on the part of the person who attends such training or no methodology to evaluate it. When such an incident is posted on social media, the response from the bank is very casual and automatic to request for email to act. I am sure, even if you send an email there will not be any response from them as they do not value communication and customer satisfaction. Indifferent attitude on the part of their staff and officials.

The above incidents are tips of an Iceberg, indicative not exhaustive. I have purposely not mentioned the names as it is not my intention to defame anyone but to emphasize customer satisfaction and the use of technology to monitor the same.   The tool of Carrot and Stick is not used and there is no reward or punishment in place. Supervision and monitoring is lacking.

In short, no effective motivation or training.