Sweet Talk is not a substitute for Good Customer Service.

Academic and Creative Writing Journal Vikram Karve: Sweet Talk is not a substitute for Good Customer Service..

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR, CUSTOMER SERVICE and REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

A Layman’s View

By

VIKRAM KARVE

High on Promise but Low on Delivery. 

This sentence aptly encapsulates my recent experiences with customer service.

In the current scenario, it appears that Customer Service comprises two processes. First, we have the white-collar Customer Care Representatives who are all sweet talk (in many cases this process may be outsourced). Then, we have the blue-collar “technicians” who just do not deliver satisfactory service on the ground.

Sweet Talk is not a substitute for good Customer Service.

The customer service representatives make lofty assurances and raise expectations in you, but you are in for a big disappointment when the operations or technical service personnel do not meet those high expectations and you actually receive unsatisfactory or sub-standard service.

I will give you a few recent examples of High on Promise but Low on Delivery customer service from my personal experience.

Let me start with a recent experience of unsatisfactory customer service from a bank and then I will give you other examples also.

I had a very high opinion of ICICI Bank for many years until a recent rather upsetting experience of indifferent, insensitive and unresponsive customer service changed my impression of ICICI Bank.

More than two months ago, my daughter’s ICICI Bank Debit Card was stolen from the Ladies locker room of her gym. As she reached home from the gym, she started receiving mobile alert SMS regarding some purchases made on her debit card. She checked her purse and found her debit card missing.

She immediately called up ICICI Bank 24 Hour Customer Care Centre and informed them about the theft of the debit card and fraudulent use of the debit card as intimated by the SMS mobile alert. I must say that the customer service representative acted promptly and efficiently and did three things: he blocked the debit card, he recorded the complaint regarding fraudulent withdrawal by misuse of the debit card (which he could see on his computer) and initiated a request for reissue of a new card. 

So far so good, we were quite happy with the sweet talk and his assurances of prompt action.

I wondered how a thief could misuse the debit card, which has the signature of the holder on the reverse. Once you present your debit card to the merchant, he is supposed to swipe it, print out two copies of the chargeslip and then give you the charge-slips which you must verify for correctness and affix your signature. Then, he is required to match your signature with the one on the reverse of the debit card. Only after verifying that the two signatures match is he to process the transaction further. If the signature on the charge-slip does not match the signature on the debit card, the merchant must stop the transaction and alert the bank immediately.

Evidently, it appears that the proper procedure was not followed in this case. This is a lapse on the part of the merchant and hence the merchant who permitted the fraudulent purchase by misuse of the debit card is liable to pay up and the amount must be refunded to the customer. Surely ICICI Bank can examine the merchant’s charge slip, compare the signatures, and in case they do not match, then recover the money from the merchant for negligence and refund the money to the customer. Also, I understand that these debit cards are insured (zero liability protection) to cover purchases made on lost or stolen cards.

Over two months have passed. All the required information and documents have been submitted to ICICI Bank. Whenever we enquire about the progress of the case, the customer care representatives seem clueless and ask the same questions again and again and sweetly assure us that the matter will be settled soon. And every time there is a new sweet-talking customer service representative who makes us answer the same queries repeatedly. However, sadly, nothing is moving on the ground and we are still at square one. Whether this is due to sheer incompetence or is it a ploy to confuse and wear out the customer, I do not know.

Personal visits to the bank yielded no results as there they told my daughter to call up customer care. Even for reissue of the debit card, she was made to run from pillar to post and it took more than one month for the card to arrive which was not delivered at our address but she was asked to collect it from the bank. (Apparently, the courier could not find our address, though we regularly receive all correspondence from ICICI Bank there for so many years).

Escalation of the grievance to the nodal officer and above, as per the grievance redressal procedure on ICICI Bank website, bore no fruit, and nothing happened, except a few more sweet talking calls from the call centre asking the same questions again and again. It looks like everything was going round and round in a circle. Every time they promise the speedy resolution of the matter, but until today they have not delivered on their promises.

This High on Promise but Zero on Delivery customer service strategy puts the customer in a spin so maybe the customer feels helpless and hapless and gets fed up of banging her head against the wall and finally gives up pursuing the matter. That is exactly what my daughter feels – she is so fed up that she has thrown up her hands in despair and given up pursuing the issue. ICICI Bank has won.

As far as I am concerned, from this episode I have derived an impression that ICICI Bank Debit Cards are not adequately secure and I wonder whether one’s money is safe in ICICI Bank.

In contrast, it is not easy to misuse a State Bank of India Debit Card, because here, in addition to signing the charge slip, you are required to enter your secret PIN number when making a purchase. Thus, I feel the SBI Cards are more secure – it may not be possible for a thief to make a purchase on a stolen SBI debit card since he would not know your secret PIN number.

So, my daughter, for whom I had so proudly opened a “kiddies” account long back in ICICI Bank, has decided to bear the losses and forget about the matter, close her ICICI Bank account and shift to some other nationalised bank where she feels her money will be more secure. I too, who had a very high opinion of ICICI Bank, am wondering why the organisational behaviour towards the customer is so indifferent, leading to such inept customer service.

In my opinion, Poor Customer Service adversely affects the reputation of an organization. It appears that some organizations are not bothered about their reputation and take their customers for granted. Reputation declines when experience of an organization falls short of expectations and one of the key factors that can damage the reputation of an organization is poor customer service.

The value of reputation is frequently under-estimated because it is rarely measured. Reputation is a vital asset of an organization, particularly is the organization is a business enterprise. Whether personal or organizational, once reputation goes down, it is most difficult to restore. Reputations take years to build, but a moment to destroy. No wonder that Warren Buffet uttered these famous words: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it and if you understand this you will do things differently”

Many organizations assume that customers buy products. I feel that customers buy relationships. Acquiring a new customer is more difficult and expensive than retaining a happy and satisfied customer. Good relationships with a customer will not only get you repeat business but also bring in new customers as a result of the good word spread around by your happy and satisfied customers which will also enhance the organization’s spoken reputation. I, therefore, feel that organizations need to spruce up their organizational behaviour to emphasize a customer-responsive culture and deliver to their customers what they promise.

I feel the leitmotif of customer relationship management should be “High on Promise and High on Delivery” or to put it simply Deliver what you Promise and organizational behaviour must be tailored accordingly to meet this objective and enhance the organization’s reputation.

To be continued …

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

Vikram Karve: The Six P’s and Three Q’s of Marketing

Academic and Creative Writing Journal Vikram Karve: The Six P’s and Three Q’s of Marketing.

 

The Six P’s and Three Q’s of Marketing

THE LAW OF THE HAMMER, The SIX P’s and THREE Q’s of MARKETING

By

VIKRAM KARVE

(An abridged and revised version of my paper TECHNOLOGY MARKETING – New Issues by Vikram Karve published in INDIAN MANAGEMENT Vol 37 No. 1 January 1998 pp 39 – 42)

The Law of the Hammer

“Give a child a hammer, and the child will use it on everything encountered.”

This is the law of the hammer and this seems to be the leitmotif of the technology marketing scene in the Indian context today. And, in many cases, this approach seems to be succeeding, at least in the short term.

The premise is that the customer is buying technology for technology’s sake, simply as a gimmick or to satisfy a perceived hedonistic need for novelty.

Addressing the human need for novelty is just one aspect of technology marketing, albeit an important one, and may yield rich dividends in the short term. However, a technological marketing strategy based solely on this approach is likely to be characterized by short market cycle, fast but unpredictable market penetration, and quick product obsolescence.

Success with high-tech products requires a confluence of technical understanding and marketing skills.

The P’s and Q’s of Marketing

Marketing is something which the producer or manufacturer has to do, or get done; it is not conferred on his product as if by right.

Marketing can be defined as “getting into the heads of your customers, identifying what they want, and giving it to them”.

Marketing, therefore, is addressing a need or a desire.

In the case of conventional products, the general need or desire is well known.

With new technological possibilities, the need or desire that is addressed is not always obvious. Therefore, in the care of new technology products, the technological marketer may have to take one step backwards to identify the fundamental role that his product can fulfill in the marketplace.

This fundamental approach can be modeled as “The P’s and Q’s of Marketing”.

The Six P’s are: People, Product, Place, Price, Packaging, Promotion.

The Three Q’s are: Quality, Quantity, Quickness.

The first step in technological marketing is to identify the role of technology in the new product, and hence how the PRODUCT relates to PEOPLE.

Technology can have four roles in new products. It can be the product itself, it can increase availability, can enhance distribution, and it can be present in the promotion.

•       The technology can be the Product itself. Technological inventions or innovations may lead to a revolutionary or exclusive which creates a dominant niche in the market [Examples: Mobile Phones (cell-phones), PC, Laptop, Walkman, Radial Tyre, Digital Technologies]

•       The technology can be in the Availability. A historical example is the gramophone record, which made available to the masses the virtuoso performance of the musical masters. People bought music. The technology is simply an enabling mechanism. Previously, the masses could have had access to some of the music only by attending live performances which was neither always feasible nor affordable. A more recent example Direct to Home (DTH) Television services. Thus, modern technologies make available desires that previously could not be met economically or practically.

•       The technology can be in the Distribution. For example, Internet has revolutionized the whole approach of marketing, banking [with instantaneous electronic transfer of money], with increasing online sales. Hence, it is imperative today that manufacturers design their marketing strategy keeping the Internet in mind.

•       The technology can be in the Promotion. The image of a traditional product can be subtly changed by the means of presenting it, using modern packaging and design technologies, combined with high-tech advertising, promotional, marketing and sales techniques.

THE THREE Q’s

The Q’s relate to the ways in which technology can transform the availability and distribution of products aimed at fulfilling existing human needs.

•       For example, in the Indian context, the advent of Japanese and Korean technology made possible greatly increased QUALITY of automobiles and two wheelers (motorcycle, scooters) and therefore has expanded the availability of efficient quality cars and two wheelers in the Indian Market. The same is the case with most consumer, entertainment and household items. The technological marketer can often identify an existing need or desire for quality goods, and use technology to develop a quality product for this wider market.

•       The QUANTITY of attractive jewelry has been expanded with technological developments in the production of diamond simulants like cubic zirconia. Other examples include Digital Storage Technologies, Digital Quartz Watches, Automation Technologies, Agriculture, Dairy and Food Processing Technologies. Technology can often make possible products for that mass market that emulate up-market consumption without threatening the elite market place.

•       Today, satellite technology allows sports events to be simultaneously observed on television throughout the world; in fact, it facilitates instantaneous worldwide video, telephone, or data transmission, which evidence the way in which technology can improve QUICKNESS. At first, messages could be transmitted and received by the postal service (transportation technology), then telegram (telecommunication technology) and now Satellite and Information and Communication technologies [ICT] have made the communication process instantaneous [real-time].  Microwave Ovens are another example of how technology can improve QUICKNESS.

A Model For Technological Marketing

Technological Marketing focuses on inducing substitution, or seducing the buyer to purchase the new product or service.

However, it would be wise to remember that seductive propositions can cause unplanned babies. In the technological marketplace unplanned babies take the form of unexpected outcomes that offer new and potentially exciting product and service opportunities.

“Unplanned Babies” come out of using technology to ‘modernize’ something that has a well-established place in everyday life. One very common example is the use of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). The original idea was that machines would carry out the age-old cash dispensing function more efficiently [The initial aim of the ATM was to use new technology to automate an old function carried out manually by bank tellers – cash dispensing].

A new way of doing things is always subtly different from what has been done before.

ATMs changed two things – where the cash was available, and when. These two aspects caused a fundamental change in the utility of the service received by customers. For the first time they could get cash 24/7 round the clock, off working hours, and away from bank premises. This indeed was a major new bank service. The customers were so delighted, demanded more and more and the banks were totally taken a back – they had not foreseen that automated cash dispensing machines could in fact produce a new service and they kept on enhancing value-added-services to the ATMs.

ATMs are now seen to be more than mere cash dispensing machines. Customers use ATMs to recharge their mobile phone pre-paid connections, pay their utility bills, even mutual fund transactions – making them at par with flexibility given in internet banking – only more secure.

This is an example of a new technology used for the old purpose giving rise to a new market situation. Microprocessor technology, VLSI and Nano Technologies are other examples of unexpected multi-dimensional changes leading to a large range of new products embodying multifarious market desires.

The progressive marketer stands back, looks at such a situation from a distance and reappraises it objectively, since it gives him the opportunity to get a much deeper understanding of the real needs and desires of the market-place.

In a nutshell, technology marketing comprises analyzing existing market demands, addressing these existing demands through technology, reappraising and redefining market needs and desires in the light of response to new technology, and accordingly fine tuning products for the developing market-place.

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2010

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this book review.

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

VIKRAM KARVE educated at IIT Delhi, ITBHU Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale, and Bishop’s School Pune, is an Electronics and Communications Engineer by profession, a Human Resource Manager and Trainer by occupation, a Teacher by vocation, a Creative Writer by inclination and a Foodie by passion. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories and creative non-fiction articles in magazines and journals for many years before the advent of blogging. He has written a foodie book Appetite For A Stroll and a book of fiction short stories which is being published soon and is busy writing his first novel. Vikram lives in Pune with his family and pet Doberman girl Sherry, with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

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Foodie Book: Appetite for a Stroll
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Electro Vaastu

A Comprehensive Reference Book for Information Technology, Computer Science, Electronic, Communication and Electrical Engineering Professionals

Title: EMC for Product Designers

Author: Tim Williams

Elsevier [Fourth Edition, 2007] 498 pages

ISBN – 13: 978-0-75-068170-4

ISBN – 10: 0-750-68170-5

Most of us consider a number of factors, exoteric and esoteric, while designing [or selecting] our homes and in the configuration of the numerous modern technological devices and domestic appliances, most of them electrical and electronic, therein.

Recently I saw a programme on TV where a Vastu Shastra expert was advising viewers not only regarding the various aspects of designing and building living environments that are in harmony with the physical and metaphysical forces but also specifying optimal locations and layouts for various electrical and electronic appliances and devices in both residential homes and workplaces.

I listened with intriguing interest as he gave precise directions and specified exact locations for positioning of Televisions, Computers, Communication Devices, Microwave Ovens, Music systems and other appliances, and fascinated by the congruence between principles and aspects of Vastu and Electromagnetic Compatibility [EMC] and wondered whether the expert in reality was actually an EMC Design Engineer in addition to being a Vastu Shastra Specialist.

When you design or select or configure your house or office I am sure you consider various aesthetic, architectural, financial, utilitarian, geographical, interior and exterior design and other practical aspects, maybe even incorporate the principles of Vastu Shastra and Feng Shui, but do you give even a fleeting thought to EMC?

In today’s world with the increasing use of electrical, communication, electronic and information technologies we are under continual exposure to Electromagnetic Field [ EMF ], both inside and outside our homes, in our workplaces and even in the open wherever we go, radiating from radiating from electricity power lines, household wiring, microwave ovens, computers, monitors, televisions, communication devices, cellular phones, electrical, electronic and IT appliances.

“Electro-pollution” is an increasingly serious form of Environment Pollution and merits serious consideration, as much as, if not more than, other well-known forms of pollution.

Electro-pollution seems to be omnipresent. Apart from hazards to our health, Electromagnetic Interference [ EMI ] is detrimental to the proper functioning of most electrical, electronic, IT, ITES, ICT, communication and technology-based systems and may cause malfunctions and even potentially disastrous and fatal accidents.

The book being reviewed – EMC for Product Designers by Tim Williams – is one of the most comprehensive reference books I have read on the subject of the Design Management aspects of Electromagnetic Interference and Electromagnetic Compatibility [ EMI / EMC ].

The book comprises sixteen chapters arranged in three parts:

Legislation and Standards,

Testing, and

Design

The author lucidly covers most micro and macro aspects of EMC Management in meticulous detail.

The logical sequence of topics, clear diagrams, tables and illustrations facilitate easy understanding of this complicated subject.

The Design Checklist, interesting Case Studies and useful mathematical formulae in the appendices and the extensive bibliography add value to this reference book.

Whilst the earlier chapters provide an excellent understanding of the EMC Standards and the basic theoretical principles of EMI / EMC, the “meat” of the book lies in the chapters on Systems EMC and EMC Management which encapsulate all relevant facets of EMC in a holistic manner.

I wish the author had included a detailed chapter on Electromagnetic Health Hazards and mitigation techniques. This most vital topic concerning all of us humans seems to have not been accorded the due importance it deserves and I hope the author presents a more holistic and systemic view of EMC and includes a comprehensive chapter on pertinent aspects of Bio-electromagnetics, Thermal and Athermal EMR Hazards and their mitigation in the next edition.

I commend this book – it is an excellent reference book for Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and IT Engineers and Managers, Designers, Students, practising professionals in the field and a useful addition for all engineering and technical libraries.

[Book Review by VIKRAM KARVE]

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