I just had a enlightening conversation with a Vodafone Customer " care " center. The unsolicited call came and poor me attended. It went on like this
Lady : Sir, This is from Vodafone customer care center
me : yes
Lady : Sir We wanted to check whether you have activated our GPRS services.
Me : I have activated the GPRS services
Lady : Sir Do you know that you can download pictures and wallpapers from Vodafone website
me : See I don't use this service
Lady : Ok Sir.... What is your name ?
me ( Stunned ) : What ?
Lady : What is your name sir ?
me : You called me and you " should " be knowing my name !!!!!!
Lady : No sir, we only have your number.. Please give your name so that I can enter your name in the system.
I sat there wondering what is happening to marketing.
A company calling a customer and telling him that ultimate truth
Dear Customer .. You Are Just a Number.
A worse scenario happened when i used JustDial. They wished me mentioning my name but moments later when it was their turn to send the sms, they asked my name and phone number. A complete system discrepency !!!
ReplyDeletePicture this:
ReplyDelete- A company spends tons to hire and train the best CSRs.
- Some category manager feels that promoting his category by calling customers will generate sufficient response to meet his target.
- The company's excellent call centre specialises in outbound calls. He therefore gets the 'promotion' budget approved and outsources the task with basic instructions to a 'call centre'
- The call centre hires untrained, inexpensive executives - unemployed graduates and part-timers, gives them a list and runs through a simple 5-minute instruction.
The result: The customer who is used to excellent customer reps is shocked and loses faith in the company's committment to take care of the customer.
The important issue here, as I see it, is that there is a lack of control on the organisations' side when it comes to monitoring front-end interaction. Brand managers may end up misusing or 'ill-using' the freedom granted to them.
I strongly believe that all organisations should have a process for monitoring all form of external communication in order to preserve the brand equity, which otherwise is prone to high amount of erosion by independent decision makers who may sometimes fail to see the larger picuture.
Mihir Modi
PGDM 2007-09
SPJIMR, Mumbai