Reliable Miscommunication

Finally, someone called me to help me solve my problem regarding broadband Internet connection. Well, when I spoke with the gentleman on the other side it turned out that the problem created for me was nothing but a communication failure at every stage in the company! I discovered many new things as I spoke with him and thought how a simple training or communication between the departments or people would have saved me from all the troubles.

I see many companies investing millions of dollars in communicating to their customers or outside world about their services or products and ignore the internal communication. They fail to communicate to their very own people who are responsible for the image of the company at every stage. I strongly feel that if you want to know the professionalism of the company, analyse the person on the reception. How she behaves with visitors, who can be anybody from a courier boy to a visiting client CEO should give you a complete understanding of the company's behavior with their customers/people. If she is been communicated management's vision and what is expected from her to represent her company, she would behave in a manner which is expected and if it is not - you will see the results in few minutes.

This is not just about receptionists but true to any other person in the organization. Learn to share and communicate. Communicate with your people first, then talk to outside world. After all charity should begin at home...

Customer care - who cares?

Frustrated Call Center employees do not make good Customer Care Executives. They are not empowered enough to help the customer - forget caring about them! In my opinion, the Customer Care Executive should be an in-house and responsible professional, who can take instant decisions and demonstrate that the company cares for its customer.

But is it happening? No.

Am I asking for too much? I don't think so.

Is it possible? Yes, it is - if our companies start trusting the customer. The moment I call up so called customer care center they feel that I am calling them with some malign intention - their approach is more of an investigative officer, who behaves exactly the same as Bollywood police than of a person trying to assist you! Sometimes they come up with unique solution - put the blame on the customer for her refrigerator not working properly or last but not the least on the weather! "Mam' your CD player may not work because there is a high humidity in the weather and there could be moisture on your CDs"... C'mon guys! give me a break! Your customer is not a fool - she is calling you only after she has tried doing everything possible in her power to solve the issue herself. Start trusting or soon you are going to RIP. Do you think she is going to buy your product again?

Did you feel that you have read enough? Wait for this...

Impossible it may sound, but it is possible. I have taken a Broadband connection (from a private company, which invested very heavily in re-branding its identity to make it more customer friendly or owner friendly who proudly puts his name at the bottom - whatever!) at home and have been using it for over a month. When I got some issue with the billing and not delivering on the promises made by company while applying for a connection, I called the customer care center; I was told that in their data my name (or the user ID) is not there as registered customer!

When asked about if I don't exist as a customer, how am I using your services and being billed, there was no proper response. On inquiring further; I was told that I should call them back with proper information. What is proper information, I inquired. User ID - pat come the reply. But when I repeated my user ID, they said I am not their customer!

Confused? Don't be... I am yet to solve the mystery but don't you feel that this is like going to a doctor with a photo ID and he asks you to get a certificate that you are alive and the same person in a photo!

I am alive. Bhai - are you listening?

Why I am not writing?

Sometimes I wonder, why do I have to write a blog. But then, I feel that one learns so many things and have some or the other views on the subject to share with people (though nobody reads my blog - except me! ;)) and hence I write.

But - then why am I not writing regularly?

Well, to say that I don't have enough time is wrong and I don't want to say that either.

So, what next?

I promise myself to write at least once a week. And that week begins now!