What do McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Shoppers Stop & Crossword have in common? A difficult question to answer unless you visit them all. I did, and the answer is Dwindling Customer Service.
A coke-float served in MacDonald's comes loaded with a hair strand, and when it's pointed out to the store manager, the manager says sorry. Period. I ask him to give me a feedback form, and he takes full 10 minutes to find one and hand it over. The form says "Did we make you smile today?". Nevermind. I send a mail to the email address given on the form which results in absolutely nothing.
Over to Pizza Hut. Placed my order and asked for water. Nothing happens. The salad and lemonade is served and I ask for water again. The salad is stale and when pointed out to the store manager, he safely assumes that it is my first trip to Pizza Hut and says that the salad is like this, all the time. To prove his point, he asks the waiter to bring another portion of the same salad and asks us to compare both. When the fresh portion arrives which is actually fresh and how it should be, the manager is nowhere in sight.
The water hasn't arrived yet, by the way. It comes while I am about to finish my pizza and is normal, opposed to cold as was requested. Serving normal water (in some cases, even hot) is a normal practice in Cafe Coffee Day, since they primarily want to sell beverages. But here, ordering a lemonade even before asking for water and not being served the same for half an hour is beyond layman understanding.
Similar experiences at Shoppers Stop and Crossword indicate that DCS is not about a couple of stores but a much wider phenomenon than one would normally expect. Has it got something to do with the recessionary times? Is it linked to some kind of a realization that Indian consumers are not used to a high level of customer service anyways?
Or this is just a part of the normal evolutionary cycle wherein new businesses will spring up to exploit such white-spaces and develop those into competitive advantages! And over the years create those white-spaces again. I wonder...
8 comments:
It seems that service levels are plummeting. However, I feel that as spending increases, this will automatically improve.
Let's just hope so. Although I think that delighting consumers during a downturn is an opportunity which any business ought not to miss.
:) I think it has to do with ownership of job, Managers in these stores are either not happy and committed to service, or they get so many complains that they have given up :P
well ,i think the service providers over rely on good chiks coming into the stores in terms of customer delight, :),ya brand hai to achha hi hoga mit be the feeling in cutomers ,.....
but have noted n will soon be launching my chain of MC C outlets,
well crossword mein kya hua ....
i mean these roadiside signal vendors sell these pirated/photcopied books at almost half or less price , to fir jaey kahan bata -e -dil.....
@Narbhakshi: Possible :). Both cases.
@Atul: Crossword mein jis bande ne bill kiya usne bolne par bhi bookmarks nahin daale :|, and am really happy to know that mera blog can inspire people to open stores..full time writer ban jaoon kya :P
hmm... I must say almost everyone had same observation at such stores... but you know.... you are one who fetch time to word it.
Good Observations!!! even I had same experiences...
Add Mocha to the list!
Great customer service is a mindset game. The desire for repeat business is what drives customer service. IMHO, unfortunately there are far too many people in the country now willing to spend money and far too few avenues to do so, so that these supposedly upscale places can afford to be complacent.
But as you said, Robin, someone will come along and fill the gap; when there are enough service providers to cater to the demand, customer service will need to stay high to retain customers.
Hopefully :)
@Ashish: Thanks
@Parijat: You'r right. It's also about too many people willing to spend at a few places. And yeah, hopefully :)
Post a Comment