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By Rajkamal Rao
Go back to Comparing Life US v. India
Despite assertions by many US consumer advocates that customer service levels in the US are falling (remember Clark Howard’s famous “customer no-service” quip), service quality in the US is amongst the highest in the world. Generous, well-written policies on returns, replacements and refunds; genuine sales; coupon discounts, free shipping, competitive prices and price-matching make the US a magnet for shoppers around the world.
By comparison, service quality levels in India are poor. Calls to stores invariably result in being pushed from pillar to post. Store representatives don’t take responsibility for the product even during the sales process! They are often poorly trained and poorly compensated - so their lack of enthusiasm shows.
After the sale, customer service levels drop precipitously. Stores rarely accommodate returns, refunds or exchanges - and when they do, policies are extremely strict. Service representatives are not punctual for their appointments. Calls are rarely returned. Email messages go into a black hole. Multiple visits to a store are needed to resolve even the smallest issue. Lines at service centers are long. The technician who comes home to fix that appliance appears to be looking for an excuse to not render service but leave, with the job unfinished.
Some things have improved in recent years. Most major companies, realizing that the cost of operating a Tier-1 call center is low, provide customers with a toll free number to field calls to answer basic questions about a product or register a complaint. But the access granted to these so called customer service representatives by their employers is limited. For example, call center employees of banks are not permitted to access your account but can only give you general information about the bank’s products and services. Adding to this issue, churn among call center representatives is high so expertise is rarely acquired. Many call center representatives are no more than humans reading out from standard scripts served up on their computer screens. Unlike representatives in the US, they are not authorized to further the resolution of a problem beyond escalating the trouble ticket to an action team.
The returning Indian family has to get used to poor service quality levels. Period.
Go back to Comparing Life US v. India
Despite assertions by many US consumer advocates that customer service levels in the US are falling (remember Clark Howard’s famous “customer no-service” quip), service quality in the US is amongst the highest in the world. Generous, well-written policies on returns, replacements and refunds; genuine sales; coupon discounts, free shipping, competitive prices and price-matching make the US a magnet for shoppers around the world.
By comparison, service quality levels in India are poor. Calls to stores invariably result in being pushed from pillar to post. Store representatives don’t take responsibility for the product even during the sales process! They are often poorly trained and poorly compensated - so their lack of enthusiasm shows.
After the sale, customer service levels drop precipitously. Stores rarely accommodate returns, refunds or exchanges - and when they do, policies are extremely strict. Service representatives are not punctual for their appointments. Calls are rarely returned. Email messages go into a black hole. Multiple visits to a store are needed to resolve even the smallest issue. Lines at service centers are long. The technician who comes home to fix that appliance appears to be looking for an excuse to not render service but leave, with the job unfinished.
Some things have improved in recent years. Most major companies, realizing that the cost of operating a Tier-1 call center is low, provide customers with a toll free number to field calls to answer basic questions about a product or register a complaint. But the access granted to these so called customer service representatives by their employers is limited. For example, call center employees of banks are not permitted to access your account but can only give you general information about the bank’s products and services. Adding to this issue, churn among call center representatives is high so expertise is rarely acquired. Many call center representatives are no more than humans reading out from standard scripts served up on their computer screens. Unlike representatives in the US, they are not authorized to further the resolution of a problem beyond escalating the trouble ticket to an action team.
The returning Indian family has to get used to poor service quality levels. Period.
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