Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Global brands - Indian customer service???

It's amazing how the best of brands feel they don't need to give Indians the same level of service that is demanded of them elsewhere in the world. I could rattle off a list of names but a case in point is a big name below. Although this experience is not mine, it can be any of us brand-conscious people.

Do we not get enough because we don't demand it? 
As written by a friend and Lenovo customer

Over the last two decades we have seen hundreds of multinational brands come in India to sell their world class products. What unfortunately has not followed these products is their customer service. I have faced issues with Nissan, HTC and now recently with Lenovo. It is an irony that I type this blog out on a Lenovo, however this belongs to the organization I work in, while I have the issue with my personal laptop.

Lenovo S210 Ideapad - Keyboard issues
I had bought a Lenovo S210 Ideapad from the US in November 2013. By Jan 2014 the keyboard was misbehaving even though the machine had hardly been used since I had bought it. Being covered under the international warranty I took it to the Lenovo Service Centre in Kurla (TVSe), Mumbai. The staff was courteous and knowledgeable, said they would replace the keyboard. They immediately placed the order in front of me and I went to work satisfied. Finally someone understood servicing a customer in India. This was 18 Feb, 2014 and expected date of delivery was 25 Feb 2014. Within 2 days I got a mail from the company saying that the part was dispatched. Very impressive! Another mail stated that the part was received by the service centre and I should collect by machine by 23 Feb! It felt like a dream, I kept telling everyone how impressed I was with Lenovo’s service. Then I placed a call to the service centre as to when should I come to collect my machine? This is where everything started going downhill.

Wrong part
The Service Centre said that a wrong part had been delivered and hence I will have to wait for sometime till the correct one is delivered to me. Since then there has been no update from either the service centre or the call centre of Lenovo. When I call the helpdesk, they say that the part is delivered to the service centre; we shall inquire what has happened and will come back to you. They never call you back! Every time I call, I have to repeat the entire history of what has transpired, which is surprising because the executives are supposed to update the information of every interaction they have with the customer but somehow they always feign ignorance. I have been assured that someone senior will call and speak to me, I have not received any call till now. On the other side, there is no response from the service centre. No one ever picks up the phone there.

Poor service
What does a customer do in such a circumstance? Where do you go? If the large multi nationals like Lenovo, HTC, and Nissan cannot integrate their front end CRM systems with the back end systems how do they expect the customers to be serviced?
Lenovo’s tagline says – for those who do…but will you please hand back my laptop so I can finally ‘do’ something?