Bibek Debroy: I have no idea

If Indian CEOs called up their own call centres, they'd get an idea of what customers go through.

What is most impressive when you travel to China? The answer depends on whom you ask. You don't visibly witness real GDP growth figures. So some visitors will mention the obvious explosion in consumption, others, particularly those who have been to Shanghai and Pudong, will mention infrastructure. Those who have been to China many years ago may even mention the disappearance of bicycles and queues in front of Mao's mausoleum in Tienanmen Square.

What struck me most on a recent visit was the change in attitude towards consumers. Typically, all socialist countries are shortage economies and consumers obtain short shrift. Since most developed countries are market-based and, therefore, consumers have choice, buyers don't have to beware. Perhaps, there is a link somewhere with product liability legislation and consumer protection laws, too. India may still be a socialist economy under the Preamble to the Constitution, but most people will argue there is greater choice now. Shortages have disappeared. Ipso facto, attitudes towards consumers should change, since there is excess supply and companies are falling over backwards to attract consumers. Not only has there been a Consumer Protection Act since 1986, there is a thriving consumer movement. Indeed, the consumer movement led to the legislation, and not the other way around.

The consumer is the king. Unfortunately, World Consumer Day is on March 15 and the Ides of March weren't exactly auspicious. The game of chess was also invented in India and as everyone who plays chess knows that the king is the least powerful piece on the board. I don't think Indian companies still pay any attention to consumers, despite the shortage economy showing signs of disappearing.

Companies spend all their energies and resources on attracting new customers. If they had spent half of that on retaining existing customers, bottomlines would probably have looked far healthier. And I don't think companies fully appreciate that the typical interface between consumers and the company is not with the CEO, but with the person who attends to a phone call when there is a complaint. In 90 per cent of cases, decent treatment would leave a relatively happy customer, regardless of the nature of the complaint.

Many years ago, kings used to travel around their kingdoms in disguise, to ascertain how their kingdoms were being ruled. Instead of squandering resources on press conferences, I wish CEOs of Indian companies would ring up their companies, pretending to be customers. I suspect they would learn a lot. As a perfect example of mindsets not necessarily changing when shortages disappear, let me mention my experience with Idea.

Why did we acquire an Idea phone? I have absolutely no idea. We have several assorted landlines, Airtel, Hutch, Reliance. Why another mobile? Somewhere, the shortage mindset still sticks. You don't forget the memory of public landline providers, when you had to bribe the MTNL linesman to obtain "cable pairs" and had to wait months for your telephone connection. So, confronted with a sales pitch, we promptly agreed. This was a post-paid connection, with standing instructions for payment against a credit card. Presumably, we weren't going to now run away without payment. Wrong presumption.

In the initial months, we didn't use our Idea phone too much and life was fine. But the moment we began to use the phone, our problems started. Every once in a while, the line would be disconnected, with no prior intimation whatsoever. It took several phone calls to figure out what was happening. Apparently, there was a monthly ceiling of Rs 600 and the moment your bill crossed this magical figure, the line would be disconnected, until you settled your bills. This raised several questions.

First, if there was a standing instruction against a credit card, why did this need arise, since the credit card's ceiling was much higher? Second, why didn't the fine print, including the monthly statement, mention this anywhere? Third, none of the other mobile companies seemed to have such odd behaviour patterns, so what was special about Idea? Fourth, wasn't the customer supposed to be informed before disconnecting the phone? Even MTNL now follows such courtesies. Fifth, didn't Idea want customers to use their phones?

Whatever be the answers to these complicated questions, I eventually spoke to a customer executive named Arvind. I am deliberately mentioning this name, in case Idea wants to verify how it loses its customers. With assorted call centres functioning all over the place, one suspects that companies pay scant attention to how these people respond to customer complaints. The sum and substance of Arvind's contention was that these were Idea's rules and if I wanted to use Idea, I would have to lump it.

The point, of course, is that I no longer have to lump anything and we gave up our Idea connection, which we hadn't really wanted in the first place. I have a feeling such people should now be called customer executioners rather than customer executives. Needless to say, such experiences are passed around and probably cost companies much more than what they gain through splurging on advertisements. No wonder there is such resistance to Chinese competition.