There is a rapidly increasing interface of consumers with various product and services suppliers. This starts from the highly obtrusive security paraphernalia at the entrance of office buildings, shopping malls, retail stores and restaurants, starred hotels, and even hospitals and other public spaces. It then leads to other points of contact through receptionists, retail store floor staff and managers, ushers and concierges, etc. There is also a “virtual” contact of the consumers with the product and service providers through the internet and voice-based calling for information, service requests, complaints, feedback, and rectification of any deficiency in the purchased product or service.
Sadly, despite mountains of books on the subject, and endless seminars and conferences extolling the virtue of efficient customer interface, many Indian businesses treat the public/consumer interfacing roles more as rituals to be adhered to, and have a small or no real intention to carry them out effectively to achieve the purported objective.
The office complex that I work in at Gurgaon is a cluster of several swank, high-profile buildings. At the entrance of our building, during the early morning hours, there are two security guards with hand-held scanners and a regularly beeping full-body scanner, as hordes of workers make their way in. This may be impressive except that in their wisdom, the security disappears around mid-morning and then is conspicuous by its absence throughout the day, believing that terrorists and any other unsocial elements will only make their appearance early morning. The complex has many entry and exit points, and even each specific building within the complex has several of them. Yet, most remain unmanned throughout the day, making a total farce of the early morning ritual at the main entrance.
Many starred hotels have now started stopping cars and undertaking perfunctory checks under the engine block and sometimes the cars’ boots, as if to state that a car bomber would be actually hiding a bomb visibly in the boot (no suitcases or packages are opened if they are in the boot) or would have planted one only in the front part of the car’s undercarriage. Other than creating minor traffic snarls during peak hours, one fails to understand the logic behind this ritual.
Shopping mall and retail security guards routinely stop shoppers from carrying their packages around into the mall as well as within the mall from one shop to another, leaving shoppers wondering what the prime purpose of coming to a retail store or shopping mall is. Ostensibly, it is for security as well as to prevent shoplifting, even though there may be scant evidence to support the belief that shoplifters carry multiple shopping bags around. Further, many departmental stores have legions of sales staff on the floor who are usually clueless about specific merchandise, rendering little or no assistance in taking a purchase decision. This makes a potential buyer wonder why the retailers bother to bear their cost anyway.
Last week, I had the opportunity to visit one of the new five-star hospital complexes in Delhi. It was for a routine investigation for which an appointment had been already scheduled. From the main entrance and the main reception, it required being directed sequentially to three other receptions and a change of building (there were two different building blocks) before reaching the intended one. Coincidentally, in the same week, I also had to visit a satellite facility of the same hospital chain for a simple ECG that was needed for a medical insurance policy. From the reception, it took three other interventions across three floors before I could finally make it to the technician.
A few weeks ago, I had to interface telephonically with the staff of one of the finest private Indian airlines. My wife had redeemed air-miles from one of their partner international airlines for a domestic flight on this Indian carrier, and after having made the flight bookings, a change was sought (same sector, same day, same class of travel, just an earlier flight). It took multiple calls (counting the dropped ones after being in the queue for what seemed like eons) that first originated in Delhi and then finally at Bangalore, and probably more than 45 minutes through five different individuals before being told that the computer systems of the two airlines were not compatible and, therefore, any changes in reservations had to be made through their international partner airline overseas.
As the overall business environment becomes more challenging and competitive, it is critical to convert potential consumers into actual customers and keep them secure and happy. Rather than a ritualistic implementation of various consumer interfacing functions, the senior management must have a sharper clarity on objectives and roles, then have very high quality and more effective training regimen, and follow it up by regular internal and external feedback and monitoring of outcomes. And finally, in many situations, the effective deployment of technology and more efficient signages/guidance can achieve much better results than hordes of security guards and customer service staff.
