Customer Service Centers

A very important moment of truth for any organisation. A customer coming here will take that experience home.. It becomes more important if you know that most of the customers are going to come there for some problems or complaints. Because at this point, they are already unhappy with your product. Now upto service centers to do the damage control.
I have observed so many service Centres of different companies. Actually worked myself too on the front desk.. for one of the most unhappy lot of customers(During closure of US64)..

Problems of every service Center

1. The front desk staff is very demotivated and down after having listening to complains of angry customers.. Most of the time for no faults of theirs.. Organisation needs to do something to keep them motivated..
2. It needs personal face to face interaction.. If the front end staff is smiling you can make a lot of difference.
3. Timing issues: As most of the customer service centres are during normal office hours.. The customer will have to come to the centre during his office hours either by bunking office or taking a leave. He is most probably very hard pressed for time. But with limited staff, he would have to wait. So for most of the customers every minute waiting would feel like an hour.. So some of the ways of solving it which many organisations are doing too.. Work on weekends(Auto service companies).. Work after office hours(ICICI).. Give an estimated time of fix as the customer reaches the center and better if you can tell him when he asks on phone.. So he is prepared for it.
4. Follow up and updates to customers: Many organisations have proper process for follow up systems. But many a times they falter on the promised updates.. And this becomes a big factor of dissatisfaction for customers.
5. Expected level of services: This is also very important.. Actually customer has got different expectations for different organisations. Normally for government offices/PSUs they are more tolerant.. Because they expect them to be hopeless. So if they can get their work done easily, they will be very very happy. But for Private sector, they expect services to be more than exceptional.. They want their problems to be solved as early as possible. Any delay means dissatisfaction. They will compare it with the best of the services.

I have noticed that Maruti Suzuki is great at their Service Centers. They have evolved best processes to service their customers. Others can learn a lot from them.

My encounter with Police

My whole weekend was in police station.. Police station and Hospitals are two places which means lot of trouble... God forbid if anyone has to go there.
For me I had to go to police station for my address verification for passport.. Actually I had applied for change of validity for passport around a month back. They said that even police verification would be done. Someone from police station normally visits your place and seeks information.. When noone came to my place.. I decided to go to police station and ask for status... So I had to make five trips to get the thing going. Pretty sad!!! Isnt it..

First trip.. The concerned person said "Come after fifteen minutes as he is attending some other person's case".. Actually the case he was talking of.. He was doing nothing in that.. The other person was filling up the form and writing a letter. I said ok..
Second trip.. I reached there.. he told me my form is reached there. They needed the documents and something else(Do I need to be explicit here?? :)) without which your papers would move..
Third time... Every one on lunch.. so come after an hour..
Fourth time.. This time I went with another friend.. We waited for 15 20 minutes for someone to come.. Then this person came. This time he was very receptive... He filled the forms and attached all the documents which I gave.. The fun part was earlier he has asked me to write an application for the process.. I had written a simple two liner asking the police to verify my address.. After reading that he asked me if by asking them to verif my address I am questioning the working of Police.. Then he wrote the details and format of the application which he was looking for.. I just copied and gave it to him.. Now came the funniest part.. Now every formality done.. I had put their something in an envelop... So both were silent.. I was waiting them to ask for their something.. After sometiem the person lost his patience .. He asked where are the enclosures.. :)) and i handed them the envelop.. I thought that will be done.. But they asked me to come in one more time as their incharge will see me first before signing..
Fifth time... I reached there.. Actually waited for half an hour.. That person went in to his boss for signature on documents.. But got them signed even without my presence.. ..

But still not over.. This was the encounter only with a single police station.. I still have to go to other police station as I have stayed less than a year in my current residence.. So I will have through a similar way to other police station also..

I still dont understand the pathetic states of bueracracy in government..... Everyone gets tensed whenever one thinks of going to any government office.. Everyone knows it would eat up their days and still things might not done ..
I wonder the people who are working there..
The concern they have for people.. The shameless they get in asking for under the table.... The way they treat the people.. and what not..
Actually we are customers for them.. They are getting paid by our taxes... AND They feel that they are doing a great favour on you on giving any service..

Actually was thinking of the corruption how corruption gets into one person.. I will treat them into following categories..
1. Who are honest in the beginning and then become corrupt as their needs increase and as they start imitating others who are already there in the system.. I remember one of person who joined in govt service.. He was single... His salary was enough.. He worked honestly and even refused the bribes.. but after sometime he got married.. responsibilities increased.. Then he also saw lot of corruption around.. ppl making lot of money.. then he also started getting into corruption.. Typical...
2. Who have paid a lot of money to get a job ... Look at the scams reported in recent at the recruitment level.. Simple thinking here.. I need to get back the money I paid for getting into the job..
3. Very few always honest people... These people are in pathetic conditions...

Black Cars

I stay in an independent house in Bangalore which is located in a street of about 15 feet. Total residents in the house are 6 ( including a couple who stays on ground). Total number of vehicles is also 6. Two motorbikes and four cars. All cars are of black in color. One of my close friend also insisted on buying a black color car even when he had to pay few K more the deal. I cannot deduce that more people are buying black cars just because few of my friends have a black one and I own one too. Someone told me that in TOI it was mentioned that Black color owners are more prone to accidents. That made me curious. I ran a google search and found some interesting stuff regarding the black cars.

• For years it was commonly believed that black cars ran faster-because they won in the '40s and '50s. Then white cars began to win.
• Owners of black cars are most keen to get undressed in their cars (thirty-five percent). Only Twenty-one percent of yellow car drivers have undressed in their cars.
• Black cars are 10 times as likely to be in accidents as are white ones because they are less visible.
• Black cars crash more often than others because aggressive drivers love that colour. A study shows that out of 130,000 accident claims, by far the largest number involved black cars, while the smallest involved cream coloured cars.
• Black cars are driven by sophisticated and self-assured people. However, watch out for male teens driving black SUVs, as they can be macho maniacs. Always keep this car in front of you.
  

Some more tidbits regarding car colors you can get here

So black car owners be careful .. By owning a black one, you have become more prone to accidents.