Online platforms for products and services promise convenience and ease. But when things go awry — and they seem to do too often — do online providers step up and provide customer service and satisfaction?
Data from customer rating and review site MouthShut.com point to a wide array of problems and teeming number of irate customers. Poor ratings — as low as zero per cent — is quite prevalent, indicating consistent lack of good experiences. Consumer Complaints, a consumer information site on frauds, lists long tales of suffering and non-delivery of goods and services.
Hard shopping The recent experience of harried parents who ordered books from Eazyshopee.com, which says it has been awarded ‘the best school books e-commerce portal in India’, may be telling.
For starters, the site did not provide any transparent pricing on what you were paying for and what will be delivered. The real trouble unfolded when there was no delivery, even as school opening date neared. There was no communication on delays nor was the site, which had a track option for a user’s order on login, updated. Calls were unanswered as the listed phone number was permanently engaged. Email support too stopped after a while as mails to the customer support account bounced.
The issue thankfully ended with books finally delivered. But did the company not know the number of orders it received well in advance and understand what it would take to deliver, asks Badri Narayanan, a parent in Chennai. “Given book costs run into a few thousands, taking the payment and turning unresponsive is unacceptable,” he says.
Broad issue Besides such delays, shipping wrong or defective products, non-delivery, not shipping replacements are among the many issues customers bump into. Online services such as travel or ride bookings too create a lot of dissatisfaction with expectations not set right and terms not communicated clearly.
Take the case of this family that booked a room around New Year time through a travel platform. Two days before the check-in date, the reservation was cancelled as the hotel decided to withdraw the rooms. The platform did not bother to retain rooms that were booked or find an alternative accommodation. Worse, the possibility that the booking may be cancelled was not ever mentioned to the customer. Likewise, not giving timely information on delays in taxi pickups seems to be a pervasive problem among online ride-service users.
Low on technology Customers end up sharing their tales on Facebook and Twitter, as there is no physical location for a face-to-face interaction and the customer service is usually unhelpful. Complaints in social media often lead to a response at least from brands that are conscious of their reputation. “Negative sentiments become viral fast,” says Shubhankar Bhattacharya, Partner at Kae Capital.
Given the high cost to acquire online customers, doesn’t it make business sense to retain existing ones with better service? Often, customer frustrations lead to abandoned online shopping carts and no sales. Poor post-sale service means higher marketing costs due to low word-of-mouth acquisition.
Companies seem to be realising that and Bhattacharya says there is tighter integration of social media and CRM systems. He cites the recent acquisition of Airwoot, a start-up that helps deliver customer service on social media, by Freshdesk, a customer-service software provider.
But rather than clean-up the damage, use of simple technology can help boost customer satisfaction, say experts. For instance, automated SMS and email updates are inexpensive and geo-tracking is also a technology that can help locate and track products closely. Narayanan says setting up missed-call services to answer customer queries when there is a deluge is “easy, quick and affordable”.
Challenges That said, technology alone may not solve issues unless there are more fundamental changes, contends Vijay Anand, CEO and founder of The Startup Centre. One, for a lot of start-ups, customer support is an afterthought rather than something that is built into their business model. Two, technology fails when process is not followed and customers need to be educated on this aspect. Three, when the customer service team is trained to answer consistently, customers get upset on hearing ‘standard responses’ to problems that they believe are complex.
So, expertise is needed in providing consistent, efficient and satisfying customer support.
Many companies, however, operate on thin margins and an elaborate set-up to handle unique problems is unaffordable. But online businesses that can differentiate themselves on the experience can stand out and earn richer profit. “Customer service costs must be included as a part of the costing structure, rather than make exceptions to improve care,” he says.
Online providers are also being judged by higher benchmarks, says Bhattacharya. “Rather than being compared to older taxi services the standard to meet are that of global providers such as Uber,” he says.