My phone battery died last week, I was quite irritated since it hasn’t even been a year since I got this phone and it is already giving me problems. After a lot of complaint, I finally went to the service centre to get it repaired and I was even more irritated realizing that they might take about 4-5 days to make it work. All for a phone which is not even a year old!
It is quite hard to leave your phone behind that too in an era where our lives depend on it :P. Well I guess there was no way around but to leave my phone there and come back. While I was on my way out, the service centre fellow comes running to me and offers me a good looking smart phone and says – “Madam, sorry for the inconvenience, kindly use this replacement phone for the time being and we shall get back to you as soon as possible”.
I was quite surprised and pleasantly so. This was coming out of the blue, nowhere did I expect them to do something like this, it made me feel very important. I mean how hard was it for them to say that it is the company’s fault and they take time to repair it. I wouldn’t even have fought about it. Instead they do something like this. I found it sweet, I found it caring and above all I found myself feeling very important. There is no way I am going to curse a Sony service centre now!
It’s pretty impressive how the consumer market has changed, it gives me a feeling that people are getting back to the basics, trying to understand the basic human emotions and try to add value at each stage. It sure is a fantastic model for a service company, after all we are the most important people for them anyway :P.
I am not sure what it means, maybe those guys have been ordered by their bosses to do it, but it is pretty damn sweet that they have extended a business model to care. It feels damn good that atleast in some places we have moved beyond the 1+1=2 model and moved a little ahead where people matter :).
I guess it is an era of value addition where businesses have found a way to thrive and establish themselves, make their presence felt. Like flipkart delivering it to our houses and making a cancellation policy so easy, or adding an additional amount to the purchase wallet if there is an error from their end. I think all of them are moving toward one common thing – THE TRUST factor :).
It feels good to be in such a place, people seem a lot more responsible. I wonder if we can try and extend the same model of value addition to our relationships as well. A little more care, a little more trust, a little more freedom, a little more to see the other person happy and we in turn being happier. Food for thought indeed :)
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It feels good does it not, when we get something unexpectedly? The guy probably hooked a customer for life plus all the free publicity with the nice gesture. Brings back trust in humans.
He did hook a customer for life and I have done my initial bit of publicity of their company here already :)
I agree with Alok. You really have been lucky in this matter. I have had my share of woes with cell phone service centers.
But going by your experience it is always good to feel gratitude for small conveniences like the one you got and also the online shopping comforts.
:) lucky me . Oh! the online shopping comforts :) It feels so good to see a neatly packed product from flipkart , I have tried shopping in a couple other online shopping companies but nothing beats flipkart’s packing and quality of service for me :)
I think you are lucky Vidyashree Nagaraju who received such a things, I purchased a tablet last year December only and so far it went to the service center twice and it remain there for around 50 days in 2 visits. Thus you can understand the pain which I had for those 50 days, when I don’t have any phone to use in between.
It is true that a bit of extra care, which is obviously there duty, can help us to have more trust on them. Recently I had an issue with a telephone operator, and I went to there customer care, unfortunately even spending 3 hours there I did not get the chance to reach to the customer care executive’s desk. I was so angry after this, that I posted about it on Twitter within a minute after coming out of the customer care building. Now, I will appreciate them, as they saw the tweet and they replied immediately, asked for my number, called me and resolved the issue within minutes.
It truly gave me a pleasure which I cannot express.
Honestly these days companies are giving more value to the customer satisfaction, but at the same time there are companies which are not at all giving any value to it. And those companies will suffer in long run…
50 days? I can’t imagine myself without a phone for 50 days. I am lucky Alok :)
Yea companies are improvising their customer service which is good sign as they gain our trust. I have had my tough days with other customer service providers and they are so lazy to even listen to our problems which can be very irritating. When you see companies like this which understand customers needs it feels so good to go to them again :) You sense the feel of being cared :)