Why is Customer Service so Horrible in India

I’m second in line at the Pay Here desk of a leading UK retailer’s Indian partner store in a fashionable mall in “millennium city” Gurgaon. Of four counters only one is open. Customer service agents from the other three counters – which resolutely bear Counter Closed signs - are standing next to the agent serving ours.

They are chatting and laughing with each other - and with our guy – apparently on some sort of break. The shopper in front of me has a return to make and a new item to exchange for it. It’s not the most complicated transaction but it will take a bit more time than a simple sale. Our counter agent is attending to her but with long distractions to enjoy his colleagues' wit and give them the benefit of his own. Unsurprisingly things are taking longer than they should. The queue behind me continues to build – there are now several customers waiting to pay. This doesn’t dampen the service agents’ appetite for each other’s company - they simply ignore the queue.

Having frequently shopped at this retailer when I lived in London, where I received a high standard of service and satisfaction, and seeing the Gurgaon staff wearing the brand’s global uniform, I wondered why they didn’t do what they might have in another country - open another counter. Several minutes after they hadn’t I asked one of the other service agents whether they were on break. He said they weren’t. I asked if he, or another service agent, could open some of the closed counters to serve the growing queue.

I was surprised to find him look at me with condescension and irritation that a customer might have the temerity to ask for better service than they were prepared to provide. To my equal surprise the customers in the queue – both in front and behind – looked at me as if I were the Mad Hatter on a furlough from Wonderland or Dickens’ Oliver, asking for more.

The story ends, after a few strong words from me, with another counter being truculently opened. It also ends with damage to my perception of the brand and a resolve never to shop there again.
That’s just one story. I could tell you a dozen similar ones and I’m sure you could tell me an equal number that top mine. These “bad service” stories aren’t just about small or little known brands, they are often about Indian and global giants.

The call centre agent who can't actually speak the language he offers you, nor provide the service he is supposed to. The airline crew that insists a flight is full to prevent a passenger from moving when clearly, once its in the air, the airplane has plenty of empty seats. The lap-top showroom salesman who is unaware that the brand he represents has launched a new model or range and insists it isn't available requiring you, the customer, to educate him on what his brand is putting on the market.

Nobody sets out wanting to provide bad service - that’s simply not a viable brand or business strategy.  And yes, bad service happens everywhere, globally. And yes, there are instances from time to time where we have a good service experience at home.

But only an ostrich or the very naïve would deny bad service is endemic to India.   

What makes customer service so horrible here?

Is it that the people in customer-facing roles are poorly skilled and have bad attitude? Is it that a customer service role is a stopgap until something better comes along? Is there an unbridgeable class divide between the service seeker and the provider? Is it that consumers are rude, demanding and will take a mile if they are offered an inch? Is it that businesses don’t bother about service since the emerging-market customer doesn’t know better anyway? Are we Indians just rambunctious, argumentative, angry people who can’t be civil to each other? Is it that our growing economy has put so much money into so many consumers’ pockets that service just hasn’t been able to keep pace?

The truth lies at the intersection of the answers to those questions. Whichever rings true to you, I think you’ll agree with me about one thing – if Brand India Inc wants to continue to grow as quicly as it has in the recent past, “Service India” will have to not just catch up but move ahead of customer expectations. A spirit of great customer experience and service will have to permeate our brands from the top, through the pyramid to the front-end.  Staff will have to not just learn about customer care, they will have to become partners in a mission of customer happiness. 

For Brand India, the next frontier is Service India. To paraphrase Star Trek’s mission, “Lets boldly go where India hasn’t gone before”.