Consider this: You’ve been with a brand since 2004. A loyal pays-on-time, never-disputes-the-bill customer. You’ve hung on in the bad times and the brand has had some. You’ve defended the brand when others laughed at you for being a diehard.
Now you move office, move to a basement instead of a 4th floor office. The location is one of India’s most premium office complexes in the heart of the nation’s capital. The service dies. DIES! Not the whiff of a signal. You change your phone – it must be the dratted BB, you think and so you don’t complain. You change to the latest smartphone success on the market, used by millions. It still doesn’t work – no signal. You are due to travel, so you finally lodge a complaint. Thinking that by the time you’re back, the service will be sorted out – it is an office complex where they’d want to have a signal after all. You come back, still no signal. By now your patience is a wee bit eroded…. time and neglect do that to a customer. So you call up their customer care and ask on the status of the complaint – it’s been nearly twenty days now and you are unable to function – you run a business after all. The first exec you speak to has no clue…. so you speak to her supervisor – the guy is polite, apologetic… but can’t offer any timeframe, can’t arrange a call-back. He does escalate the complaint however and gives you the service’s appellate authority cell number. You feel better. Till you call the number. It’s invalid – the same cellular service that gave you the number tells you so. You call again. This time the supervisor is rude, insistent that the number is right. “Try it while I hold on,” I say…. but she isn’t listening. Why should she? You’re just one measly customer among millions.
By now the service (or the lack of it) has finally got to you – you are aggrieved, angry, worried at their lack of concern. Your clients can’t get through to you – neither can your family but the service is clearly not bothered. So you think, “Hey, there’s social media – let’s get some redress, let’s get some response.
Voila! They’re on Facebook so you post your complaint on their wall. It doesn’t show on it. So you repost the complaint under one of their comments. Then you notice your friends commenting. So yay! it must be showing on your timeline. You post on their comments too. Finally, these guys will have to wake up and respond, you think.
HAH!!!!! The posts are deleted. You are now BLOCKED from posting on their wall. You are a paying customer – how can they do this to you. So, you tweet at them. No response. You get your friends to tweet at them. You tweet to Sr Bacchan hoping he’ll help – his son does endorse the brand after all.
Rodinhooders, what would you do if a brand did this to you, a paying, loyal customer for over 9 years?