“Omni-channel interaction” is the buzz phrase in the customer experience circles these days. We have been talking about seamless integration across voice, chat, e-mail and mobile apps for a while now, and a few companies have even made it possible. Today, I can add items to my cart on the mobile app and immediately see it on my web site profile. I can place a query through e-mail, and when I call the service center, they know exactly what I sent them over e-mail.
In the same vein, companies are thinking of ways to reduce their dependency on the notorious call center. “How much %age of customer calls can we route to the self-service channel?” is the question everyone seems to be solving for these days. “Does this query afford a call? Can a non-real time e-mail agent resolve it?” is another popular question on everyone’s minds. International best practices throw up interesting benchmarks to these questions.
But, do these strategies and benchmarks hold true for all kinds of businesses? As a consumer, I faced and grappled with this tricky issue sometime last week.
I have been a loyal Zomato consumer since as early as 2011. What’s to being loyal when I don’t really have to spend anything, you may ask. But, these days, loyalty seems to be measured by whether or not one downloads and holds on to an app, which I have faithfully done with Zomato.
I find it quite easy to place online orders through Zomato, as it is a true pain calling up a restaurant and placing an order for a “Paneer Tikka Masala”, which the guy on the other hand inevitably hears as “Chicken Tikka Masala”.
One such order I placed last week through Zomato did not reach the restaurant, apparently due to some technical glitch – this despite Zomato having sent me a confirmation text as soon as the order had been placed. After the ETA was breached by 15 minutes with no noise from the other end, I went on to the app and frantically searched for their contact details. The only mode of contact I could find was an e-mail id, to which I shot off an e-mail with my order number and details immediately. After waiting another 15 minutes, and having lost trust in this non-real time channel, I called up the restaurant directly to place another order. A Zomato representative called me a few minutes after that to tell me the issue had been “fixed" and that I would get my food in another half hour. By then, it would be 2.5 hours since I actually placed my order. I told him not to send me the order as I had figured out an alternate channel. And, then, he gave me some advice on how I should contact only Zomato and not the restaurant if my order was not delivered!
Well, some lessons from here, assuming food is an essential commodity:
1) Get a real time interaction channel in place. Let it be phone / chat but it has to be real time. No good asking customers to e-mail you if their food isn’t yet delivered.
2) If you still want to stick to e-mail, make it a categorized web mail (check out Amazon / Flipkart for ideas). If the consumer chooses “Food not delivered” as the category and places a complaint, give it the shortest SLA possible. And let the consumer know what that SLA is.
3) Don’t make your agent advise the consumer on what they should have done under the circumstances. (S)he is hungry, irritated and ever so slightly not trusting of you. Not the right time to tell the person that they shouldn’t have called the restaurant directly.
4) Revert to being an information portal, if service is becoming a pinch. Why offer services without being paid, eventually botching it up and screwing your brand name?
I still am a loyal Zomato consumer, but the next time I use their online ordering service, I will not trust their confirmation message, but call up the restaurant directly to make sure everything is in place.
