Delivering Customer Experience (Literally!)
Few Years before, I had a unique experience. I had ordered Nexus 7 for myself from Amazon and an Asus netbook for my mom from Flipkart. I chose home delivery for both of them. What I realized then was that, I now had an amazing opportunity to study and compare the customer experience offered by 2 competing brands.
And from the test, I found the quality of customer experience between these two brands had a stark difference, two different ends of a spectrum I can say. But, this will not be the case everywhere because people delivering orders, their attitudes, managers and almost everything changes at every demography and based on situations.
But, anyways I was lucky enough to face contrasting scenarios, that made it easy for me to write a comparative study.
When I explain what happened, I’m gonna refer to the brands as X and Y. X did a good job and Y was not even close to X’s Customer Experience delivery. I will reveal which brand was X and which was Y at the end. Till then, keep guessing. Something to keep chewing as you course through this blog 🙂
This comparison is based on 6 parameters
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1. KNOCK! KNOCK! – Delivering at the door step
The first step to any delivery is to find my address. X’s delivery guy called me up one fine day and asked me where exactly he should deliver the package. The place I stay is a bit difficult to find with the address it goes by. It’s a weird address that refers to a street that is two streets away from my street and refers to a college as a landmark that is further away.
Most people get confused. This has been a pan-India problem with addresses that even stretch to 7 or 8 lines. At that point of time, I pondered over ideas to install a GPS device at every home instead of giving them addresses.
Me: Easy to track, right?
My inner voice: Consider GPS accuracy in India.
Me: But… My inner voice: Get back to the story. The person reading this is not interested in your GPS shit.
Yeah, like I said. X guy called me and I asked him to come to Domino’s pizza which is like 50 feet from my home. He reached Dominos and gave me a call again. I asked him to stay there and got out of my home to walk towards him. As soon as I got out, he spotted me and waved his hand. He asked me to stop there and started his motor bike.
It was just 40 to 50ft away. I could have just walked. He had a big load of baggage behind him with all home delivery orders. But still, he lifted the bag up on his shoulders again, rode till my home and greeted me with a pleasant “Good Evening, sir!”
Now to Y guy. He faced the same trouble to find my home. I asked him to come near Domino’s. And he answered “Sir, I am across the road opposite to Domino’s. I won’t be able to cross the road. Can you please come and collect your parcel?”
My inner voice: Why? The X guy was able to cross the road and deliver it at our doorstep. Why can’t he?
Me: Relax… Let’s just go over. We’ll have something interesting to write about.
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2. SUIT UP – The attire and professional grooming
Next thing I noticed was their attire. How professional and neat are they dressed? How much do they care to present themselves in front of their customers? X, as you might already know now, had well combed hair, clean shaved face, a plain neat shirt tucked into black pants and polished black shoes. A decent watch on his wrist and 2 pens in his pocket. Well done, X! By his looks, X guy was around 30 to 35 years.
Y guy had a little messed up hair, plain half tucked shirt with dirt patches here and there, black pants and dirty shoes. He was somewhere in the 21 to 24 age bracket. He looked so young. May be, it was his first job and he was still learning how to dress professionally.
My inner voice: Giggle Giggle
Me: What’s so funny?
My inner voice: You dress like him too, when you go to…
Me: I’M NOT LISTENING… NANANANANANANANA… NEXT POINT…
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3. WORDS GOT POWER – Language style and attitude
X Guy: Good Evening, Sir!
Me: Hi, Good Evening.
X Guy: You are Gautham?
Me: Yes.
X Guy: Hello sir. I have already been to this street, sir. Next time, just mention the hostel’s name near your house sir and I can easily find it. Oh! and I think you got your pin code wrong. It’s not 560047. It is 560045.
My inner voice: You did that on purpose, you dumb nutcase.
Me: Shut up inner voice! I did it for the greater good, to find out how effective these guys are.
My inner voice: Greater good my a…
Me: Oh! thanks for telling me that. I will correct it next time.
X Guy: You are welcome sir. Here is your order.
Lets pause this here and go to Y Guy.
Y Guy: Hello sir
Me: Hello
Y Guy: Wait a minute sir (attends a call and says something in Kannada, cuts the call) sorry sir.
Me: You could have crossed the road.
Y Guy: I don’t know the place, sir. Here is the parcel…
This guy didn’t even verify my name. What if he had accidentally given the parcel to someone else?!!
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4. OEL NGATI KAMEIE – Knowing your Customer well
X Guy: Here is your order, sir. It is Asus Netbook, ordered on <some date I don’t remember> It has one year warranty. You can check and get back to us in case of quality issues, sir. You have also ordered for an optical mouse, which will be delivered in another two days by me or by another person named <somename>
Me: (Mouth agape) aah… err.. yeah… thanks.
Back to the other guy
Y Guy: Here is your parcel sir… it’s a memory card, right?
Me: WHAT? NOOO. I had ordered for Nexus 7.
Y Guy: (checks a few papers) Oh, Yes sir. sorry sir… yeah, it is Nexus 7.
Me: I had also ordered for a case for this tablet.
Y Guy: I don’t know that sir. You can check our website to know the status.
Me: OK.
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5. SIGN HERE – Delivery Acknowledgement
After handing over the order, X guy gave me a 5 inch Android phone to sign my delivery acknowledgement. It fit my hand perfectly and had enough space for my signature. My signature is really small and I’m used to sketch on phones with my fingers.
I doubt if it will be really friendly for people with large hands and stubby fingers. A stylus might make it more handy for everyone.
Y guy gave me Samsung Duos. It’s a 4 inch phone and there was an in-app ad on the screen blocking 10 – 15% of my sign area. I scribbled something in the place left. I was amused by the app. Why on Earth do you want to block a primary work area with ads?
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6. POP GOES THE BUBBLE WRAP – The Packaging
Both of them wished good bye and rode away. Now, to the unwrapping part. X guy’s package was well done with two layers of bubble wrap and cardboard safely protecting the item within.
Y guy’s package had only one sheet of bubble wrap covering only the top. The bottom had no protection. I almost fainted on seeing that. I immediately opened it and switched on the device to check if it’s functioning well.
May be, the packing part is the responsibility of the Sellers from whom Amazon or Flipkart direct the orders. But still, I feel they can communicate and set some standards for packaging and not give people minor heart attacks.
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So, that wraps it up. This is the end of the comparative study. Hope you got to know what a well planned CX can do for a brand. It is really powerful. Once someone goes through this experience, he will make sure he avoids Y, not because Y’s service is poor, but because X’s service is so much better that it makes Y’s service look pathetic.
Oh! few of you still haven’t figured which of Amazon and Flipkart, X and Y represent? Do read the 2nd sentence from my first paragraph and point 4. You will find the answer.
Please Read This:
Conversation With : Sampad Swain is the Founder and CEO of Instamojo
Disclaimer: This is an Contributor post from Gautham Raja. The statements, opinions and data contained in these publications are solely those of the contributors and not of TamilEntrepreneur.com.
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