I‘ve been in contact with Pramukh Hyundai – at Prabhadevi to buy a Verna for myself.
This is the way they sent me a quote just now:
e-mail received from them:
And this was the lovely ‘proposal or quotation’ :
So, I’m guessing:
– Hyundai cars are just flying off the shelf – they really don’t need sales.
– This is a nice paper that I can not use to buy my car, but maybe to also eat my bhel puri in??
– Unfortunately, I don’t think I can send this to my bank for financing. hmmmm…wait a minute, maybe I can send the Bhel Puri to the bank and after eating it, they can turn the paper to the other side and sanction my loan???
Man, what the HELL?!!
Is this the way we are training the Sales Force of India TO SELL to consumers??!!
I mean this is an 11 LAC CAR!
Ask any entrepreneur what she endures to sell something for Rs 11,000!
It takes meetings, PPTs, proposals, sweat, blood and all that Jazz.
GOD HELP INDIA. GOD HELP US REALLY…
This resonates with something I wrote a year and half back, reposted here:
May 2011:
A few weeks back I invested a princely sum of money to buy my Airmax 2010 Nike shoes from the flagship store in San Francisco.
The shoes developed a hole in them.
Armed with the receipt and with war in mind, I stormed into the New York store (I had traveled to New York) determined to make a fuss and noise. This was the ‘Indian’ consumer psyche kicking in – ready to fight and draw blood to set right what should not have gone wrong!
The ‘returns’ counter had a very pleasant girl who greeted me and asked me my problem. When I snarlingly showed her the hole, she shrugged, said ‘oops’, and asked if I wanted my money back? Her reaction took less than 7 seconds. I melted.
Yet the Indian consumer was still kicking. ‘Yeah- gimme my money back’ I grumbled.
She did and then pulled out her trump card – she gave me a 20% discount on any purchase bought within the hour in that store. Well, you guessed it – I bought the same pair of shoes (new color), pocketed enough dollars for a great dinner, walked out feeling like a prince and started doing social marketing for Nike!
Why does Retail Service in all the stores we visit in India – be a boutique or a super mall suck so much?
I believe:
– The staff at the retail counters doesn’t use the goods they sell and have no information about the product.
The folks in Nike USA are athletes. They know everything about running or the sport that interests you. The guys at the Nike store in Mumbai have fat paunches. They wear Nike shoes but I’m sure only as ‘store wear’. The Nike guy in SFO asked me what kind of running stride I had. I had never heard of this before. The guys in Mumbai did not understand the difference between running and jogging.
The brand owners have to make these sales folks use the product and ‘get into’ the brand they sell.
– The Brand owner hasn’t educated the sales folks about the philosophy of what their service standards globally are.
The Tommy Hilfiger stores in India are pathetic! The store sales folks never smile – they look like they are recovering from an epidemic or something – neither offer fashion advise nor bother checking if your size is available beyond what’s upfront.
When I walk into a Tommy store in the USA – the experience is absolutely the opposite. The problem is that I expect the same experience irrespective of which Tommy store I visit!
Big brand owners must learn from the original software exporters of India who sent young engineers abroad on assignments and then ‘contracted’ them legally to work with the firm when they came back.
The big retail brands should send a few key Sales and Service folks to their International flagship stores or even as just consumers walking the high streets of New York or LA. The investment will be well worth it.
– The orientation should be ‘service’ and not ‘sales’ because sales precede great service automatically sooner or later.
The Apple store in San Francisco gives you free lessons on how to use and juice Twitter or begin blogging. It’s an open classroom – just come, sit, learn and go.
Nowhere do you get the feeling that someone is going to sell you something. In India, within a few minutes of walking into any store, someone will ask you what you want. When I answer – ‘nothing’, I get glared at! Why the hell did you ask me in the first place?
The Oberoi and Taj groups in India and my favourite – Jet Airways have done a spectacular job in selling service to the India consumer not the product. Stay put in an Oberoi or Taj lobby for hours and no one will disturb you. Put the key brands sales teams thru a hotel or airline experience and then put them in front of consumers.
– Don’t focus on looking smart yourself – make the consumer smart instead!
I still remember walking into the Levis counter at Vama (Mumbai) a couple of years back (Vama incidentally wins my prize for the absolutely worst store…in terms of service in the world).
The girls at the Levis counter were slim and pretty, chewing gum, strutting around and constantly chatting among themselves without a bother in the world that they had a job to do.
I saw a few customers (girls and their moms) standing on the side absolutely intimidated and shadowed by these ‘hip’ girls! I asked one of these wannabe models what was the difference between all those red, blue and black ‘tabs’ of Levis – she looked snidely at her partner and asked if she knew… in a tone that made me feel like a moron. (hmmm… shouldn’t she have known in the first place)?
The customers in the corner had vanished and so also had vanished valuable sales for Levis.
Tell Sales people to either become models or Sales people and thus choose between one profession. Don’t mix them up.
International brands can open as many stores in India as they want and stuff them up till the walls burst, but it’s the sales folks who will make the cash register ring. Set that right first.
Send me your retail experience in India or anyplace else as a comment and contribute to this piece.
*****
asha chaudhry
:))))))))))))))))))))))
sorry – couldn’t stop laughing. loved the bhel part.
dude you need to stay away from the H-factor. honda, hyundai…
https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/mr-paanwalla-vs-the-arya-honda-salesman
Anurag Rastogi
Ha ha. You should just sometime check out Deutsche Motoren Delhi. You will get better service response at the roadside mechanic. Most pathetic experience ever. Worse than Indian Bureaucracy. Major cognitive dissonance between brand image and service levels.
Anirudh B Balotiaa
A true story –
In 2009, I went to Hyundai(Andheri West) to buy a Santro. I had done all my research and quotation part on phone and all was left was to choose the color and book the car. I was carrying my cheque book. I waited for 30 mins as they kept passing from one executive to next. I got frustrated.
On the same 5-7 mins walking distance was Maruti Showroom(Vitesse). Wagon-R was the one I was contemplating with Santro. But since I have been a Maruti loyalist all my life, wanted to get something else. But with the horrible Hyundai experience I went to Maruti.
From the time I stepped in the Maruti Showroom, the experience was brilliant. In 30 mins I came out with the booking receipt in hand! Its been 3 years and I am very very happy with their service. They call when service is due, when I give my car for service they are very friendly. After service they call me to check if everything was ok.
But sending a quote scribbled on a paper, scanning it upside down and sending is frankly ridiculous and NOT Acceptable. Thankfully I have never had such a horrible experience ever. All the time I am sent one in Excel or PDF with decent formatting.
On a different note, Verna is known to have Suspension issues, at-least 2-3 of my friends have shared this. Fluidic looks are good though!
May be time to check out SX4! 🙂
asha chaudhry
anirudh,
this comment of yours goes into a folder of mine :)))))))
asha chaudhry
hi raghav!
wow. that’s a looooong list!
we’ve started a PAIN IN THE BUTT! category. would u like to post this comment as a new story there?! (minus the french, of course!!)
Hrishikesh Narasimhan
Idea for an Entrepreneur based in mumbai. Approach them and sell them a software that can make and send across a Customized quote with a Decent email and also a proper email address instead of a Free email …
Girish
You missed the part where the mail is sent using @gmail.com id. Talks about their professionalism and attitude
Ashwin Adhikari
Raghav—Well can you please guide me how do i get my edu loan certificate from SBI (which is req for tax exemption). I have given up after trying few times, reading words of praise from you has given me glimmer of hope.
Sanchita Dutta
Big Brand, (& hence) More Sales, More Profits, Less Loss per dissatisfied customer, less loss of reputation due to such customers, and hence Low Service, low botheration, less smiles, less help, less after sales…
on the other hand
New Brand, Eager to please, better quality, lower price (wid aim to capture mkt), better service, better after sales (since loss of reputation will cause irreparable damage), more pleasant sales team, much more patience, the list goes on…
this is the trade off and dilemma in buying just bout anything
Girish
Hey Alok, do check http://www.facebook.com/callforsolutions for a log of my online and offline buying experiences
Rahul
Absolutely agree ! I’ve worked with retail in India and abroad – both operating stores and selling to them.
The biggest problem I see in India is the complete disconnect between the product and the sales people. Most sales people will never afford the products they sell. That can be overcome with extra training, but that is rarely done. What’s worse, you have training manuals imported from the West which are irrelevant in our context.
In the case of Levi’s, its probably the (common) case of recruiting the best looking girls who applied for the job, without bothering to check if they were at all suitable. In wonder if anyone thought of asking the question, why on earth would model looking women want to be in a tough job like sales ??
Sarang Lakare
Amazing post! The one thing I really miss from my US days is consumer service in the stores. Go to any big store and they treat you like a potential thief to big with by tying your bags! On the positive note, things are improving though.. we are much better off than 10-15 years back, so hopefully next 10 years will make the experience on par with the western world.
Ashish Gupta
Hey guys,
u should check VW at Andheri W, some where on the link road.
Was waiting to meet someone in that area and it was very hot and humid, as always is Mumbai, specially for guys from Delhi, had an hour and wanted to time pass. went in the store and was just browsing. The sales guy didnt looked like a model but boy he swept me from the floor with his detailed comparison and knowledge about VW he had.
Got delayed by an hour for the meet.
My best car store experience till date 🙂
Eswar Rao Kadari
Retail sales in India happens on Discount and festive fevers. Its still long long way for customer service. All are busy to penetrate and play number games.
However companies with large market size realised customer exprience due to competition. Example : Khayaal Apka strategy of ICICI Bank. Petrol pumps etc.
Vishy Venugopalan
Alok, it’s also a matter of empowerment. Comparing my customer service experiences in the US vs those in India, I find two things that stand out:
* In the US, the customer is always right, even when they aren’t. There is never an argument between the customer and the service representative where the service rep is trying to convince the customer that they are right and the customer is wrong. In India, on the other hand, I can’t count the number of times a customer service rep spend all his/her time telling me why I am wrong. This can’t be good for business.
* Every customer service rep, even at the lowest levels, is empowered with some discretion to placate the customer, so that issues don’t escalate up the management chain. In your case it was the 20% discount that the Nike rep was empowered to give you. In India, even in rare cases where I have managed to convince the customer service rep of my problem, all they say is ‘sorry sir, I can’t do anything about it/my hands are tied’ etc.
Pranay Srinivasan
Maybe you should try http://www.akosha.com to sort out your Consumer Difficulties. 🙂
bhavesh shah
https://www.quora.com/How-Americans-Are-Different/What-facts-about-the-United-States-do-foreigners-not-believe-until-they-come-to-America. –
Read the above for info regarding customer care service in America. Read also the comments to anirudhs ( topvoted answers) answer.
Regards
Bhavesh
Diganta Gogoi
Great & very informative lesson. Keep writing!
Sridhar V
In my view Indian companies dont invest in educating, training and orienting the staff about the company, products, brands, etc. Moreover, they pay peanuts for those in retail segment, which attracts poor talent and skills. However, even those with less talent can be molded by training, which companies dont do. How many qualified people like to work in retail? Few because of poor pay and culture.
Retail companies must not go by the culture of hiring 12th pass or graduates alone, but also professionals and people with good work exp. and ability to take key responsibilities. Having a mix of talent at all levels is important.
I’m sure the senior management and top people at these branded chain stores go abroad for training and have a nice trip But have they sent any of their managers for this essential training and orientation ? I’m not sure. If this exposure were to be provided to the store managers they will also set expectations in each center/store accordingly and the culture of excellent customer service will be felt. Since they are not exposed to it, I feel they are unaware of the best practices. So as long as they see hundreds of customers they think they are doing an excellent job. Only when a series of complaints come in they discover lapses in the product or service.