So, I bought myself a Honda Accord this week. It cost me 25 lacs (50k US$)
Now, being a Indian consumer for decades and someone who buys an after mint for 25 paise (5 cents), to breakfast at Airports for Rs 300 ( 5$) to a car once every few years, I have realized that:
– The price tag of the goods and services in relation to the service you will get doesn’t matter AT ALL in India.
I mean my paan walla who sells me 4 paans for 40 bucks every weekend (1$) is far the sweetest, most pleasant and effective salesman than the suited and tie totting educated graduate who sold me my Honda Accord!
– Consider Honda and their agent Arya Honda in Mumbai.
I booked my Honda Accord car a month back and delayed delivery because i was travelling. On Wednesday when I got my car, :
- It still did not have the special CASKA DVD/Music system that I paid 60k extra for! Now, the fun of buying a car is to get the WHOLE car in one piece – not ‘parts and pieces’ in trickle down installments – but that’s what my destiny has in store for me. I made the serious mistake of getting the car ‘home delivered’ and Honda and their Agent Arya Honda cheated me into NOT telling me that the car was incomplete. Now they promise next week etc etc with the excuse is that the music system is stuck in customs. Well, maybe it is – BUT HAVE THE HONESTY of telling me that BEFORE sending the car out of the showroom AND keep your customers informed all along!!
- I am very particular of my number plate font being STRAIGHT (not slanted) and NOT HAVING any showroom branding on it. I mentioned this to the Honda Sales guys 7 times before, after and 1 day before delivery. Sure enough, when I got my car, it had slanting number plates, Arya Honda written on both number plates AND also written on my back windshield as a bonus!!!
– Lets talk Etiquette.
Ever so often, my wife orders DVD’s (movies) from Shemaroo Video library (Napeansea Road). Most of the recommendations are good but I usually dislike/reject/ just say ‘comon – what the hell is this’ and ask my wife to return some DVD’s.
When she does call Shemaroo ( and this is typically when I throw a tantrum at 9 pm on Saturday night – the busiest in the movie rental business), the servicing guy at Shemaroo immediately sends a couple of more DVD’s home and happily cancels what he had sent us. He is courteous on the call, very concerned with feedback of the movies he sends us and best of all – he calls my wife in ADVANCE on Friday for pre bookings suggestions and updates on latest DVD’s.
Each DVD rental costs Rs 75 (1.50 US$)
– When I escalated my Honda car case (to the showroom manager of Arya Honda) – he had the AUDACITY AND GALL to tell me that if I was not happy to WAIT for the music system to arrive, he would REFUND my Music Audio System money!!!
I mean, I BOUGHT THE CAR just for a complete experience of car entertainment – so why would I buy a car without the music???
Would my Paanwala sell me a paan without the LEAF??!!!
– How Companies and its Representatives respond:
I had an observation of the way Crosswords (CW) was going downhill and posted that on therodinhoods.wpengine.com. Within a couple of days, the brand manager of CW had written to me apologizing and also pleading me to come to CW to allow him to EXPLAIN how he and the management were planning an upgrade of the stores etc. My purchase from CW was probably Rs 2000 (40 US$) on the day when I had made that comment.
In the case of Honda – i wrote 11 MAILS – to ALL CONTACTS on the Company website, PR agency, AND ALSO reached out to 13 management and brand position folks in HONDA SIEL via my LinkenIn contacts….. but…yup – you guessed it – RECEIVED NO REPLY.
I sent a REMINDER yesterday – to get a terse ‘we will get back to you’… 2 liner.
All this to someone who had spent 25 lacs on their product just 48 hours back!!!!
The point I am making is that the Indian Customer is taken for granted by the biggest brands in the world – probably because we are too many of us; we are enamoured by ‘foren’ brands and we just take what is given to us….
Well, I certainly AM NOT one of them.
Honda Arya – I will NEVER buy a Car from you ever again and hope that all your new customers read this.
HONDA INDIA – want a tip? Hire my paan wala to run your operations – he will probably do a better job than the cronies you employ!!
UPDATE – 24th Feb 2012:
hahahahahah – this was bound to happen!
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For SPECIFIC REASONS on why INDIAN CONSUMERS are made suckers, please read – Why Service at India Retail is SO BAD
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A post on customer delight by me
Why isn’t there a Nobel Prize for customer delight?
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