Hathway Broadband-Great people but poor technology-therefore poor customer experience

I took a 2month Hathway subscription and then when relatively hassle free, took the annual subscription at 50MBps speed, 300GB/month annual subscription at Rs ~8500/year(Tax inclusive). The installation was a delight with same day, and online, but post renewal, repeated technical issues cropped up. Resolution experience has been iffy as yet though. I have blogged earlier on the customer service issues of PAYTM and some others like ICICI. However, Hathway gives a competition to PAYTM. Below is the typical customer experience channels and my comments:

Automated service call asking if satisfied with the resolution of the complaint. If you say no, they ask you to enter ticket  number. As if customer will have it handy. Why not give an IVRS based choice instead or else customize the call to say “Resolution of complaint No XXX on ”

App to enter tickets but very limited functionality and no “Others” tab. This renders the app useless for  all but basic queries. Also, resolution comments are not mentioned.

Customer care does not take complex issues, and asks you to send an email.

To be fair however, the technical support team is quite good, and call centre team responsive. Also, their remote diagnostics tools are a delight

Using best practices such as Live chat, predictive diagnostics and fault correction without waiting for complaints, proactive service credits for poor service, would improve the service

Upfront Rates and more responsive customer service-Why Urbanclap trumps Housejoy

Let me disclose upfront that Urbanclap is cofounded by an IIM Ahmedabad senior of mine Abhiraj Bahl, but this fact does not bias my views. As someone having used both these apps for home and beauty services (electrician, carpenter, home cleaning, beauty) etc, I find the UI of UrbanClap to be better for the following reason

1. Most services have upfront rate card(eg carpenter repairs Rs 250/hr) and not the 'On inspection' tariff where you may feel gouged at times. Housejoy by contrast has a visit fee which is adjustable 
2. Prices usually (but not always) inclusive of tax
3. Super responsive customer service available on chat from 9am to 7pm. Opposed to this, Housejoy has email or call. 
4. Intuitive questions to help better identify the service provider and help them scope work. For example, computer repair requests are asked the model type/repair reason. UrbanClap pioneered this before copied by others

Housejoy has recently revamped their app/UI maybe to address #1, and are offering discount codes perhaps to make up for lost time. But for now, UC rocks.

Hope is not lost however for Housejoy. When Uber entered India, they kicked ass of Ola's customer care. But in the last few months, Ola is in my view, much better than Uber now. So with enough management focus, one can always make up lost time

ICICI Bank is khayal unka, not khayal aapka-why I shifted my main banking to HDFC

Next January(i.e Jan 2014), I will be an ICICI customer for 7 years. It was my first bank account, and for many years, the only. But next month onwards, my salary account will shift to HDFC, I will convert my demat account into basic demat services account with zero AMC, and use ICICIdirect trading platform only as a last resort. Why is this? Many reasons, but mostly to do with their not recognizing customer relationships across products, and pathetic product knowledge/customer service.

1) When I went to open a PF account at ICICI Bank Mulund(West) branch in Sep13, they subtly refused to open it for me, saying I could do that via internet banking. They were incorrect, since I could only do that by submitting a physical form. And then a 19year old salesperson spends 15minutes unsuccessfully selling me on an ULIP plan(surprise :D) instead of a plain vanilla term plan.

2) Even at ICICI branch Cyber City, whenever I visit the branch in person, they try to cross sell me into taking investment products rather than addressing my needs.

3) When I converted my single banking account into a joint account, the associated trading account was automatically deactivated without intimation to me. And apparently, a manual request to close the account was submitted in June 2012, while the fact is I had never done that. Repeated calls to customer care by myself and two branches(Sion/Bhandup) resulted in a solution that I should submit a form to relink trading account and banking account. The ICICIDirect Sion branch was OUT of stock of forms-which they could have printed from the net-a clear sign of them NOT wanting to do any extra work, while the Bhandup branch reluctantly  accepted the form, and tried to sell me an advance brokerage product for 15yrs. My form has gone missing now, and while customer care raised a ticket, d note that my so-called relationship manager did not help at all, and the branch landline number given by customer care is defunct4)I had to virtually plead with the customer care of ICICIDirect to raise a ticket

4) When I tried to get a personal loan recently, ICICI refused since I was not residing at the same address for more than a year, and this norm was not relaxable even for customers with long relationships. So much for stickiness!

I decided that I will NOT boost a bank's CASA ratio, when it so evidently can do without my business in its broking, retail assets and other areas,HDFC has been very responsive when I had customer care issues, but ICICI Bank phonebanking has been awesome and its overall technology platform, but people wise leaves much to be desired. I know its a rant but there was so much to say, so felt like saying that,.

Why principles of pricing/price discrimination do not work at barber saloons

Whenever I visit a barber's(or to be more politically correct. hairdresser!) saloon and pay the same rate on a Sunday morning as on a weekday afternoon, I wonder about what if the barber was to apply management principles of pricing to do the following:-

1. There would be price discrimination by time(charge more on Sundays/evenings)
2. Each person would be charged differently as per ability to pay-the migrant on daily wages would pay less than the CEO
3. There would be a membership with credits, to encourage repeated visits to that saloon, and other perks like loyalty program, and benefits like appointments through apps to minimize waiting

          However we have the benefit of observing a corporate chain of saloons i.e Javed Habib, and I notice this does not happen. Why is this so? Firstly, price discrimination by time i.e applying congestion pricing[charging more during high peak hours] would need customer assent, and is more difficult to stomach than merely raising the average price. Secondly, the customer DOES incur some waiting time(indirect costs) while having haircuts done during peak hours, so it is in his interest to come during off peak hours.

Ability to pay is factored in since saloon rent/wages are factored in the costing. And those who care about these costs would frequent a roadside barber or less expensive saloon. So it does not matter, and is not required i.e price discrimination as per ability to pay.

Since people usually frequent the same saloon/barber, loyalty program would entail unnecessary complexity and expenditure-something like why electronic micropayments is not taking off in India, when there is a much easier option i.e cash/notes/ which will anyways be there, why add complexity.

 

 

Interstate bus travel in India-some hard won lessons tips

Over the past 5 months, I've had some interstate bus travel, by public and private operators, so thought I would summarize my experience below(mainly in terms of time, comfort dependent on class of travel etc)

 

From	To	Distance(Kms)	Time taken(hrs)	Average Speed	Month	Travel
Bangalore	Coorg	244	8	31	Dec-12	Pvt chartered bus
Bangalore	Chennai	340	4.5	76	Dec-12	KSRTC
Gurgaon	Jaipur	245	5.5	45	Jan-13	RSRTC
Bangalore	Hyderabad	500	8	63	Sep-12	Pvt operator

 Though the Southern states are usually believed to have better roads, the Bangalore-Coorg trip took very long because of winding traffic packed small roads within Coorg, and also because the bus has a speed limiter which stopped it from making up time on National highways! But even otherwise, the roads were quite pathetic on that stretch. Bangalore-Chennai and Bangalore-Hyderabad roads require no introduction, they are very very good. But when it comes to Delhi-Jaipur stretch(mostly on NH-8), then things become strange. There are two main operators, RSRTC(Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation) and HSRTC(Haryana State Road Transport Corporation). I succumbed to availability bias(RSRTC e-ticketing) while booking the tickets, but was had a bad experience in terms of speed, bus comfort and stops selection(expensive overpriced places). Later, a veteran traveller said that HSRTC buses are not only more frequent, but also reach you faster. Also, unlike in the South, private buses are actually cheaper than public transport, atleast in Rajasthan. Some lessons

1. Unlike private operators, state transport buses may not have dedicated customer care/contact numbers where English/Hindi is spoken. So if you do not speak the language or are not familiar with the stops, then god save you!
2. Since public transport buses should easily get full due to (presumably) cheaper rates and reliable timing, unsold seats are a warning of deeper issues(quality, timing etc), which I ignored in RSRTC
3. For long distance, Volvo is better, not only in terms of comfort, but also it is faster, and since likely to be full from starting, lesser unscheduled delays while conductors try to pack the bus
4. No substitute for speaking to veteran travellers on the route, who can not only advice the best bus, but also likely issues(blankets/water etc) for you. 
5. Don't bank on the DVD/seat lights working, not even for good operators-or they may not keep it on 24*7. Hence, do get your earphones etc along. And go for a bus with a charging point, that people vouch for that works! Else kiss your half day good bye
6. The service can be astonishingly good(conductor stops where you want) depending on the state(Karnataka is the best imo, its Airavat class services), and many speak English/Hindi, so don't shy away from Govt owned transport due to language factor, provided you have asked about it.
7. On the plus side, nearly all allow e-ticketing/SMS tickets nowadays, along with web based booking and inexpensive cancellation charges.

 In all, considering difficulty in getting train tickets and comparable travel times on the said routes, inter state bus travel should never be ruled out!

The shoddy experiences with Goibibo and Redbus

I had earlier praised Redbus on this blog(http://andy161.blogspot.in/2012/03/10-reasons-why-i-book-bus-tickets.html), and that is why I write this post, to give the other perspective. Earlier last month, when I needed to book tickets to Hyderabad, I sought to use the ICICI 10% discount code for the tickets. For some weird reason, it was not working. When I called up customer care, they sought to put the blame on my browser/cache, advised me to refresh and try etc. When even that did not work, they claimed that I was no longer eligible for that offer. When I still went ahead and booked the tickets w/o the coupon code, they even refused a goodwill waiver, stating that I had already used another lesser value discount code. When I challenged them about another ticket, then they stated the real reason that they would not apply discount codes to tickets once booked. Fair enough, but why give a misleading response and try deflecting blame? From the fact that they took down the ICICI offer code the next day, it seems that they had realized the technical issue or else had let it expire without renewal(likelier reason). While I have no issue with their technology, this experience left a bad taste in my mouth.

But their competitor GoIbibo was no better. Even their coupon code worked with great difficulty and repeated efforts. Their customer care was little knowledgeable about the website, and did not call back about failed payments/unconfirmed bookings status. This was for both bus and flight tickets. And to top it all, their search platform is quite cumbersome. So without discounts to compensate for that, who in their right mind would use it over a Redbus or a cleartrip?

Is it fair to treat prepaid customers badly?

A customer who is acquired at zero costs, costs you nearly nothing to service, pays you money in advance and yet who receives minimal customer service. Most businesses would salivate at such a customer. But why do telecom companies focus on their postpaid customers(who take min 1-2months to recover their channel partner commission, who pay late/have credit period, who need expensive payments/collections mechanism etc)? One reason is that postpaid customers, as the conventional wisdom goes, have higher ARPUs than their prepaid peers, and are likely to stay longer on the network.  However, they also cost the telco more for bill delivery, credit costs and customer service. In an era where these costs are almost fully variable, one can tangibly accurately estimate the relative profitability of prepaid and postpaid customers. Just imagine, a prepaid customers costs you nothing to acquire(in direct cost terms), pays his own channel commission(that Rs 1-3 channel fee) and gives you valuable float. He IS rewarded with better tariffs(usually) but that’s owning to competition and not from any benevolence of the telecom operators.

Particulars	Prepaid	Postpaid
Tariffs	L	H
ARPU	L	H
Loyalty	L	H
Customer Service Quality	L	H
Credit Risk to Airtel	L(zero)	H
Customer Acquisition Cost	L(zero)	H
Tariff flexibility	H(RCV)	L(few plans)
Customer payment costs	L(they pay it)	H(Airtel bears it)
Risk of outgoing calls barred due to zero balance	H	L
Bill shock risk	L(balance post every txn)	H(unless daily alerts opted)
MNP Risk	L(may just change SIM)	H(are likely to be pursued by other operators)
Loyalty likely due to	Personal choice	Corporate relationships
Bill Delivery Costs	L(zero)	H(mandatory)
Free Itemized Bill on Email ID	No(same Rs 50 charge)	Yes

Update your registered mobile number at ICICI ATM

When my Airtel coworkers went to the nearest ICICI branch to update their registered mobile number, the branch informed them that they could do so at the nearest ATM also. Hearing this, I was a bit sceptical as you cannot do so via netbanking, so why the ATM channel is open for that. Still, they were able to do so, and so was I. It was a great experience to do so without filling a single form or taking copies of your identity proof. This is what ICICI meant I suppose by advertising that their ATM is almost a branch.

If I have a grouse against ICICI, it is the low savings interest rate and the lack of other benefits for me.  Some other banks actively advice customers what is best for them. Sample this advice from Kotak Bank on their website Now THAT was what I call customer friendly analytics. 
Helpful advice: Kotak Bank has discovered that a majority of the people choosing a Kotak Edge Account actually end up maintaining the Average Quarterly Balance required to maintain a Kotak Pro Account. It may be in your interest to choose the Kotak Pro Savings Account and not miss out on the extra advantages & free services!'

But then, I suppose that is what you get when you sign up with ICICI. Awesome technology, rapid fast and efficient customer service, but you need to count your fingers everytime you shake hands/transact with them :P

Which is better-prepaid or postpaid voice plan? Analysis for India

The benefits of working for a telecom company is that you get some insight into how the market works. While I do not claim that a month's experience has made me a guru on this(despite what my friends may think!), some useful insights are below. As always, I take resort to the classic MBA answer 'it depends', to point that for each person depending on their circumstances, the conclusion would differ. For data, there is a separate blogpost.

1. Tariffs:-Since prepaid customers(other things remaining equal) are seen as more likely to churn, telecom companies offer them good tariffs, and newcomers try to lure them with great tariff plans. While companies DO reward their loyal postpaid customers, the latter are likely to take postpaid for reasons like company reimbursements, address proof, loyalty and not tariffs, so prepaid seems the winner in this. Prepaid 1-Postpaid 0
2. Customer Service/Billing :-Companies need to retain data for their prepaid customers for a much lesser period than for postpaid customers(due to TRAI billing norms). Hence, CRM analytics, customer segmentation etc becomes easier for postpaid than prepaid. This is not to say that high prepaid spenders don't get differentiated customer service, it is just that companies might not go out of the way to resolve issues for their prepaid base whom they see likely to churn out. And given that getting an itemized bill will cost around Rs 50(ceiling imposed by TRAI), disputing charges or getting waivers becomes much more difficult for prepaid. Also the small fact that in prepaid, your money is at their disposal but in postpaid, your not paying is their bad debt. So once money changes hands, it is more difficult to get it waived or so. Prepaid 0 Postpaid 1
3. Flexibility:-This is really where prepaid scores over postpaid. For example, if you suddenly need to send bulk SMS or make ISD calls in the middle of your billing period, you need to wait for sometime before switching to a better plan, if you are a postpaid customer. But if you are a prepaid customer, just take a top-up/Recharge voucher and you can immediately change your usage pattern. For example, I've made calls to Singapore and USA for hours this month, at a rate of Rs 7.4/minute, but for a Rs 14ISD prepaid voucher, the same calls would have cost me Rs 2.99 only. Ditto for sudden data usage needs etc. Prepaid 1 Postpaid 0
4. Usage based recomendation of best plan:-Though Airtel launched a portal earlier this year giving such recomendations for prepaid users as well, that is not yet an industry practice. As the telecom companies have data usage of their postpaid customers, they can more easily crunch numbers and offer them better plans. Ideal for those customers not savvy enough to hunt better plans from the same telco. Prepaid 0 Postpaid 1
5. Address proofs:-Here, there is no doubt that postpaid is easier. Though one would have utility bills etc, a telecom bill is the easiest address proof to generate in 3months,especially for migrants. Prepaid 0 Postpaid 1

These were the points which I felt crucial to decide between the two. Would welcome your comments. 

Eagle Travels-exemplary 'customer service' or great disaster management?

Eagle Travels(trade name of 'Falcon Travels Pvt Ltd'-the owner seems having a fetish for birds) was the operator by which I'd booked a 7:45pm bus from Mumbai to Ahmedabad(boarding Sion). I got a call from them apologizing for their having to delay the departure by 2hrs(guess they cancelled that bus due to poor occupancy and booked me to the next bus). Since my arrival at Ahmedabad was not that time sensitive, I decided to carry on and boarded the bus at 9:45pm, but it turned out it was a Surat bound bus which would drop me to Borivali for a 11pm bus from there. At 10pm, the bus broke down at a signal on the Western Express highway near VileParle, and nearly 1hr was lost in pushing the bus/trying to repair etc. Mechanics and a manager came quite quickly and tried to solve the problem.

I was fretting about my connecting bus, but was assured that it would be managed. Suddenly at 11:10pm, I was taken to a sumo where the owner dropped me to the boarding point(while stopping at one of his shops to collect the cash and accounts!), making some small chat etc and apologizing for the delay. After a 15min journey in AC comfort, I reached Borivali where the bus was waiting for me. When I entered it(was allocated the same window seat), the passengers were somewhat irked saying that the bus had waited 30min for me!(dunno what the bus driver told them). Anyways, the bus was quite comfortable(no jerks/great seats) and small things like water etc was provided, and it reached Ahmedabad without incident and just in 9hrs.

I was quite impressed by their holding up the bus for one person(it was their fault but perhaps they could have used some other operator..) and also by the fact that a person from their end was calling me up around 15min/30min before the scheduled boarding to confirm I'd reached. Not sure whether this is standard practice or not, but I did feel I was in competent hands and they had  a great tracking system. Taking me in the AC sumo did do the trick and eased my mood considerably, else I'd all but decided to sue them for deficiency in service! In all, an eventful 2hrs, I lost that much of sleep, but was impressed by how they managed the whole thing. 

10 reasons why I book bus tickets through Redbus

I admit it! The title was my feeble attempt at SEO optimization, but I do really love Redbus. Their customer service and sleek web interface rivals my other favorite e-commerce portal(Flipkart). 

1. Easy refund-the acid test of any merchant is the ease with which they process your refund/chargeback requests. I had cancelled tickets thrice by Redbus, twice through email and once through phone, and the service was efficient, polite and prompt on all occasions.
2. 100% effort to get passenger ratings:-I get an emailed survey around 1hr after the scheduled arrival of the bus, requesting for feedback on the operator and Redbus itself. This also leads to ratings you can trust, that will be uncensored, genuine and somewhat exhaustive.
3. M-tickets:-This is a new innovation, which they did not have to do, but very convenient. It also had the boarding point contact numbers, which can be directly dialled from the message itself.
4. SMS before bus timing:-I was quite wowed to get a SMS at 3:45pm before my 4:15pm bus, reminding me of the bus, 'from your friends at Redbus' with a smiley! Though probably not needed, it is a good way to reach out!
5. Sleek website interface:-Loads quite fast, and very user friendly. One can finish a booking in as less as 3min! No unnecessary junk/logins needed.
6. Periodic offers:-Mostly small amounts(Rs 50/100) but amounts to about 10% of the fare at times on using HDFC/ICICI debit/credit cards.
7. Bridge to the unorganized bus sector-Do not wish to critique agents, but there is a world of difference between educated young people and the bus agents, and Redbus helps bridge the gap.
8. Handle refund of differential fare if bus type changes:-Doing this on the bus/even from the boarding point would be inconvenient physically, but Redbus can credit the amount online
9. Focused and loyal promoters-A venture capitalist who had funded them early on, gave a talk at IIM-A recently, and mentioned that they(Redbus promoters) resisted the temptation to get into ancillary streams like travel packages, hotel bookings etc, and instead are building the bus bookings business. Also, though they now account for a significant share of revenue for many operators especially on 'non popular' routes, they have not hiked the commission upwards.
10. Prompt and Friendly Customer Service:-I have spoken with their customer service at both Mumbai and Ahmedabad, and have got through quite fast on both occassions in evening peak time. Whether this means lack of complaints/phone service or just awesome Operations Management(remember these guys are from IIM Indore..) is something I do not know.

 Keep up the good work, guys(and gals!)

My experience at Delhi Airport-well worth the passenger service fee!

Earlier in Jan-12, I had the occasion to wait for a few hours at Delhi Airport-the domestic departure terminal IB. Having done the same at Singapore and Mumbai airports, I was curious to compare the experiences. And surprisingly, once I was inside the airport, things were quite good. For instance

1. Affordable beverages/food inside the airport(like a Haldiram's stall) and even nearby, as opposed to the exorbitantly priced F&B which are a standard fixtures of airports
2. Wifi connectivity free of cost and although for max 1.5hrs or so at a time, that can be renewed free for any duration after that.
3. Laptop charging stations and tables are readily available beyond the security clearance area, and allow passengers to work/be entertained while waiting for departure. 
4. Interestingly, DIAL had a prayer room as well(location could have been better since it was near the toilet!) but that is a very good gesture
5. A shoe polishing roller which allowed the passenger to just rest the shoe on the roller and it would be polished then. A great idea
6. Other standard fixtures like clean loos, metro connectivity(metro station reachable by escalators/nominal priced AC bus service), water jets etc.

Of course, there is a controversy on the proposed hike in the passenger service fee which I'll address on my financeandcapitalmarkets blog, but the experience was quite good.

ICICI and Uninor-the tale of 2 contrasting customer service organizations

Below is the email I sent to my mobile service operator Uninor last Sunday on why I would be shifting from them after Mar-12.

1. Customer calls getting transferred repeatedly to Hindi speaking operators although I select the right option 'English'
2. VAS being wrongly charged to my account in May, and reversed after lots of hassle
3. Website among the worst in the industry-details of add on/top ups not available online
4. IVRS very unfriendly, almost impossible to get thorough to customer care executive
5. And to top it all, tariffs among the highest-local/SMS now 60paise for me without any intimation-even Vodafone(best quality network) is much cheaper and user friendly.

Even after a week, I did not get any response(not that I was expecting one after the hassle I had in getting a Rs 30 VAS charge reverse). Contrast that to ICICI's customer service. They are impeccable in the call centre wait times/service, have a great site, awesome technology and polite personnel. And when I blogged day before yesterday(http://andy161.blogspot.in/2012/02/icicis-incredible-customer-analytics.html) about their incredible analytics, imagine my surprise when the Blogger Dashboard showed 4 visits from ICICI Social media console, within a period of 24hrs. Obviously, someone is tracking the mention of ICICI on a third party social media forum like this blog!

In the era of customer choice, the person who is most attuned to customers wins. While ICICI is no saint(sometimes accused of sharp practices/not having the benevolent image of PSU banks), it is living its motto 'khayal aapka' by keeping its ear to the ground and being responsive to customer issues/feedback not only that given directly but also elsewhere. It is such organizations which would win in the long run.

ICICI's incredible customer analytics even on single non ICICI ATM usage!

Yesterday evening, I used a non ICICI ATM near IIM Ahmedabad. Imagine my surprise when I received an email from ICICI(mass mailer) with the attention grabbing header 'We have missed you'! I thought this related to my demat account but on probing further, realized that related to my use of the ATM card! Below is an extract from that mailer.I must say that this is remarkable customer analytics and does show why ICICI is still the technology leader among Indian banks. I have routinely used non ICICI ATMs and never received such emails till yesterday, so maybe this is a new feature on their part.Whatever the reason, such prompt response deserves credit. If it was toll free SMS,  then maybe I would use it but otherwise given that I do not exhaust the 5 free transactions/month, this is perhaps a failed effort on me.
Dear Customer,

We’ve missed you! We understand that you felt the need to use a Non-ICICI Bank ATM recently.

We would like to inform you that transacting at your ICICI Bank ATM is not only safe and fast, but it also comes along with various benefits...To locate your nearest ICICI Bank ATM, simply SMS ATM to 5676766.

Why is your ICICI Bank ATM safe and fast?

	Dip Card facility: Most ICICI Bank ATMs are equipped with a Dip Card Reader - a feature that enables you to transact safely while the card stays in your hand.
	Ultra Fast Cash facility: This feature, available at all ICICI Bank ATMs helps you complete the transaction in less than half-a-minute.
	Feel at home : Any disputes for queries will be taken care of by ICICI Bank. No need to deal with other banks to resolve your disputes.