Week-2, Experience-2 by Angshu: “The strange auto-wala!”
Date: 30-June-2009
Time: 11-00 to 11-10 PM
Location: Sakchi to XLRI, Jamshedpur
Background
It is continuation of the previous encounter at Gossip and hence don’t need much of a background. After we left Gossip we took an auto in our journey back to XLRI.
Prior Expectation
We expected the auto will get us to XLRI and charge fair price. The kind of traffic rules that Jamshedpur follows, safety was one more concern but auto-wala could not do much about that. And, the fast transport was never the expectation of gossip loving XL junta.
Actual Experience
While going to Gossip we all easily fitted in one auto but strangely this time found it tough to fit! Though ultimately we all fitted and in our mind blamed the size of the auto, I had this thought whether the volume of a standard human being increases after taking a heavy meal. Though it seemed logical to me there seems to be no statistical validity of the proposition. Will do some research on this latter, but for now the auto and the gossip along with nine of us started the journey back to XL. With no noticeable traffic and gates of Jubilee park still open it took only around ten minutes to reach XLRI. We deported the auto and asked for the fare to be paid. Not sure which currency he was talking about but he said ‘hundred’. Though no one could tell the exact fare ‘hundred’ was too-high by any estimate. The same distance we travelled while going and paid only fifty bucks. So, we refused to pay ‘hundred’ and considering it was night time – offered to pay maximum sixty rupees. But it was not to be and the self-dignity of the auto-wala refused to enter into bargain. Before we could decide among us the auto took a U-turn and swiftly vanished outside the gate of XL! Perplexed all of us started gossip about who gained, why human behavior is so unpredictable and walked toward our hostels.
Service Trinity Model
| Core Service |
| o Transportation |
| Funding Mechanism |
| o Customer Pays |
| Customer Management System |
| o None |
| Employee Management System |
| o Single employee and no management! |
SERVQUAL Ratings
| Dimension | Rating | Remarks |
| Tangibles | 3 | Jamshedpur is a old city and so are its autos |
| Reliability | 4 | The auto reached us XL quickly and safely |
| Responsiveness | 2 | Refused to take fair fare and did not listened to the customer’s logic |
| Assurance | 3 | No knowledge of fair fare and no courtesy |
| Empathy | 4 | Gave a damn to customers! |
[Rating is given on a scale of 1-5; 1=Very Bad, 2=Bad, 3=Neutral, 4=Good and 5=Very Good]
Critical Analysis & Suggestions
· Though empathy and responsiveness is not part of the core service provided by an auto driver – basic understandings, humane behavior and sense of logic is expected in every human interactions.
· Because of his ego, the auto driver only lost – he could have been happy with sixty rupees but got nothing expect for may be strange kind of sense of not losing his dignity.
· From our perspective, we learnt (once again!) that it is always advisable to finalize fare before boarding an auto to avoid this kind of undesirable scenario and mental disturbances.
· Though it will be farfetched wish – if there could be some training program for all these utility service providers like auto or taxi driver to teach them the basics of service marketing – it will make the life of all of us a little better. Though human behavior is tough to change, some training and rules from the government should improve the situation if not change it overnight!
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