A clinical performance at Ratanjee 2009!

Week 3, Experience 1 by Kevin: A clinical performance at Ratanjee 2009! (July 11, 2009)

Background

The Ratanjee Tournament is the annual sports tournament at XLRI School of Business and Human Resources - between the seniors and the juniors. Seniors have traditionally held the upper hand and have historically won this tournament most of the times, since its inception. Being a senior and the chess captain, myself, I always find myself - shouting myself hoarse in support of my fellow seniors at Ratanjee matches. 2 am on the 11^th of July, 2009 saw a truly great match of table tennis...

Prior Expectations

This particular match was played between Srinath Sridharan (the SportsCom secretary and #1 seed in the Senior TT team) and a member of the Junior TT team. Being a senior, I expected and hoped that Srinath would win comfortably. Here, Srinath, his opponent and the organizing committee, SportsCom were the service providers. Also, here the (usually) highly vocal audience (comprising the seniors and juniors in attendance) was the customers.

Actual Experience

Srinath won the first 7 points of the first set and from that blitzkrieg start, was in control throughout the match. At one point, the lopsided score-line read 17 - 6 in the first set in Srinath’s favour. The juniors who were present in big numbers at the venue, the Fr. Enright’s Men’s Residence ground floor mess were silenced. There was only one stage of the match when the junior appeared like he was actually competing. That was in the 2 warm-up points played between the opponents before the start of the game. During these points, Srinath was content to merely return his opponents shots to get used to the pace of the TT table and his opponent.

The first set went to Srinath 21 – 11. The second set ran along similar lines. The juniors already down 2 – 5 to the seniors in Ratanjee on day 1, started steeling themselves for yet another defeat. The match ended soon after 21 – 11, 21 – 12 in Srinath’s favour. Srinath hit a record 20 smashes by the end of the match! Wins by the TT doubles team and another of our players in the reverse singles sealed the tie in our favour.

Service Trinity Model

Core Service

· Strong individual performance and sportsmanship by the players · Good sporting ambience by the organizers

Funding Mechanism

· Customer does (by coming to the venue to view the match) · Company saves on operations (SportsCom ensures both opponents are chosen from our Senior and Junior batches respectively themselves)

Customer Management System

· SportsCom was extremely well-organized and also controlled the more rowdy audience members well

Employee Management System

· SportsCom members get the box seats i.e. best positions to view any sporting event in XLRI · They also have the power to referee games; the players themselves earn the respect of the batch

SERVQUAL ratings

Dimension	Rating (out of 5)	Remarks
Tangibles	4	Well-kept venue and good lighting
Reliability	5	The entire communication and organization by SportsCom was very reliable and professional
Responsiveness	5	The players responded well to the large crowd and put in their best show
Assurance	4	Both juniors and seniors were assured of the best efforts of their representative
Empathy	5	Srinath (and his opponent!) showed empathy to us and the lateness of the time by having a quick match without unnecessary breaks or waste of time

N.B.: (1 = very poor, 5 = very good)

Conclusion

All in all, I really enjoyed the match and strangely, I cannot really think of any improvement. If anything, we should have more of the same – really high quality sporting events! J

Reliance or Un-Reliance?

---

Week-2, Experience-3 by Angshu: “Reliance or Un-Reliance?”

Date: 03-July-2009

Time: 1-00 to 2-00 PM

Location: Reliance Web World, Bistupur

Background

Reliance - the undisputed leader of corporate India! But then why do they have so many unresolved disputes from customers? Let me give you an example of an unsatisfied (or rather disgusted!) and disloyal customer who ceases to leave a service offering – yes, I’m the person! But not only me – you can find many such examples if you could get to talk with some among the millions of Reliance Mobile customers. You ask: “Everything is fine but then why don’t you leave the service?”. On behalf of millions of such Reliance Mobiles customers: “Economic rationality is still the most important parameter for choosing a product or service in India and not the satisfaction; forget about management clichés like customer delight or experience”. You got it right – the low lifetime prepaid charges and the low STD rates are the sole reasons why I’m one of the disloyal more-than-a-year-loyal customers of Reliance. But recently it started becoming an intolerable nuisance. With the advent of these customer-friendly-value-added-services I started getting more than 20 SMS daily; each one testing the limit of my patience. And, it was not the end – with their customer focused relationship marketing agenda and customized service paradigm – I started getting calls from Reliance to opt for their almost-free value-added services. In spite of my repeated refusals their care for me showed no sign of reduction. I doubt if even parents can show the kind of attention and care to their beloved children that marketers of today reserve for their valuable customers!

Prior Expectation

Understanding that I’ve to set aside my laziness and make some efforts to ensure my future peace I decided to go to the Reliance Web World at Bistupur. I expected the customer service personnel there would listen to me, understand my problems and take prompt steps to resolve the issues.

Actual Experience

I reached the Reliance store at 1 PM and asked the receptionist whom to contact for my issues. She informed the customer care executive has left for lunch and will come back by half-an-hour if I’m lucky enough. So, I went to Chapan Bhog to make my wait little-less-irritating. Went to the store again at 1-30 PM and as expected the executive is still to come. Understandable – if the customer care executives don’t have long and good lunch – how can they serve so-demanding-customers-like-me. Anyways, after another 10 minutes of long-wait the executive finally came. I could not make out if because of the lunch or by nature she had such a big volume – I hoped there is a big heart inside as well! I informed about the issues – regarding the nuisance calls and SMS and asked her to do something to stop the service. First she tried to explain the benefits of such great services but stopped once I lost control on my patience and my dissatisfaction became overt. Ultimately she told that to stop all these – I have to send a particular SMS to a particular number; she gave me the details. I sent the SMS then and there. But the response SMS was simply amazing: “Your request has been registered with our database and it will be activated within 45 days”. “What the hell?*%$^#@!” – I said. The executive in her suave and empathic voice informed me that they are huge company and they get so many such requests from their numerous customers everyday – so it is natural that processing it should take time. Being an ambassador of one of the most reputed institute in the state – I could not express my actual feeling eloquently. Disgusted and dismayed I came out of the store but could not leave expressing my grudge in a silent manner – don’t ask how?!

Service Trinity Model

Core Service

o Mobile Communication o Value added services

Funding Mechanism

o Customer Pays o Self-service – customer makes efforts for getting new connection and refill o Company pays by giving discounts and extra talk-time sometimes

Customer Management System

o Reliance Web World Stores o Customer Service Executives o Automated Voice Response

Employee Management System

o Rigorous Selection Process o Training and development programs o Performance based incentives

SERVQUAL Ratings

Dimension	Rating	Remarks
Tangibles	5	Physical facility of the store, communication and employees are quite good
Reliability	3	The mobile calls – the basic service is OK
Responsiveness	1	Extra irritating services and not-so-prompt in stopping them
Assurance	2	Employees are well-manners but cannot inspire trust and confidence
Empathy	1	I wish they did not give me this caring individual attention!

[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

· Providing something extra is not always good! May be they can inform customer once about the new services and then if customer is not interested stop bugging him/her.

· For customers like me who do not want those value added service – they should never irritate by calling or sending SMS. The do-not-call-registry should help resolve the issue but should never take 45 days to get activated.

---

The strange auto-wala!

---

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!

---