Resonance - The Social Wavelength Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Twitter Launches Custom Audience

Himanshu Bounthiyal — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 00:01:49 -0000

Nice blog, good information about chnges in marketing trends, this will surely help brands and companies to promote their services to targeted audience.

Re: Why did Facebook acquire WhatsApp for $19 billion? And what happens now??

Lavin Mirchandani — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 01:29:20 -0000

completely agree on points 5 and 7. time will tell if ads and privacy are affected.
It's a natter if how they execute.

on the other side there is a big opportunity for data scientists and marketeers. whatsapp was a largely closed platform and although campaigns and brand conversations were being run on it, nobody could measure reach and impact. perhaps that may be a possibility now.

whatsapp managed to create this ' I'm left out ' feeling which was key to non fb and offline users ramping up it's adoption. I doubt we chat will achieve that , its a big positioning gap.

Re: Brand Manager, Listen Up! This could be you!

Hardeek S Shah — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 07:35:40 -0000

Thank techies for the monitoring tools like Radian 6. Manual monitoring, na baba na :D

Re: Why India does not have a customer service attitude, and why Social Media will change that!

Deepak Sharma — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 09:43:21 -0000

I had written a petition against HDFC yesterday. Apparently even a public petition cannot move them to provide better services!

Title of Nightmare: Waiting for Call

Characters: Mr. India/Lord Sauron -
Played by HDFC Credit Card Team

Hobbits/Low Life Creatures - Played by Customers

DISCLAIMER:
This is a long description of how a customer is treated at HDFC with no regard
to urgency.

Prologue:

Anyone
fond of drama would know about the masterpiece by Samuel Beckett's Waiting For
Godot! Anyone not aware of what this play is all about, can simply dial HDFC
customer care number or write to them. By the time the wait is over, apes will
be ruling Earth and the universe will be near its drastic end.

Dear
Mr. Puri, with all due respect, sir, I couldn't stop myself from writing this
small piece of petition with some additional heart-to-heart conversation. I
think you should know the enigmatic aura around your highly priced customer
service, especially the credit card department.

HDFC
Credit Card team seem to have taken inspiration from Mr. India or Lord of The
Rings. Like Lord Sauron and Mr. India, they are invisible. Customers don't hear
from them unless a whip needs to be cracked on the customers in case of any
payment default. The Credit Card Collections team will show up in case they
need to abuse or threaten someone in case of a payment default. They show
alacrity in abusing some defaulter's mother. Dear sir, these examples may seem
unreal to you. Trust me, it seems unreal to me too when in 21st century I need
to start a petition just to get a simple call from a bank's credit card team to
get an NOC.

After
this prologue, let me discuss the issue in detail to you unless you think I am
wasting your time. Even I am wondering if I have been wasting my time when I am
writing this petition in my office hours. Nevermind, customers are idiots
anyway.

Background: Destination Credit Card

Around
2006-07, Deepak Sharma took an HDFC card on which he defaulted on the payment
after reaching around 50k. Reason of default, there were undue charges on the
card around which he raised a dispute. Rather than looking into the dispute and
resolving it, Deepak and his mother would get calls from one way numbers to
settle the bills. Lord Sauron would descend his place to personally threaten
his mother. Everytime, Deepak would call the number, they would ask him to come
down to HDFC Credit Card Office at Rajouri Garden and settle it. Corndered,
Deeapk settled the card. Not so easily. He was blacklisted in CIBIL records
making him a financial terrorist. Never mind the fact that he started his HDFC
account when he was 21.

Scene
1: The
Aftermath

Year
2013. It's been six years since that incident. Deepak changed jobs and moved on
with his life, growing in ambition life a city boy, thinking of making big in
life. He is fond of cars and wants to own one. His CIBIL Score is 837 out of
900. It takes 700 to get a loan from any bank. He applies for a loan from his
"favourite" bank (need I mention which one). It took him to fill just
one page of application to get atleast five calls from HDFC Loan Team. Showing
deep interest and excellent customer centricity, they sent an executive at his
work to collect papers. Great! HDFC Guys are so helpful! Isnt it?

Not
so fast Mr. Puri. Five days, no call no show! Deepak started calling HDFC Loan
Team to get an update. Day six, Deepak made two calls. No update. Day seven,
Deepak calls five times.

Final
Update: Loan rejected! WHY? Credit Card Settlement issue! Buried skeletons show
up.

Scene
2: Chasing Lord Sauron

Deepak
called HDFC Bank Customer Care to know what was going on. He wants to talk to
someone in the credit card department. He can't talk to them as "these
kind of issues" are dealt with by the collections team. Deepak requests
for their direct number. He is given 011-30209401/02. It was not exactly 1st of
April so Deepak had this sense of wonder at HDFC's black humor as the number
doesnt work. This number belongs to some Mr. India whom you can never call.

Scene
3: Promise of seeing Mr. India

Deepak
calls the customer service again telling them the number doesnt work.
Miraculousy, HDFC Customer Care turns into a telephone service customer care.
The woman forgets that she works for a bank and asks him the following
questions:

Girl:
Have you tried dialing from some other number?

Deepak:
Yes ma'am. I have. It doesnt work. I need to talk to someone urgently.

Girl:
Please dial from some other place?

Deepak:
What do you mean?

Girl:
Can you go to some other place and then try dialing?

Deepak:
I have tried this number from different phones and it doesnt work! Can you do
something about it?

Girl:
It is a temporary problem. It will be resolved soon. Dont worry sir.

Deepak:
I want to talk to the manager here.

Girl:
(Awake now) I am sorry sir but my manager will tell you the same thing.

Deepak:
Please get someone who can help me. Please get your manager here.

Girl:
(Getting nervous now and taking it seriously) I am sorry for the incovenience
sir but I am asking you to try again.

Deepak:
(On the verge of breaking his phone) Can you please??? Please get the manager.

Girl:
(Relieved) Hold on sir.

Almost
15 minutes hold. (Against the standard protocol)

Girl:
(Calmly) Sir I have logged a complaint. Complaint number 13350234867. You will
get a call in 2 days.

Deepak:
2 days??? Did I tell you that it was urgent?

(Arguements
and arguements now...Deepak hung up)

Between
the scenes

Deepak
tried their number almost everyday. Everytime he dialed the number, it would
disconnect without any dial tone. Deepak also start writing on HDFC Facebook
pages. One of his posts was deleted but he doesnt give up. See the link: https://www.facebook.com/HD...¬if_t=feed_comment

Scene
Three: Call from Mr.
India

Deepak
gets a call from HDFC Credit Card Collection Team. He narrates the whole
incident and is told that if he wants NOC, he needs to pay the whole amount he
owes to the bank. Deepak agrees to pay the amount as he just wants the NOC
desperately. He asks the representative to give him the details of amount, the
amount paid so far and the contact numbers where he can get in touch with them.

Deepak
is given a number 011-66667109. Deepak wants to call back on the number as he
was in a meeting when the representative called.

Scene
Four: Tracing Mr. India

Next
day, Mr. India has gone back to sleep again as the number doesnt work.
Completely dismayed, a disgruntled Deepak dials the customer service number
again. He gives the girl on the other side the complaint number and asks for
the manager directly. The girl puts the call on hold and comes back after 5
minutes with a promise that he would get a call within 3 hours. Deepak can't
seem to believe that it gets so hard to contact one department. Why??

Impression

HDFC
Bank's Credit Card Team is a bunch of perpetrators who are taught to collect,
collect and keep collecting money with blatant disregard to any complaint or
request.

They
come to life in the following cases:

a)
Threaten a customer

b)
Humiliate a defaulter's mother and father

c)
Bend backwards to collect payments

d)
Send goons to homes to scare off the common lot

They
turn into Mr. India in the following cases:

a)
Help a customer to get payment cleared

b)
Show the right way

c)
Speak politely and professionally

d)
Get back to the customer when it doesnt affect their targets

Digression:
Mr. Puri, If you are feeling agonized in reading all this, then please
understand that I am not deriving a sadistic pleasure in writing all this. I am
being very careful in reflecting the right emotion behind the words I choose.
Please continue...

Scene
5: Lord Sauron Calls

A
woman named Arti calls Deepak from 01166667107. Deepak talks to this woman at
lenght telling her that he just wants an NOC after making full payment. He also
tells her that he has been given absolutely no information as to

1) How do I pay? Cheque, Cash?

2) What is the proof that once I
pay, the amount will be notified by the bank?

3) This card is already closed and
blocked so how will it ever reflect in your systems when i want to pay?

4) How soon will I get the NOC as I
want it REALLY URGENTLY.

5) How will I get the confirmation
that the CIBIL record will be updated?

Arti promises to write to the
Head Quarter (Sounds like some IMF; MI6) to get an update and would get back in
another 2 days. Another 2 days??? Deepak feels like a kid who is being
kidnapped by a group of terrorists in broad day light from a market place.
People look at him and they shout, "someone help this kid",
"someone help this kid". but guess what, none of them moves and the
kid gets taken away. So helpless!

Scene 6: Mailing Mr.
India

This is the best part. Deepak
recieves a reply on HDFC Facebook page after hurling some hard words at them.
Hitherto, he had just been getting some copy/paste replies which are usually
posted by Bijoy and Anay. These replies would begin with a regret which means
nothing and end with an assurance which also means nothing.

I get an e-mail from PriorityRedressal.CreditCards@hdfcbank.com
with a reference number 13353782953.
The mail is apparently from Rajeswari Jayasekar, AVP, Service Quality-Credit
Cards.

In this e-mail she confirms the
amount which I need to pay and gives me two numbers I can dial for further
assiatance. The numbers are 011-66667101/01. I already have these numbers with
me and they don't work. I replied on this mail with several questions copied
the mail to the following personnel at HDFC:

customerservices.cards@hdfcbank.com

countryhead.retailproducts@hdfcbank.com

codecomplianceofficer.retailassets@hdfcbank.com

ed.wholesalebanking@hdfcbank.com

Scene 7: None Reads
Their Mails

Apparently Ms Rajeswari doesnt read
her e-mails as i recieved a NEW reference number as a reply to my reply to her
mail the previous night. NEW reference number is 13358321822.

As if it's a cruel joke, her mail
reads: Assuring you of our best attention at all times.

Sounds like a mockery of customer
service to me.

Additionally, I called Mr. Appala
Pranesh Rao at Mumbai on 022-3096154. He isn't in office. May be on a city
tour or Christmas party. I spoke with Anuj Sharma who again asked for a day's
time to get me a call from Credit Card Team. Hilarious!

Epilogue

Mr Puri, I assume you would have
taken a few breaks while reading this mail. But I haven't. Its been three hours
I have been drafting this mail without even a glass of water. You can see the
desperation with which I am pursuing this matter.

Mr. Puri, I have 9 years of minor
experience in Training, Development and Customer Service as compared your
eminent experience in the banking sector. Sir, I do not wish or intend to
demean your good intentions in bringing good experience to the people of this
country who first pay and then beg for service. I wish you instruct your
Training team to use the following verbiage in their interaction:

a) I cannot do: Let me do it for you

b) I have forwarded
this to this team: Let
me take the ownership and get it resolved

c) I can not assure
you: I assure you that
I will get it resolved

d) Manager is not
available: Manager is not
available, let me get Senior Manager/VP/Branch Manager to address your problem

e) You will get a call
in 2 days: You will get a
call in the next 2 hours. If you dont, then take down these direct numbers for
my manager

f) Customers are
stupid: Customers are not
stupid

g) Let's take a break
by putting the customer on hold: Let's
not put the customer on hold

This one is for
Managers/VP/AVP at HDFC

a) I am a manager. What
do customers mean for me?: I
am a manager and many people rely on me. Let me stop chatting with my
girlfriend on FB and get back to work and make myself available to the
customer.

b) Let me just reply on
e-mail. I am too tired to talk: Let
me not send e-mail. The issue may be critical. Let me pick my extension and
call the customer.

Mr. Puri, this is a simple issue
which just needs two things:

a) A customer centric person who
can coordinate with the customer to close the issue

b) A phone number

I guess HDFC has none

Mr Puri, it anyway will not take
anything for me to believe that HDFC is a group of arrogant ill-recruited
managers who dont do their job properly. It may take an 8.0 point Richter Scale
earthquake to wake them up.

If you wish you do anything about
it, you can note down my details:

CC Number: 0005176521004362960

Phone Number: 9990477676

e-mail: deepak.sharma1@hotmail.com

Best regards,

Deepak Sharma

Re: Social Media Bloopers

Faizan Babi — Sat, 09 Nov 2013 03:09:09 -0000

Missed the famous Volkswagen India blooper? Pretty neat article though.

Re: Hybrid Cars – What’s the Social Media Buzz?

Malena — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 14:27:54 -0000

I like the way you expressed things! please add something related to houston used cars

Re: There is ONE Brand Reputation Now – based on the brand’s 360 degree presence!

James — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 03:59:56 -0000

Hello Friend i read your blog. It is good and very informative. It is true several SMBs have two departments (internal communications often handled by HR, and external communications Thanks for sharing such a blog.

Re: A little Social Media experimentation can be good for Brand Health!

pawan — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 03:43:38 -0000

nice blog

Re: General Motors advertising on Facebook: “Yes, I got it wrong”!

Piyush Jani — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:14:37 -0000

Re: General Motors advertising on Facebook: “Yes, I got it wrong”!

Piyush Jani — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 07:03:29 -0000

Re: Narendra Modi at the India Today Conclave 2013: Social Media Lessons for Brands and Politicians Alike!

Bharati Ahuja — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 03:28:16 -0000

Above all he proved that it is not necessary to speak in English to put across your point. One can speak in Hindi and make an impact too, as long as what you say has substance.

Re: Narendra Modi at the India Today Conclave 2013: Social Media Lessons for Brands and Politicians Alike!

Milind Gupte — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 06:47:15 -0000

I agree with u totally

Re: Narendra Modi at the India Today Conclave 2013: Social Media Lessons for Brands and Politicians Alike!

Prakash Gurbaxani — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 14:32:05 -0000

Sanjay
Excellent analysis. -Connection, conversation, credibility, conversion.And of course measurement.

Re: Narendra Modi at the India Today Conclave 2013: Social Media Lessons for Brands and Politicians Alike!

Malhar Barai — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 05:44:26 -0000

Thanks for sharing that video Sanjay. Made up for a lazy Sunday morning.

Loved the point where he told about how a villager can threaten the officer of going online. That's the power of technology.

Otherwise, at the start, he has used the numbers very intelligently. Great lessons in making a good presentation.

Re: Social Media Monitoring of Travel Sector in India

Shivani Batra — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:58:42 -0000

Car Rental India is a car rental agency which provide various services like
car on rent india,taxi or cab facility.
Go for Video..

Re: Social Wavelength is recruiting.. ! Lots of Social Media Jobs here..

personal trainer jobs — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 03:33:11 -0000

Thanks for sharing this informative post .Keep it up in future too.

Re: There is ONE Brand Reputation Now – based on the brand’s 360 degree presence!

Prasad — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 04:44:21 -0000

Good poinst there. Several SMBs have two departments (internal communications often handled by HR, and external communications driven by marcom or sales) ... they have to start working together now!

PS - could your WP dev increase the font size a bit?

Re: There is ONE Brand Reputation Now – based on the brand’s 360 degree presence!

Sanjay Mehta — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 04:24:12 -0000

Prasad,
In respect to the points made by you:
1. We were not that busy. Their expectations were unrealistic. How can a decent pitch be expected to be put together in 1-2 days? Making us run around like crazy was about arrogance and about being unethical and unprofessional. I am not taking back any of my sentiments about the brand.
Also while I do not mention their name in a public blog like this, I AM sharing the story offline, whenever I get a chance, in face to face communications. And have also shared the same with few agency friends. Would recommend agencies to stay away from such people..

2. Moderation policies on FB pages - well, we have a view, but we also recognise that often, brands are still on the learning curve about this media. And at such times, if some of them are sensitive about having negatives mentioned on their FB page, and wish to have them deleted, it is their prerogative. Over time, they learn and appreciate what being "social" is all about.

3. On having "one" brand reputation, I was not referring to an internal perception and the external world perception. That difference was always there - what a brand owner thinks (or wishes for) his brand is, and what the outside world does.

What I was referring to here, was that a brand cannot be different things to different external audiences, e.g. employees, investors, common people, vendors, customers, etc. Due to the seamless common ground that exists across these spaces, there is fundamentally ONE brand reputation, and a brand can ill afford to be good only to customers, but not to employees, for example!

Re: There is ONE Brand Reputation Now – based on the brand’s 360 degree presence!

Prasad — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:57:54 -0000

Sanjay, I realize that you folks were quite busy and did not have enough bandwidth to respond with full force to a proposal. There was another firm which was able to do so. Chances are that your firm was brought in because of a HiPPO, and looks like that the HiPPO did not want to wait as well. For this reason, I will not term them a***ole, unethical ... perhaps unprofessional, yes. I would choose inept or incompetent, who did not spare enough time to do a proper due diligence and find the right agency. I am sure that you would let this thing go, gracious of you to not name the brand.

Having said that, there are a lot of firms who have a strict editorial policy on their FB pages. Say something good, and it is kept on the page, say something bad and it is immediately taken out. In fact this is common with most communities (other than FB as well). The moderator can decide which post to keep or which post to remove. In this regards, the agency who is handling the page or the marketing team should first have a clear moderator policy. If it's a disgruntled customer, what do you do - you alert your support team, and you post a prompt reply that you are looking into this case (good examples for this - zappos, cleartrip whom I have personally experienced).

As far as the one image is concerned, there will always be two aspects of this. One is how the brand sees itself - brand identity ... this is how the brand owner wants his/her customers to perceive the brand. The other, is brand image ... how the brand is ACTUALLY perceived by the customers. More often than not, there is some difference between the two (eg. Microsoft). The marketing team has to be aware of both, if they are not, then they are not doing their job.

Re: There is ONE Brand Reputation Now – based on the brand’s 360 degree presence!

Sanjay Mehta — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 06:40:33 -0000

Well, I don't think disabling fan comments is a good idea. If you are looking for conversations, and then you gag your listeners, what's the point? By not accepting fan comments because they could be negative, you are forcing those people to go to many other forums, review sites etc. and post their grievances there. Which is worse for the brand, isn't it?

Re: There is ONE Brand Reputation Now – based on the brand’s 360 degree presence!

Macrinab — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 06:39:05 -0000

the story sounds very familiar. it's sad that your team had to go through so much and then the guys on the other side just give you a lame excuse without even giving you a chance to present. but this i suppose is happening very often with many. thanks for sharing.. it's a good read and i guess a lesson for both agencies and brands...regards, macrina benjamin

Re: There is ONE Brand Reputation Now – based on the brand’s 360 degree presence!

Nameet Potnis — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 06:27:46 -0000

Sanjay, this is an excellent point you make here. I work in social commerce and I see this phenomenon happen very often when customers / vendors come and ask extremely awkward questions on the brands facebook page.

On the other hand, I believe employees can be very strong positive influencers for a brand. Like you said we are living in times when every brand/individual has a single persona and happy employees very often speak up for their employers, without being asked to.I have also seen some very interesting behaviour from Facebook brands on Facebook. for eg Yepme Shopping has a massive 1.4 million likes on their fan page but they dont allow users to post on their page. Users can comment on photos, status' etc, but they cant create new posts! Do you think this is a good way of tackling the nuisance?

Would love to know your thoughts.

Re: Digital space in India in 2012: How’s it going?

sanjaymehta — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:42:29 -0000

Shh..Nishad, don't let the cat out :)
Well honestly, can't say they were all easy picks!!

Re: Digital space in India in 2012: How’s it going?

Nishad Ramachandran — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:45:29 -0000

Good one Sanjay. On another front, did you pick some easy horses there?

Re: Thought provoking words from Nitin Paranjpe, CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

shrikant shelke — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 08:00:41 -0000

I came late here, but yes its good to come here nice article Sanjay.