Quality Is Myth In India

Just flippin' fabulous!

Today the buzz is that the four year old company, a deep discount online market place for books and digital accessories, is close to selling a portion of its equity to a leading US-based private equity player that has valued the company at $1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore) or one-eighth of micro-blogging site twitter.com that has been valued at $8 billion (Rs 36,000 crore). Billion dollar valuations of Internet start-ups in India are no more empty theories but a reality. 

The Bansals, both graduates from IIT Delhi, but not related, realised early on that the quality of service was a key differentiator - a lesson they had learnt during their stint as engineers with global e-commerce giant, Amazon.com.

Customer complaints that ranged from delays in delivery to hassles in payments were often the critical factors that determined the success of any online business, Sachin Bansal, co-founder and CEO of flipkart.com, told HT . “We decided to first iron out these problems and give our customers a delightful online e-commerce experience.”

Daniel Ao, a 26-year old software professional from the Northeast, loves books on music. He scanned through the stores in the malls and independent stores in Delhi, for the precise title he wanted. He failed and chose the next best option: logged on to flipkart.com and purchased it online. “The book reached me within four days,” Ao said. “I paid on delivery and got a 20% discount on the cover price as well.”

Net commerce in India has witnessed a considerable growth in the past decade. Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the industry body of online and mobile value added services, has pegged the size of net commerce in India at about Rs 31,598 crore in 2010. It is estimated to touch Rs 46,520 crore by the end of 2011.

At present the e-commerce activity in India is driven largely by the travel industry, which contributes around 76% to the total e-commerce market of India. However, as online purchases gain momentum and with purchases shifting to other items, this will mean robust growth opportunities for online e-commerce firms such as flipkart.com.

Great bargains
Indian retailers are warming up to shipping their ware directly to consumers through the Internet. For the consumers, there are great deals on offer. Footfalls and walk-ins are a passé. Virtual walk through is the new buzz word.

The 'Go where your customers are'- myth | Capping IT Off | Capgemini

Social Media changed service towards customers. Not only you have to service your customer in the old conventional channels, but also many new channels in social media which are completely owned by other people than yourself. However it doesn’t mean you have to cover all channels. Don’t just go where your customers are

As every company your customer service qualities and resources are limited. Either this might be just a simple result of lack of money to pay a lot of resources or your products and services requires a certain level of knowledge which is not widely spread.  And as every company your knowledge about certain customer service channels are limited.

Many of your customers are already online on several different (social media) channels. Yes they expect that you listen in there and that you will provide service. However what they also expect is a certain level and quality of service.  If you cannot provide at least an identical level and quality of service on the ‘new’ social media channel, you shouldn’t go there.

Therefore what you should do, is to not go where your customers are. You should go where your customers are and where you can deliver an excellent service or experience. Just creating a Twitter account or Facebook page and deliver no or rather bad service doesn’t help your company. Make sure your service level and quality are aligned through your channels that is how you really help your customers, since then they know what to expect.

Rick is on a day to day basis working on social media (strategy) cases for several (Fortune 500) clients. He lives and loves social media, helping people and enterprises in using social media in a way that adds value for them. He also gives guest lectures at several universities to make students aware of the impact social media will have on their life in general and on enterprises in particular in the near and not so near future. Is he a geek? Well… yes. A geek with a social life though. Even one with a wife and a young son, who’s first English words were ‘Social media’.

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