Thursday, 20 September 2012

GREAT CUSTOMER CARE EXPERIENCE OF INDIAN RAILWAYS



GREAT CUSTOMER CARE EXPERIENCE OF INDIAN RAILWAYS

On 20th September, 2012 while on board Shatabdhi express (one of the most prestigious trains of Indian Railways) from Delhi to Chandigarh I had a very pleasant surprise how prompt the customer care services of Indian Railways (the largest net work in the world with largest number of employees) are.    When the breakfast was served (I and the consultant travelling with me  preferred veg-south Indian), and as can be expected the vada was burnt and hard like a rock and even the portion of Upma was like a one hard cake.   The sambar was ice cold and there was no salt in chatni.   While I left the vada not risking my teeth, the consultant called the pantry people and gave them a dressing down and called for complaint book.    As usual they did a bit of dilly dallying in providing the complaint book, in the mean time he sent an SMS to the customer care number of India railways northern region.


What followed is very hard to believe and very pleasant surprise.    First a thanks giving sms came within 1 minute, in the next 3 minutes a Supervisor of the train has come running in apologizing for inconvenience caused and proposing to replace the breakfast with hot one – we didn’t accept his proposal with food not being tasty at all.   While the conversation was on a call came from customer care enquiring from the traveler whether the problem was sorted out or not and the caller spoke to the Train Supervisor and gave him a good dressing down and ordered him to provide complaint book to us immediately.   


After 10 minutes when he went to the toilet, as always happens, there was no water coming out of the tap on top of the wash basin but there was a pool water on the floor.   He again sent a SMS and told me to see in the direction of toilet to see what happens.    Within 2 minutes 2 cleaners along with TT descended on our coach and set things right and TT personally came and said sir now you can use the toilet, and for the next two hour of the journey an attendant was stationed outside the toilet mopping the floor after every use by any passenger.    Whatever happened is just like a scene taken out of Shankar’s Anil kapoor starrer `Nayak’ (where CM for a day keeps calling government officials on phone and either keep getting the things done by them or dismissing them).   Though it sounded exaggeration while seeing the movie, it proved to be more than real since the call went not from a CM but an ordinary traveler.     I must admit that even while staying in 5 star hotels I never seen a complaint being attended so fast.   Incidentally 4 months back I stayed in Park at Kolkata and in 7 hours I stayed in the hotel, I had to complain 4 times and being fed up while checking out I put down all the issues running into a full page and gave it to the duty manager and till date there is no reply of any action taken by them.    As I am working in a hospitality chain,  I did not press the matter, least they may feel that I am making it an issue since I am working for a rival group.  

   
Having closely observed my father working in Central Govt with great amount of dedication and starting my career in a PSU, I was always opined that Govt and PSUs (whether it is any Government office, police, and defense) work far better than the private sector (in which there is so much of show-biz and less of content)   They are more organized, procedure oriented, methodical and meticulous, great record keepers and their retrievers.  All these despite very poor infrastructure facilities and incentives, and  they can do wonder if they wish to work.    The blame lies on us as neither we use the ways and means to make them work nor have the patience to wait and given them reasonable time to do the work before trying to bribe and get the things done fast thereby corrupting the system ourselves.    In the train yesterday there were not less than 70 people in the coach no one has complained and even when my co-traveller was talking things out with the TS, people were amused and must be thinking the guy must be crazy to make a scene.    They are unmindful that it is not only for him (we did not accept the additional breakfast offered to us), few such complaints going will instill discipline in the staff and the people who travel after that will be benefitted and the contractor who was supposed to supply good and hygienic food does not make a fool of us and make money at our cost.   No one expect everyone to become an APARICHITAN (again a Shankar’s movie) and throw the contractor who supplies bad food into a boiling oil container (that is the punishment prescribed in Garudapurana for supplying bad food, as per the movie), but atleast have the inclination to improve things by making complaint when it is so easily done by sending a sms from your mobile.   


Come to think of it how many people know that there are such customer care numbers for all regions of Indian Railways and how many of us use them?   The number for North is 09717630982 and South Central is 08121281212 (numbers for other regions can be found in the website of Railways).    So next time you travel in a train and find anything not to be in order, instead of cribbing or making it a just a point of discussion go ahead and complaint and see things being attending at an amazing speed.  


Enjoy your journey in the oldest, trusted and most economical mode of transport.

s. prabhakar
21.9.2012

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