The cost is long forgotten but the QUALITY is remembered forever.Eureka Forbes is the household brand sold directly to customers. Water purifiers are a necessity these days. Thanks to Eureka Forbes Water Purifier, my day start with a glass of water. My water purifier works hard for me. I observe hard working Eureka representatives. I see hard work by Eureka guys at various exhibitions. But unfortunately after sales and support function hardly works in Eureka.
Day 1: My water purifier stopped working and needed maintenance. Fortunately Eureka guy came for the routine survey and informed me that he will lodge the complaint and do the needful.
Day 2: Nothing happened.
Day 3: Two more sales guys wanted me to purchase vacuum cleaner and offered demonstration. They took details of other Eureka products and assured me that they will lodge the complaint and do follow up.
Day 4: One can understand the sales pressure these Eureka guys are exposed to, so I called their team leader and obtained complaint centre number. It was obligatory on my part to register the complete and I fulfilled my obligation. The lady at the other end was polite, extremely courteous and took complaint details. Assurance of repair from Eureka was passed on to my home minister.
Day 5: I again called to the same complaint number and reminded them of my complaint. The same lady showed empathy, sympathy and gave one more assurance.
Day 6: I called the same number and my call was answered by security guard saying that: Sir, office is closed now. Tomorrow is Saturday and you should call before 2 PM. That was a great help at least from security guard.
Day 7: I was frittering on complaints by way of telephone calls only. Get it repaired from private source or buy new one was the ultimatum received from my Kitchen Queen. Now the situation needed to be handled in different way. I again dialed complaint centre and asked for docket number.
Day 8: Status on docket number is not available. No such docket exits. Strange!
Day 9: SMS to team leader – repair it or face the music.
Day 10: It was repaired. Filter was replaced.
When management lacks commitment such things are common. One school of management says build revenue and rest will follow automatically. Other school of management says sales follows services. It seems that there is no accountability on part of complaint cell and managers who monitor them if they do so. Hence most customers are grouching.
Is your unit under warranty? What type of fault unit is having – is it electrical, mechanical or other? What is your address? These are important questions. But then what Eureka guys do then do door to door survey? Why can’t Eureka obtain most details and upload in their centralized server. Customer delight should be important. Is someone in Eureka happy to see Customer Plights? And how complaint registration and complaint resolution is coordinated is big question for Eureka. There is no synchronization and 10 days were required to get a water purifier repaired.
The other day I was discussing with MS CEO that useful reviews should be considered as constructive criticism. Such reviews tell you why customer will buy a product. It also tells you why customer will not buy a product. Brand managers should figure out this why from useful reviews. Other Eureka guy is persuading me to buy vacuum cleaner and I have told him why I will not buy Eureka products. Eureka guy made 10 telephone calls and many personal visits for vacuum cleaner but when it came to complaints I was required to make 20 calls and wait for 10 days.
Hope this constructive criticism of Eureka helps them build Robust Complaint Management System and Eureka continue to add Customer Delight.