The Customer Service Experience Hmmm… Ever seen those ever smiling ladies on the ads for the Customer Service that Reliance provides? Well, they are the whole reason why I started typing out this review at 500 AM in the morning!
I have been in the service industry for some time and have been dealing with BPOs, so when I called the Reliance Customer Service, I was expecting the service to be on par if not better compared to any other call center (being such a big business house, I was positive they realized the value of providing quality customer service). Boy was I wrong! I wanted to get my STD/ISD facility activated as soon as I got the phone. I religiously called the Customer Service people the very next day (as instructed by the Reliance Web World staff) and put in my request. I also let them know that I have already submitted my verification documents and that I was a Reliance Shareholder and that I had bought not one but two phones and would like to have it activated on both the phones. The Customer Service Representative was very prompt in saying that the service would be activated in 24 hours. I was impressed! Good Service. I hung up and forgot about it…till two days back when I had to make an urgent call to the United States. On trying the US number I was greeted with a message which said that this service (ISD/STD) was not activated and to call Customer Service to get it activated! And since then 2 days have passed, and I have spoken with 4 Customer Service Representatives who have all promised that they will “personally” see to it that the service is activate in 24 hours and guess what…yes the service is still not active. They even went to the extent of saying that they have put in an “Urgent / Priority” request but in the end they were all false promises.
All of the Customer Service Representatives lacked the basic customer service skills: 1. Listening Skills: Let the customer talk and listen. Don’t talk back and interrupt the customer. Once the customer has finished, if you have listening properly, you would not have to ask the customer again, what is wrong?! All of the Customer Service Representatives interrupted (the last one – Peter was especially bad) and even after I told them what was wrong, they again asked me what was wrong! 2. Empathy: Show that you understand what the customer is going through 3. Resolution: Resolve the problem for the customer by taking ownership of the issue, but more importantly, follow up on your promise.
All the Customer Service Representatives did was to out the blame onto different departments! Last but not the least, when I repeatedly asked to speak with the Team Leader or Team Manager (Supervisors) they always claimed there was none! How can a call center work with Supervisors present?????
The Reliance people really do not know how to take care of customers. God only knows, when we companies like Reliance realize that these days customers demand the service they pay for. Having a pretty face on an advertisement will make one buy the product but what will make them stay is if you treat them with respect and give them the service they deserve.