There was a time when customers swore by their loyalty to specific brands. With so many brands entering the exploding retain markets in India, having a brand name isn’t sufficient anymore . However, most brands seem to be resting or rather living off past laurels. One such brand is Titan. Once upon a time people adorned with pride titan products, but today the consumer is spoilt for choice and hence there pride and brand ownership no longer compliment each other.
Titan first entered the indian market with their brand of watches and today are also into eyewear. To ensure their customer base is not impacted due to shortage of stores, stores were opened in all the areas of pune which experienced a growth spurt.
One such store was opened with much fanfare in Vimanagar. I recently visited the store to get some specs for reading. We chose the frame. The customer service guy gave us a form to fill in before testing the eyes for the number. While we were waiting for the eye checkup, we noticed that the frame we chose had a defect. We enquired with the customer service guy if there was another piece. He very curtly told us all that is on display is the only stock in the store and there are no other pieces. The cost of the frame was not like 200 or 300 bucks. It was around 2000 and the lens he told us would cost another 1800 or so. Hence if I am spending close to 4000 bucks then I definitely expect a good product. Why should I pay for a defective product? The sales guy seemed to think otherwise. His attitude, body language and behavior was such, that radiated titan is a brand and you should be honored to be able to purchase it. Brand my foot, we walked out of the store and guy was not in the least bothered.
Now comes the irony of the situation, when walking out I noticed a banner which stated " Did our service make you smile, if not...then contact us on....blah blah blah" I came to the conclusion that the words on the banner were just empty words and don’t mean anything. If they meant anything, then the sales guy would have been courteous and eager to make a sale, especially keeping in mildly hardly anyone visits the store.
Wake up Titan.....before Titanic strikes.