When was the last time you got a decent after sales service from the e-commerce company itself? The customer service usually directs you to the manufacturer for sorting out your issues, and this makes the whole experience terrible.
India’s own e-commerce giant, Flipkart, has finally launched a service where engineers will be sent to your home in case you face any issues with your smartphone post your purchase. The service has been limited to handsets at the moment, and will be scaled up slowly.
Speaking about the initiative, Sachin Kotangale, Head – Customer Operations at Flipkart said, “Often buyers return the phone because of issues like the phone getting heated up or the battery draining out fast. In many cases, the problem is not with the handset, but with the way the customer is using the phone. We realized we need to educate the customer about their smartphones.”
This is a very common problem faced by consumers when they don’t have anywhere to go if the product turns out faulty. What usually also happens is that the smartphone is supposed to function in a particular way, but users are not able to grasp those technicalities. We can’t blame consumers completely in this quick-revolutionizing world of technology.
Could this become successful?
We do not have statistics as to the number of consumers who call up customer service and complain about their faulty smartphone, but we do acknowledge the fact that a face-to-face interaction works in ways one phone call cannot.
Let us see the most common questions asked by consumers post 3 to 4 months of purchase of a new smartphone –
- Why is my smartphone heating up so much? Specially during calls and while playing games, it is impossible to hold the phone in one hand.
- My phone has started lagging after just 2 months of use.. What is lacking?
- After the latest update, my smartphone has started giving me problems with my applications.. My calls are also a little muffled now, what’s the problem?
- The battery seems to be faulty, how can I replace it and when can I get genuine accessories?
In most of the cases, the OEM is equally responsible for providing a substandard experience to its customers, and we should not blame these e-commerce websites fully for endorsing these products. But we do expect Flipkart to have unbiased review policies on its website to promote genuine purchases.
However, now an engineer will only be a few calls away and will provide you personalized experience. Not only will your problems get solved, but the engineer will also apprise you of what you can been missing out. Of course, smartphones that come with some faulty processor and chipsets have to be replaced, but Qualcomm’s quad-core processors are known for overheating and in that case even Flipkart won’t be able to do much.
Flipkart, in the future, might want to limit its engineer visits only in extremely urgent cases, or the costs are bound go up. Customer executives on chats and phones can be equally helpful in aiding consumers with their problems.
This goes without saying, always go through customer reviews before purchasing a smartphone and be ready to face small technical issues here and there. Not every phone is perfect, but renowned handset makers are not famous for nothing.
