The day before yesterday I had a meeting in Gurgaon. The meeting went well and as we were returning my driver Babloo suggested that we stop to fill up. The service centre that he was about to turn into had a large queue of vehicles. I too glanced at the fuel gauge, realized that there was sufficient fuel for us to carry on, instructed Babloo to drive on. We were heading towards the Gurgaon toll plaza and I was telling my colleague Yasmeen about my plans to drive down to the Sangla Valley for a vacation next month. ‘So God forbid if the car stalls in the country side, how difficult do you reckon would be to get help’ asked Yasmeen. ‘Well you see, I do not expect problems as this is a Mahindra Scorpio, and they have a nation wide service network, thanks to their strong presence in rural and semi rural India. With their tractors, Bolero and the Marshal, they are very strong in those markets’ I replied.
As we were having this conversation Babloo reported that the car had stalled. Yasmeen and I looked at each other. Mercifully we were not in rural India, but this did appear uncanny. We were now stranded on the main highway, near the toll plaza bang opposite the Ambience Mall.
I called the Mahindra service and was immediately connected to an operator. There was no long IVR, which usually is the case with banks and telecom operators and is so frustrating. The guy on the other end appeared to be well-trained, he took our coordinates, understood the problem and promised to call back in 10 mins. With-in the next 10 minutes I received a call from the local Mahindra service centre, who again ascertained my whereabouts and promised to reach with in 45 minutes.
We walked across to the Ambience Mall for lunch. On our way I again received a call from Mahindra confirming whether I had been contacted by the service vehicle. While, we enjoyed a nice lunch at the Potpourri, the car was fixed. Strangely it had run out of gas. (The fuel gauge was off, I got it fixed today)
Subsequently Babloo went in a three-wheeler and got us fuel and we were on our way.
Later in the day, I again received a call from Mahindra inquiring if all was well and if I was satisfied with their service. I was hugely impressed with the Mahindra service.
The other day we decided to order food from the nearby Domino’s . As I called to place an order, the operator at the other end started taking my order in English. As he struggled with the language, I tried to engage him in Hindi. So now in deference to his training he continued in English, while I responded in Hindi hoping that he will get the cue and switch to Hindi. This way too we didn’t make much progress and I had to request him to speak in Hindi, which both of us spoke and understood perfectly.
Once we were done, the operator told me that he was delighted that someone was willing to have a conversation with him in his mother tongue and as a gesture of goodwill he is sending me a ‘choco lava cake’ with his compliments.
I just do not understand why companies like Domino’s, who will happily go for a localised menu, refuse to train their service operators to talk in Hindi, particularly in a city like Delhi, where pretty much everyone speaks in the language. I fully understand the importance of English, however when the customer chooses to speak in Hindi, why would a phone operator, who struggles with English, would still want to take orders in English? Beats me.
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