These days i have been thinking on the different services available around us for a common man. I wonder if these are really genuine services. One such service that i have used many a times is the online movie ticket booking. This service comes with a fancy term "convenience fee". Is this just a convenience for the customers alone ? It makes their jobs organized and easier as well isn't it. Also shouldn't that be part of service provided to customers. Setting up an online system wouldn't cost the theater huge money i believe.... and for the rest of his life he gets to charge it as convenience fee from the customer !!!
Another service that i came across was the online funds transfer facility provided by most of the banks these days. The NEFT transaction is charged by couple of banks. I know of SBI and Citibank at-least. They charge a fee of 5.00 INR for every NEFT transaction. why should the banks charge this fee in the first place ? Are they encouraging people to use the paper cheques more than the online paper-less transaction ?
ICICI and HSBC as of now do not have any such charges.(at least till the last transfer i am not aware of any such charges)
Another innovative way of charging customers as part of service is the Airtel's Customer care desk. If you happen to reach the customer care officer, your call will be charged with some nominal amount (guess it is 50ps for 3 minutes). Though this looks like a small value, imagine the number of customers calling and speaking to the customer care executive and that in turn being charged !! what a way to generate revenue. So the monthly rentals do not cover up customer care charges !!
Service providers are really doing a good job at innovating different methods to provide service with a fee !
so are these really services to the customer ???
4 comments:
Services always did and will come at a cost. In a capitalistic economy toward which India has now transitioned - these are not government owned public sectors (which use taxpayers funds to offer services) but are public companies that are accountable to its share holders for every dime that is spent. When a business model is being designed - the biggest factor is the profit margin, and every dime that is earned is pure profit. The more PFO the higher the company is valued - so there comes no question of offering free services.
Agreed, but then why do you pay the fixed monthly rental ? All these years the calls to customer care were provided free of charges. This change has been introduced recently ...since the customer pays for the fixed monthly rental (which doesn't include any call charges), one should provide free support is what i feel. Customers call up SP mostly for some errors (not always though). Charging for this is not fair. Lets say i have a problem in my GPS settings, bill etc for that i should not be charged to speak to the customer care executive.
When i say services, i am not referring to GPS/Calls/Data as a free service. I am just referring to the customer-executive interaction being charged.
Yep, charging for calling customer care sounds outrageous I agree! It would look better to just include these overheads with in the monthly rental fee.
As far as the online ticketing and online fund transfer is concerned - a system needs to be put in place for these services. And the funds to put these services in place comes from customer - it is just labeled differently by different companies, be it convenience fee or higher ticket pricing or misc fee.
I am just putting across a view from the business side of how things work. Personally I would like to grab as many free services as I can get - it's just that I have realized that there is nothing free out there!!The point is that one way or the other we always pay for what we get.
From Gmail Buzz ...
Kiran Shirol - I think most of the service charges makes sense to me.
1. Convenience Charge :
Its a very nominal fee compared to the amount of time and energy which you will otherwise spend. Imagine yourself booking a ticket going to the theater. First trip you have to make just to book tickets in advance, and then the second time to watch the movie. If you want to buy over the counter on the day of the movie, imagine coming back disappointed if you don't get the tickets. I haven't considered the fuel charges or the commute charges in this case.
2. NEFT charges
The same explanation above applies here also. Imagine going to the bank or locating a drop box and transferring. You also get a instant acknowledgment with online service etc.
3. Customer Care charges :
This is not completely justified, but certainly there are some advantages here
a> Unnecessarily customers will not call. I know of cases where some people call the customer care and have fun or just talk non-sense.
b> There is plenty of info these days available in most of the automated Menus when called the helpline. Only info that is not available in the automated menu is transferred the customer executive. Its just one way to encourage people to use the automated menus as most of the info is available there.
My two cents !Nov 23
Vivek Purushotham - you completely misread it :) the point is not about the quality of services....the point is ..why only few banks are charging this fee ? Online is equally good for the banks as well ....less paper work, more of automation ...not all banks charge this fee
same applies to ticket booking as well ...
thats just a small population of insane ppl ...a system is not built keeping in mind the insane ppl, systems are built keeping in mind how the users are affected ...i havent come across a single person in my life who calls the customer care executive to have fun ..believe me getting to that point needs lots of patience :)
when you are paying fixed monthly rental charges irrespective of whether you use the service or not, you are entitled to speak to the customer care executive as well is my point here ...lets say you bug a washing machine ...it comes with a two year warranty ....how can he charge the customer for an enquiry during these two years ? The advantage that Airtel has here is ...he is the service provider !!
secondly, after the warranty you can take the AMC and you are entitled for support.
In the same way, the monthly rental that you pay should entitle you to a free customer care executive interaction .......after year and year of providing free service did AIrtel realize that the small population of insane people are causing them such a trouble that they want to impact the normal users ?? does it make sense in any way ..atleast it doesnt make sense to me Nov 23
Shruthi Shirol - :) :)Nov 23
Vikram Dixit K - hmm.. I agree the system should allow for some flexibility. I think the American bank system is better that way. There are 2 types of account - a checking account and a savings account. You do not get interest if you have money only in your checking account but you get to do free unlimited transfers. You get interest on your savings account though. And, you can transfer at max 3 times from savings to any account in a month. Charges are incurred only after the 3rd transfer. This works out for the bank as well. Maybe it is time to introduce the same in India. Other industries not sure
Soundararajan Ramaswamy - Vivek.. I was wondering why does CFSoE is so bug prone.. if the owner is debugging customer service of service providers and PVR, then who will debug the poor CFSoE? Now I agree, you are indeed "Bad at ****** " HEHEHEHE7:59 am
Kiran Shirol - But soundar... that is neither cast on the stone nor is a low hanging fruit.... I would say... he is exercising his sweat equity at the moment ...11:28 am
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