A phrase that the Oxford English Dictionary reports was first used in 1736. It means "to make an inventory of the merchandise, furniture, etc., in one's own possession, recording its quantity and present value, or to make a careful estimate of one's position with regard to resources, prospects, or the like."

Monday, October 8, 2007

Airtel, I'm flattered.

"Putting customers first" - Hmm, when we hear jargons of that kind, we really don't appreciate it all that much. But, when YOU happen to be the customer and someone really puts you FIRST, that is when your perception changes.

Boy! I'm flattered. Picture this, an Airtel landline connection is disconnected from Residence-A (Bellandur) on Sunday morning. The connection is up and running at the new residence, Residence-B (Sahakaranagar) by Monday evening, without any change in the landline number !

Mind you, it was no cake-walk, it even involved a road-cut, since Airtel never uses the aerial route for their cabling. The road-cut was done very professionally. They have even promised to re-tar the surface after two days, once the mud settles down.

In a place where customer service sucks so bad, such experiences have an ever-lasting impression. I'm sure, Airtel understands that more than we do. And that is the way to go. DoT is being pounded with requests for mobile-telephony licenses. Big players like AT&T and DoCoMo are trying to get a pie, customer loyalty is the KEY. Losers (comes with brand names like "Tata Indicom" "Sify") watchout !

PS: The last time I wrote something on Airtel's customer service, I had some of their mobile-subscribers say that I was plain-lucky and nothing else could be read from it. But, its interesting how I can be lucky time and again :-).

4 comments:

Srividya said...

that's really cool rajesh... now when WE move to our new house .. let's see what happens with BSNL - I don't have too much expectation :P

Rajani gorur said...

You are really lucky. Our lanline phone of Airtel was giving humming noise. It took 3 weeks to get an alternate phone!

Rajesh said...

@vidya
Hmm :), lets wait and watch. I hope something has changed over the last 2 years.

Rajesh said...

@rajani - Oh O. Sorry about that. I'm glad I'm lucky at something :). Airtel folks came over in the evening and tarred the road they had cut open, just as they had promised :-). Why are they being so good to me ? :P