I know this post is very lengthy. But please do read for your own benefit ! I looked at so many e-commerce websites in India and done shopping on a few of them. I always used to think that all the sites look alike (is it not as easy as search, select and pay) and its very different to differentiate the services in the e-commerce domain. I felt that to be the reason for not much of competition in each of the domains (books, gadgets, apparel etc) and hence a few players.
I read "zappos.com - Delivering Happiness" book and wondered how Tony Hsieh could create so much impact through the customer service while focusing on selling only shoes online !
I was wondering how big guns like Futurebazaar can compete in a market growing with new entrants.
I knew that e-commerce is a long term game and it took eight solid years for Amazon to break-even. My initial impression was 'what was he doing for so many years apart from expanding the coverage and product base?'
Apart from Internet penetration the other major enablers for e-commerce adoption are credit-cards usage and trust. I was thinking earlier about 'trust' in the form of payments and delivery.
The thread that runs through all the above thinking is about 'customer experience'. I had a first-hand experience to understand about what could go wrong with customer experience in an e-commerce company.
Being an avid reader, I was greedy on my part to be tempted on a '30% more discount only for 3 days' offer by Indiatimes Shopping site. I went to the site on third day and browsed through the catalog.
I found multiple versions of a book and thought of them as different editions or paperback / hard-cover or indian / foreign editions. I wanted to check them all individually, but the site was inaccessible on every other request.
I selected the three books I wanted and went to 'check-out' option to review and confirm my order. To my surprise I found no option to navigate back to the main site and leave the check-out process in the middle. I personally feel this is restricting the user to not abandon the shopping cart. But I guess no one would like this option, given a choice.
I provided the payment details and got the 'Verified by Visa' page from payment gateway. I provided the code, which was verified and the redirection to the site was happening. As the Indiatimes Shopping was down (or probably not able to sustain high loads) at that time, it showed me an error page. This is a classic case of 'hung payment' when the user would not know whether his payment was through or not !
I checked the status of my order status through 'My Order' tab. It showed that my order is captured. The status column said 'Created'. I had to wonder what that really means ! Surprisingly, the 3 books I selected to buy earlier are still present in the shopping cart !
I haven't got a transaction SMS from the credit card provider. Usually these SMS messages come even before the re-direction to the site happens. I was puzzled that there was no message yet on that occasion.
I called up the voice support number that was provided on the website in each of the header pages. I got an 'invalid number' message !!
I was happy to find a chat option on the website and initiated chat. I got a welcome message and after a few seconds, I got an automated message saying that all the customer executives are busy. I was advised to leave a message, which I promptly did including my contact details. I never got a response from their support team through any channel - phone or e-mail.
I waited for an hour and checked my order status and it has not changed at all. I did not receive any SMS messages, phone calls or e-mails on the issue.
I found another number on their site and called-up that number. My order was verified and I was told to wait for an hour or so to see any change in status. I had no better option but to wait. Apparently, this is no toll-free number. I call up to raise a complaint about their system and pay for it too !
I provided my feedback on the site with all the details. I got an automated e-mail that the feedback is received. I haven't heard from their feedback team yet.
I waited till evening and checked the status of the order. Nothing changed. I thought I shall try to place the order again. As the items were still hanging in the 'Cart', I went to 'Check-out' process and tried to provide the gift coupon code. Surprise - no discount was allowed on the code !
I raised a case against my order. Yes, they have an option to report a case against an order. Not sure, if there is anyone looking into the cases at all - there is no response yet !
I called them again at about 6 PM in the evening and here is the conversation I had with the customer executive (CE):
| CE | Thanks for calling Indiatimes Shopping. How can I help you? |
| Vijay | Hi. I placed an order with Indiatimes Shopping. My order seems to be captured but the items are still hanging in the shopping cart. I have not received any confirmation of my order. Can you please confirm the order? |
| CE | Give me your order number please. |
| Vijay | Here it is… |
| CE | [ does something for a few secs ] Sorry sir. All our systems are down currently |
| Vijay | So, what happens to my order? |
| CE | Sorry sir. All our systems are down currently |
| Vijay | Let me know how you can help me. Can I speak to one of your seniors? I have no complaints about YOU, but I just want to give my feedback about the system. |
| CE | Sorry sir. All of them are busy right now. |
| Vijay | So, what do I do now? |
| CE | You can call us after half an hour sir. Or much better, you can call us tomorrow. |
| Vijay | But the offer closes tonight. |
| CE | Sorry sir. All our systems are down currently. |
| Vijay | Ok then. |
| CE | Is there anything ELSE I can help you with sir? |
| Vijay | Yeah, Sure ! Can you get me a scoop of Coconut Ice-cream with Cone from Natural's? [ Click … ] |
Except for the last statement the rest of the conversation is verbatim that happened with the customer executive. It's an understatement if I say 'It's heights of worst customer experience' !
I later got a couple of transaction alert notices from my credit card providers. I guess it happened through transaction reconciliations at later point in time. I don't know why it's duplicated. Now my money is taken, but there is no response or order-change status from Indiatimes. Apparently, I noticed this delayed response and delivery from this vendor from others' experiences shared on Internet.
I tweeted to them on twitter and got a cold and canned reply 'We regret your inconvenience…'.
As you could see, no unit of the customer service department functioned effectively and the lack of integration among all these units - online chat, feedback on website, order complaints, call center, twitter - was quite obvious. If the entire system had unexpected load, they could have at least devised a pro-active plan to deal with customers without losing their image.
Two lessons from this experience:
- For all those entrepreneurs venturing into E-Commerce domain, remember that 'customer service' is the key. With all the experience I had at this shopping site now, I would not dare shop at their site in the near future - even if they give me 90% discount. Integrated functioning of the entire customer service department (and also with other departments) is quite important. Having no physical retail outlet, the website and the people over the phone becomes the 'face' of the company.
- For all those online shoppers, beware of all the typical problems while shopping online. Share your experiences with others so that they would benefit while shopping on e-commerce sites; also, this would help the trustworthy companies to surface to the top.
If anyone has any other good or bad experiences, I would be happy to listen. Please do share your experiences with one and all for their benefit.
If anything happens to my order, I will let you all know :-)
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