Question

We all have “service failure” stories to tell about a firm that provided sub-par service to us as consumers. Sometimes these stories are humorous and other times they are sad. Share a story that can either be your own or that of a close friend or family member. In recounting the story line, you should first analyze the incident in terms of the concepts and gaps presented in Chapter 9 of our textbook. For example, the restaurant that did not address a customer’s “cold food” is a service failure. However, was that service failure due to insufficient training, inadequate hiring practices (hiring the wrong people), or an inability of the restaurant to predict and oversee demand? Identify (as close as possible) the causes of the service failure.

Answer 1

Flipkart India delivered a shaving set instead of a trouser and this was a customers service failure. I ordered a trouser a few months back on Flipkart and the delivery time was 4 to 10 days. I waited patiently for 10 days and then I got the courier on the 11th day. I was okay with that and I was also very excited to see the trouser as soon as I got the courier. Unfortunately, when I opened the courier I found a Philips shaving set and I did not whether to laugh or to get mad for this very bad customer service.

This is mainly because of the negligence and the lack of training. I understand that the e-commerce industry is very dynamic and the companies deliver thousands of orders every single day. But it is the responsibility of the company to make sure that they are sending the right product to the customer. The people working for the company need to be more responsible. Packing and tagging the product does not require a good qualification and anybody can do that. The company should have trained these employees properly and make them understand the importance of the quality of customer service. The company also need to make sure that they hire the right people for the job who are responsible and serious about the work they are doing.