For all my love for city of Bangalore, its weather, its culture among other things, there are a few things that are so ironical about this city.
The infrastructure of the city is probably the worst in the country and may be the world. This is re-iterated every time you go out of the city and come back. But at the same time it has some of the best office campuses that the country can boast of. The only caveat being that you have to go through the hell of traffic hotspots like Hosur Road, Marthahalli to reach them. The foreign media often writes about how the Bangalore is totally wired and is competing with the cities in the first world countries and I wonder ‘Where’? One rain and I am stuck outside / inside my house and have to wait for few hours before the water subsides and I can go to the other side and then I rush to see if this time the ‘Rain Gods’ have spared my car or do I need to rush it to service station yet again.
The service that I get as a customer, weather I am buying vegetables or clothes or shoes or want anything serviced. A classic example I give is of a boutique where I went up to pick up a Short Kurta for a friend. While the lady went to fetch some Kurtas, I tried browsing the long ones in the display window, the lady came back and said ‘No Madam, you wanted the short Kurtas’, almost as if I have committed a crime by looking at the long ones. I said ‘Can I not buy a long one?’ She said ‘No Madam, but you wanted a short one’. Can you imagine pissing off the customer like this in any other city? People are just not ready to look beyond what they are doing and customers are hardly important. And look at the irony, this city thrives and flourishes on ‘Service Industry’. Can I also get some service please?
You are absolutely rite anuradha, Rain brings Bangalore to halt, customer service – Banks are the worst I have seen.
ReplyDeletei agree to everything except the customer service.
ReplyDeleteYou just cant generalise things, taking into consideration a stray case like this.
Miss Anuradha I bet that the person who misbehaved with u was a non kannadiga an outsider. I stress this point that its the people from other states who are mostly into buisness in the city and u cant blame BANGALORE for this.
whts Bangalore got to do with Customer service u got!!!I have got worse service in so called better cities of the world!! The companies have equally contributed to the infrastructure problems. Why cant they ask their employees to pool their cars instead of everyone bringing their cars ??? Isnt it yr duty to find a proper parking place so that yr car isnt affected. Why blame Bangalore for all yr problems ???
ReplyDelete"it is parked in a parking place inside the building, for which you pay through your nose"
ReplyDeleteIt's the builders responsibility and not Bangalore's !!! :)
Its not builders problem, its the clogged drainage system that is responsible and as per my knowledge, it is the responsibility of Bangalore authorities to keep them clean and see that they do not create havoc as soon as there is a shower...
ReplyDeletethis can go on and on, its the responsibility of the Builder as much as u say it is Bangalore's. Its a known fact that builders flout rules and then blame it on the authoriies.
ReplyDeleteIf you feel the city is so bad, you should move to another city, rather than cribbing!!! Coming from the North myself, I find things much better here than in many other cities of India. What you send around comes around back to you!
I quite agree with bad customer service almost everywhere, but it isnt just Bangalore to blame I guess. I think we Indians need to go beyond and look at it from a different angle.
ReplyDeleteI have had similar experiences at clothes store, restaurants, banks and once even at a private resort known for its good service! We had been to a resort to book it for a day for about 70 people and the manager seemed least bothered. He was very hostile towards us and didnt give a damn about our needs.
I think the reason for this is that these people dont own the shop/business and hence are in the least bothered about giving any kind of customer satisfaction. It isnt their business so why bother whether it is going to flourish or suffer a downfall because of their attitudes.
But u will notice how a salesman at your doorstep behaves with you. He is cordial and pleasant and tries his best to give what you need. Thats only coz he gets something if he sells the product to you.
It all boils down to what is in it for each one! Selfish as we all are...
WOW!!! It seems you too have shifted to bangalore recently and are in the process of opinion formation.
ReplyDeleteMe too :)
I fully agree with the infrastructure part. But customer service, I guess it is a problem with India as a whole. In cities like Delhi, people don't even want to sell let alone serve the customer well. I can think of 3 reasons.
ReplyDelete1) Employees in these businesses are heavily underpaid for the hours they put in and have no incentive to do their job well. They are paid so low that it can't be lower even if they underperform!
2) It is a seller's market. Even with license raj gone, not enough of anything is being produced in India for domestic consumption. So consumers have to compete with one another to buy the goods and services rather than the other way round. The fact that consumers as a whole have more buying power than is required to provide a market to the goods produced.
3) There isn't enough greed in Indian businessmen and there isn't enough expectation in the minds of Indian consumers. The businessmen are content to live the way they have lived before. They don't want to expand and get richer. Rather they focus on getting the maximum margin they can with the least investment of money and effort. And the consumers. They have hardly seen good customer service and thus don't know how to 'expect' it and how much of it to 'expect'!
And guess what! We almost never end up giving business to the cordial salesman at our doorstep, even if we are interested in his products. We get so turned off by the butt-brush effect that we prefer to go out and buy!
Anuradha, you have a great blog here. Ironies of Living in Bangalore caught my eye and I thought I would put a post on it. I'm looking for help.
ReplyDeleteThe site I have is a in-home business site. Its all about, need I say it, working from home. I think people should have the choice to build their own income instead of somebody else’s. Freedom of well being and all of that...anyway I was on your site looking for ways to help my business. I'm really looking for ways of building better rapport between recruits.
Anyways Anuradha thanks for the great blog. I'll just have to carry on my search till I find what I'm looking for. Take care.
Anuradha, you have a great blog here. Ironies of Living in Bangalore caught my eye and I thought I would put a post on it. I'm looking for help.
ReplyDeleteThe site I have is a work from home employment site. Its all about, need I say it, working from home. I think people should have the choice to build their own income instead of somebody else’s. Freedom of well being and all of that...anyway I was on your site looking for ways to help my business. I'm really looking for ways of building better rapport between recruits.
Anyways Anuradha thanks for the great blog. I'll just have to carry on my search till I find what I'm looking for. Take care.
Greetings Anuradha, you have a pretty cool blog here. I was searching for work from home in the uk. I just started my home business and you can see it at this link - work from home in the uk. Your post title caught my eye - Ironies of Living in Bangalore. I'm just looking for tips on how to be a better mentor. I know that’s not what you’re going on about in this post but I am trying to expand my vocabulary phrases so I can talk to many different personalities. I mean I have to talk to a lot of people and I need to be able to connect with everyone.
ReplyDeleteAnyways Anuradha, this helped. Keep it up, I'll be back.
I was searching around for info on how to start a home based business. I found your blog Anuradha.
ReplyDeleteI was reading your post and believe it or not it’s helped me. Every tip I get helps, even if its just new phrases I have never used before, its helps me be a better mentor. This is my business link - home based buisness - check it out and see what you think.
Anyways Anuradha, you have a good site. I'll be back.