"Flipkart kar lena" - a line a lot of use at times or hear it from someone around us. When one is buying anything and isn't sure - to check, to compare price, to check availability or for instant purchase - one tends to hear or say this!
Flipkart started its operations in 2007, I made my first purchase from it - in 2008 - and have been a fan of the website since then. Being an avid reader - I had many unknown, rare books stuck in my head which I would never find anywhere but at Flipkart. The time when online shopping was seen with lot of skepticism in India - people would ask me "Do they give first hand books?", "Is the book original?", "Isn't it more expensive?" and blah blah...
Despite all my own apprehensions in early days.. my heart was won by seeing my favorite memories arrive neatly packed with Cash On Delivery option! How could the website cheat me... I spread so much good word about the website - that at one point, I thought they should pay me for advertising! Jokes aside, over the years - due to my hectic work and lifestyle, and with boom of various websites in India - I added quite a revenue to online sites. Flipkart became one of the sites where I would visit for books, checking for price and sometimes purchase from it, and sometimes not.
The "The Big Billion Day Sale" on 6th Oct 2014 - which was to emulate western concept of "Day After Thanksgiving" sale, frankly didn't interest me. I could not think of anything that would interest me and could be on a considerable sale.
However, after Snapdeal started its humorous takes on flipkart big day - I thought - lets check, why not! and boy! I did find great deals on few things. Remembering Snapdeal ads - I decided to check the same items there to be sure! People who actually shopped on that day - will know that Snapdeal servers reacted far worse than Flipkart's did. Slow servers were a bother and nuisance on both sites. They failed to open, refused to load pages properly. Refused smooth checkout, volatile carts and payment process timeouts! Both need to better up here for handling volumes!
Post trauma of slow loading websites and my cart getting changed every five minutes - I was tired - yet happy with the deals that I had got. The moment the Big Billion Day Sale was over - the media was flooded by how the prices were shot up before sale and then right price was achieved by showing hoax discounts.
Well, Well, Well - if you think I am going to defend Flipkart on this... No.
Yes, they did that!
but not for all 100% stock but may be for something like 30 to 40% stock as per my observation.
but does that help their case ... NO..
So, to be honest - anyone mentioned the sites name and said "Oh, but you love it.." I would Keep Mmmm.
So, Why despite slow servers, bad online experience, and hoax discounts.. am I still their fan.. infact claiming that they have now won my respect!
1. The Brave Letter: How many of us received an apology from the founders. No, am no snowman who will melt at one apology letter. I was taken aback by the sheer format! Neat, concise, and yet detailed. I am into online space - I know its not easy. Even for offline business its not easy to admit one's mistakes. Also - taking a chance that as an end user - I might not even know of other 3 problems mentioned in the mail.
This means you take your customer seriously. Most of the businesses take their customers to be fools. (Trust me, I am battling with one world leading Indian online service portal in its space these days and they take you to be a fool.) By neatly defining areas Price Changes, Out of Stock Issue, Cancellations, Website Issues - I think its quite brave & smart to do the way they did the apology.
2. Customer Support: They have a fantastic customer support and its no new news. One of the things I had ordered was cancelled by Flipkart within 4 hours despite full payment. I had ordered two quantities of same item and one was being cancelled. Customer Care gave me the funda of "equal opportunity". Due to limited stock, they would like to give equal opportunity to another customer who has ordered the same thing at almost the same time. How true that is.. or a creative query handler - I found it weird but was ok... with the reply and didn't pursue it further. The money reflected back in my account in 5 days. Cool enough! Move on.. I told myself.
3. Handling Cancellations: Cancellation After a Week!!! After a week I receive a mail informing me that two items out from my order have been cancelled and money will be refunded.
I WAS PISSED
Money back...I didn't want my money back.. I wanted my order. I didnt shop for those things as I had ordered them online, and now after so much time they tell me that order cannot be fulfilled.
All goodwill, all smart apology letters - went right out of the window. I was pissed, irritated and didnt want to bother with the site anymore.
and then the countdown began: Day 3 of receiving the cancellation mail - I receive an mail stating that they will be giving me e-gift voucher worth Rs 500/- valid on any product on the site! WOW.. for two cancelled items - I get two vouchers - that is INR 1000/- when both my items didn't total up to an order of 1000 bucks, and their reverse payment is already back in my bank account.
Not bad at all I think!
I wait for the vouchers... Day 6 of receiving the mail - I get the gift vouchers.
I go online to redeem them - and I can redeem both the individual vouchers on a single product! and vouchers validity is for one year!!!! Talk about customer delight!
I am blown away by the way they have handled the goof ups! At every stage they admitted "it went beyond their control.. was bigger than they expected"
We all work, We all mess up...
the point is how do we bounce back - how is the customer made to feel at the end of the day.
Here, I had my moments of irritation, disappointment - but also huge respect on how they have handled the whole mess. Hats off to them. Good Work Flipkart Team.
You continue to have me shopping on your site despite the Big Billion Mess Day.
