Don't Outsource Your HEART !!!

Recently I bought three pieces of furniture from House Full. They are a furniture retail chain with maybe over 5 outlets in and around Mumbai. They are probably the only chain currently present in Vasai area. Once I had selected and finalized the three furniture pieces, the attendants threw a surprise that the furniture come in a ready for assembly state and they will charge me Rs. 300 for sending over the carpenter to assemble the item. Since, I did not have much of an option (especially since my wife and daughter had selected the items), I reluctantly agreed to pay this amount.

Then started my travails. The delivery guys came over within two days and promptly dumped three cartons in the house. However, instead of a clothes dryer stand which I had ordered, they dumped a bean bag and left. I had instructed the outlet to send in the carpenter on a saturday. However, he arrived on Friday morning. The moment he arrived he started cribbing about how far the house is and the fact that he had to spend money on an auto-rickshaw to reach the house. He stated that HouseFull does not reimburse him the travel fare and he has to shell it out of his pocket.

He was pretty grumpy all the time. He assembled one of the furniture fine. For the next one, in his bad attitude he banged one of the panels to the wall. Thereby damaging both the wall and the panel. The panel had a chip off from one of the corner. He continued assembling the piece. Once done, he put the caps on the screws on one side and handed the rest of the caps to my wife and said to do it ourselves. Then he left abruptly still cribbing about the return fare he has to shell out.

I went to the retail outlet that weekend and complained against this behaviour of the carpenter, the damage caused to the furniture panel and the incomplete work with the screw caps. The attendant said that the carpenters are locals and the company has no control on them. He said he would take down the complaint and will have it attended to. Nothing happened after that. No phone calls ... no contact. They just replaced the bean bag with the clothes dryer stand after almost a week. The delivery person said he just delivers and is not concerned with any issues I had with the company.

Two weeks back, I walked in to the same HouseFull outlet looking to get a bookshelf. They had one which I liked. This time I told them that I will not pay for assembly and will do it myself. I said I will not pay the Rs. 300 they charge for assembly. The attendant said that I will still have to pay the delivery charges. He said the Rs. 300 includes delivery and assembly charges. Now this was not the same that was conveyed the first time. I was told delivery is free and Rs. 300 is for the assembly. I told him the same. Anyways, I asked how much is the delivery charge. He had no clue and told me that he is not sure about it. Next he changed his stance and told me that they will deliver but will not be responsible for any damage to the panels in-transit. I asked to see his manager. I told the manager that in this case what about the damage caused by the carpenter during assembly the first time. He again had no answer. He just took down my number and address. A carpenter came over to my place with no clue to what is expected out of him. I sent him back. That was it. No further interaction with HouseFull.

It is really surprising how companies outsource the customer contact activities. These are the interactions which create lasting impression and defines how the relationship will develop. If customer relationship is the heart of a company, it is like giving this heart in the hands of an outsider and expect him to pump it a the right interval.

At one of the B2C setup of a corporate house, I was studying the customer relationship process. I found a lot of problems with the call center. I raised this in my report to the operations manager. He said that he cannot do anything about it. The corporate house had decided to set up a call center and being of the same group, the company was forced to give its call center business to this setup. But while the call center was learning, the customers were leaving. It was a CRM harakiri.

Customers are the heart of any company. Any activity that has direct contact with the customer should be under complete control of the organization. Contracts and SLAs cannot bring in the customer ownership attitute. Companies must seriously rethink outsourcing their customer contact points. Its not a question of cheaper process with the vendor. A lost customer is much costly than the few rupees saved in servicing him with an outsourced vendor.