Customer Service: The Cultural & Geographical Differences b/w India & Western World

This post isn’t meant to criticize our culture or our organizations. Neither is it meant to be a rant which is the outcome of frustration while dealing with a service provider! It is a reflection of an observation which explains the behavioral patterns of organizations in India when coordinating with their customers!

Perhaps this isn’t for the first time that we’re talking about the soft issue of “Customer Service”. The bottom line is that bulk of Indian companies continue to struggle on the sticky support wicket despite a tremendous opportunity due to the growth of Social Media channels.

Our recent experience with a leading provider of web-hosting is a classic case-study of the wide gap that still exists b/w India & parts of the Western World when compared on the “Customer Support” front.

In my opinion, our key learning from this experience is the existence of mind-set difference. While we consider consider customer support just like any other job and a department in the organization, for companies in States it is something that ties in with overall experience.

Our organization had recently switched over to a VPS hosting package with the idea of improving response time of hosted apps & web-pages as well as cutting down typical problems which arise with shared hosting packages! The underlying goal was to serve our customers better than ever before. During the selection process, we did our bit by researching for preferred vendors in this space across India & United States.

While the services being provided by all vendors were quite similar, we were particularly looking at someone who was strong with Services Support & was carrying a trusted name in the industry. The other problem was limited options that we had in India. Being customers of companies like BigRock and ZNet India we have had mixed experiences with them and weren’t quite keen to experiment with an unknown hosting company as it would have put the reputation of our customers’ at stake.

It was then that we learnt about a popular American hosting company that had recently started its operations in India. Since we were well aware of their unit which is among the most popular companies up in the U.S. we thought it might be a safe bet to go with their Indian arm. We freezed the option, went ahead with our order and the next step was migration of our current online assests to the new server.

That’s where it all began:

1. To begin with, we faced severe migration problems and our company website www.iffort.com was down for ’2′ days being in no man’s land.
2. We faced long delays with email delivery and major down-time resulting in switch to our personal emails for the interim period.
3. Lastly, a couple of our customer portals went down.

Amidst all these, we were using all possible means to connect with their India team to understand the crux of the problem. Be it Online Chat, Email, Twitter, Facebook or Phone, we used all of them. Honestly, we had strong doubts whether the team actually understood our problem.

Perhaps they were new, perhaps they were taking time to setup in an structured manner but whatever the reason was, we knew that our organization was suffering due to all this. After constant cross-talk, Sunny did manage to hook-up with the team’s India Director. Alas we had to threaten them of dire consequences and send numerous emails. Finally, we received a reply from their India director that he was in-charge of key issues and was himself traveling out of India.

But I think one of our emails served as a trigger in their mind and what followed then was a rescue operation led by their India Director & everything was restored to normal overnight.

What caused this action?

Like I mentioned, it was one of those emails. That one email where we had marked the group’s global CEO who was based out of United States.

So finally the problem was solved, things were restored but that didn’t stop us from exploring our options because all the love had already been lost. Damage had been in the form of what we’d experienced over the course of “2″ weeks.

All in all we had lost faith to do business with the company! We wanted to switch to a different provider and deal with a new set people all-together. After a lot of introspection, we moved to a new company!

But here was the catch: We were will sticking with the same brand & were just moving over to their team in United States which was legally a different company! It was ironical that our experience with their US team was absolutely contrasting and diametrically opposite to the local team.

Here is what the group’s CEO had to say in an email:

I agree, they’re very new and with it being staffed just by Indian support there is going to be a learning curve. Eventually we’ll need to figure out a better system so that US support has access and can help when they are messing up. I’m very sorry for this.

What’s your take on this? Do you think India still has a long way to go when it comes to actually understanding the whole meaning and implications of Customer Service! What is your experience like!

Entrepreneurship Knows No Age Boundaries

The Restaurant - Tea & You

Exhausted with the day’s work routine, we wanted to sign off the night on a good note by having a nice & quite dinner. Since we were too tired and had an early morning flight to Delhi, we were really not in a mood to travel the distance in Bangalore.

With all that in our mind, we started hunting for the nearby restaurants in HSR Layout, Bangalore on zomato.com. It was then that I l stumbled on a uniquely named restaurant called “Tea & You”. At the first instance, it seemed that it was a tea joint.

But then I still thought of exploring them further and called up the listed number. I asked the gentleman on other side about the menu and he politely told me that they did have north Indian food on their menu.

That was it and we were there at the place in about 10 mts. time. The parking was empty and while the restaurant was on the 2^nd floor, a quick look at the dark ground floor could make one feel that the restaurant was completely deserted.

To my surprise, I found that the place was buzzing with loads of energy and reminded me of our college canteen days. The crowd was dominanted by youth from NIFT and perhaps we were the odd ones out atleast at that time.

After some puzzling moments which included some waiting time at the lounge area and a small photoshoot experiment, we were able to get a table which fitted our size [i.e. the number of members]. While we were still contemplating our decision and waiting to place the order, we were gently greeted by an elderly couple who introduced themselves as the owners of the restaurant.

That was followed by a conversation which threw some interesting insights and learnings from two entreprenuer. It was quite ironic that they were very young in terms of their experience and perhaps a shade old with their age.

The restaurant had started barely a couple of months ago, but ever since its launch it’s popularity has picked up immensly. Certainly one can attribute all the common factors like the quality of food, its central location and the fact that is very close to NIFT. But, beyond these I think the initial success has been laid down by the humble and “social” attidude of its founders.

One can hardly find a restaurant where the owners are standing alongside each table for minutes, treating customers as their friends and taking their opinion in real time about the quality of the food. You would rarely come across a restaurant owner who has himself prepared the food for all customers during the initial period. You won’t find a restaurant where the owner is spending more time in the kitchen than on the cash counter.

The epic story translates into a dream when the owner tells you that he has started this business after getting retirement from his government job. It is very inspiring as the husband-wife duo is fully supported by their sons who are seasoned IT professionals with India’s top software companies.

Overall wehad a great time at Tea & You and thoroughly enjoyed the food & the conversations  and the amazing HOSPITALITY. Lastly, we requested Mr. & Mrs. Sharma for a couple of pics as I told them that I would be talking about them on my blog and social stream

Mr. K.R. Sharma - T&Y Owner

The Proud Entrepreneur Couple

If you are in Bangalore or are going to be there in the near future, I would strongly suggest that you should check out this place

Facebook’s New Comment System: All You Wanted to Know

Were you gearing up for the upcoming Facebook page updates for 10th March? Well, hang on for a bit as there is more surprise in store for you before that happens. The latest comes in the form of Facebook’s newly launched comments plug-in, a powerful system that is bound to re-define how users comment on Blogs and other social media sites.

Let’s look at this all new plug-in and what makes it vastly different from already available commenting systems like Disqus, Intense Debate etc.

How and where do you install Facebook plug-in?

The comments box can be installed on any third party website where an interaction like comments is functional. You can grab the code for comments box from Facebook’s social plugin section here.

As shown in the screen below, the following details need to be entered before you can get the code for comments box. For example, you need to enter the URL of the website where the comments system will be integrated. The number of posts means the number of comment threads that should be displayed in a single instance. Lastly, you can set the width of the box and click on the “Get Code” button to grab the relevant code.

Please note, this plugin can only be used if your website has an application ID. Obtaining an application ID is simple and it can be easily done by registering the site.

What’s so Unique about FB Comments?

Authentication takes a backseat: We all know how tiring it can be to enter your username, website link and email address everytime you comment on a blog-post. Under the new comments system, if you are already logged on Facebook you don’t need to go through further authentication and can instead just focus on the comment. Not only that, your real picture will be displayed alongside the comment which negates the possibility of spam comments.

Choose how do you want to Post Comments

The new comments system also gives you the flexibility of choosing the profile/page from where you want to post comments. If you click on the “Change” link next to the Comment button, you can select from all the pages you administer and accordingly post your comment.

Cross-post Your Comments on Facebook Profile

Now let us move to the left-area of the comment window where you have another option which says “Post to Facebook”. This cross-posting feature ensures that any comment you make on a blog/website also goes to your Facebook profile thereby allowing your friends to see your comment in their activity stream. The “Post to Facebook” option is checked by default.

Synchronization of Your Friend’s Comments on Facebook & Website

Now once you post a comment and it goes to your Facebook profile, it is also reflected in the activity stream of your friends. The beauty is that everytime your friend’s comment on your post, it is also reflected on the original website where the discussion is taking place.

Here is one example that we tested in the case of Techcrunch. We had commented on a post by Techcrunch from the Facebook page of Iffort.

Any follow-up comment that was made for this post on our company page, also went back to Techcrunch. In other-words, the new comments system establishes a seamless connection between comments made on the website and Facebook page. As you see in the screenshot above, the normal comment button on Facebook has now changed to “Comment on TechCrunch”.

Organization & Display of Comments

Coming back to the website, the organization of comments is governed by a social algorithm. This social algorithm displays comments that are made by friends in your network and also the ones that have generated more discussion. I think there is still some flaw in this feature as the sorting of comments seemed to be working differently when observed from two distinct profiles.

Administration Options for Comments

The Facebook comments system is also powered with a comment administration system for easy management of user-comments in the backend. This works well like any of the commenting plugins and enables readers/administrator to filter spam comments.

What is the Good Part?

1. Reduction in Spam Comments: Since the comments plugin requires posting from your Facebook profile or a page that you manage, it will immensly cut down the volume of spam comments.
2. Unification of All Comments: Site owners and blog authors can now aggregate all of their comments in one single place, as comments made via Facebook are also displayed on their website.
3. Simplification of Commenting Process: The new comments system now takes away the pain of entering URL, Email and Name as it simply authenticates via the user’s Facebook account.
4. Promotion Opportunities for Facebook Pages: This is perhaps the best feature of the new comments system. You can now post comments on third party websites as Facebook pages thereby providing more visibility to the fan pages.
5. Easy Sharing with Friends: As users who post comments, the tedious task of sharing your comments with Facebook friends is now gone. With the “Post to Facebook” option checked by default, the comment sharing on Facebook platform becomes single click.
6. Synchronized Deletion of Comments: Just like posting of comments, the deletion of comments is easy as deleting a comment from either Facebook or third-party website removes the respective comment from both the places.

What needs to be improved?

1. A Strong Social Algorithm: While the algorithm that aggregates and displays user comments is good, there is still lot of scope for improvement. It is still not clear as to how the user comments are displayed on a third-party website. In my case, when I clicked on the techcrunch link I was able to see the most popular comments along with a couple of comments made by friends in my network. Surprisingly, I couldn’t locate the original comment that was made from the Iffort Facebook page.
2. Be Prepared for Scrolling: Irrespective of how the comments work, prepare yourself for some good amount of scrolling to locate the comments you want.
3. Slow Loading Time of Comment Box : Something that I specifically observed in atleast 2-3 websites where the new comment system was installed. The entire comment box was taking a fair amount of time to load and the page had to be refreshed a couple of times before the comments could load.
4. No Facebook, No Comments: If Facebook is blocked in your workplace, there is no way you comment on an article.
5. Integration with other Social Channels: The current comments system is heavily dependent on Facebook. What remains to be seen is how integration of other social accounts like Twitter etc. will work with this comments system.
6. Privacy Issues: Since the comments made by user profiles will now be displayed outside Facebook, it can create privacy issues as some of the users might have problems in sharing their data outside the Social network.

and the vote goes to..

If you own a blog and are looking to improve its visibility, the new Facebook comments system is just the thing that you’d want to install on your site. The functionality of this system is far more superior and widespread than all the currently available plugins, so there is a big thumbs-up from our side.

These are still very early days for the comments system. Are you a site/blog owner and planning to integrate the Comments box on your website? What are you thoughts about the new system?

Our Sweet Little Baby Turns One!!

Flashback to Shopprix Mall, Noida Sector-61 during the early months of 2010. We were sitting in a coffee shop with a single point agenda: Hire our first ever employee or more appropriately the third guy in the team. It was an interview that was supposed to be conducted by us, instead the tables turned as we’re bamboozled with all sorts of queries: “But You Don’t Even Have an Office”, “Oh, so you are just starting, but I want to join a big company”. Only god knows, how did we handle situations like those and rose up to the expectations of our potential team-members. Perhaps we never did, but somewhere they found some confidence in us and expressed their desire to work with us.

Fast forward to February 15th 2011, an emotional moment for all of us as it reminds that we have turned one We definitely agree if you think that these are just 365 days and there is a lot that needs to be done. Yes, we have made our mistakes and we are still learning from them.

However we are happy with where we are, the path that we have taken and the pace at which we are going. The happiness reflects in our attitude and the flat culture that we follow at our workplace. We would like to use this moment to thank everyone who has supported in us our journey. Be it our emotional team members who stand united in every situation, our family, friends and all our well-wishers who have had a big role to play in where we are today.

Talking about organizational identities, yes there are two separate institutions in the form of iffort and itemperance respectively. However, in reality the differentiation is on paper because when it comes to practice it is about the team that is doing work. If you ask, why there are two separate organizations? Our answer is simple that when we started we never knew that we are going to hands together.

In terms of work, there is a lot of that we have done for our clients & stakeholders, there are some internal initiatives and some bit of has just been done with a single goal of contributing back to the Social ecosystem. We believe that the outcome in each case has been good, no matter how small or big the work has been.

Here goes a very crisp summary of our achievements:

1. Development: Social Applications, E-commerce portals and Intranet apps
2. Research: Open Research reports for Business Applications of Facebook/Twitter
3. Media Mentions: Regular coverage/citations in Media (Newspapers, Magazines and Publications)
4. Powering new Community initiatives: Bachaparty, Social media Chat Noida

To mark the first year celebrations, we have prepared a small image based video. Hope you guys would like it

Goals are in place for 2011 and we are taking it one step at a time. Our sincere thanks once again to everyone, please keep the motivation and feedback coming, we do need it   Here’s starting the 2nd year of journey with your support!!

Facebook Upgrades Fan Pages

Today’s morning brings a new surprise to all of us as Facebook has upgraded some of the features in Fan Pages. The changes as Facebook says are aimed to managing communication, improving expression and increasing engagement.

The changes are in terms of visual and navigation appearance for fans as well page administrators. In addition, there are set of new features which add on to page functionality.

While, Facebook has released an official note about the announcement, here is what I understand from the upgrade:

Tabs make way for Pictures

Like profiles, Facebook pages would now display your most recent uploads or tagged pictures right at the top.

Tabs Shift to Left Navigation

Don’t worry the tabs haven’t gone anywhere   Like your profile, they have just shifted to the left navigation area. What’s more there is also a special view for page administrators called as the “Admin View”.

Profile Pictures of Page Administrators

Now page administrators don’t need to go to the page settings, to figure out who the other page administrators are. I tested this feature and from what it appears, this is only meant for the admins. Fans, won’t able to see the profile pictures of page administrators.

Set Page as Your Profile

If you use this feature, you would be able to receive notifications for all the interactions made on your page. That’s not all you can also comment on other pages on behalf of the page. Example, I can comment on the itemperance fan page in the name of Iffort and not Daksh Sharma.

Off-course, whenever you want you can switch to your normal Facebook profile.

Comment on Your Fan Page from Your Facebook Profile

A feature that’s perhaps everybody was craving for. Earlier, whenever you made comments on your fan-page they were not linked to your profile. Now you have an option of choosing how you want your comments to be displayed i.e. from Your FB Profile or as Page.

Add Featured Pages and Page Admin Profile Pics

You could say, this is Facebook’s method of Backlinking/Creating a blogroll. On your fan page, you can display other pages that you like. Moreover, you can also display profile pictures of page administrators who manage those fan-pages.

For details about the announcement please read the Facebook note and read Inside Facebook.com’s version.

What do you think about the latest updates to Fan pages? How would this impact your fan-page? Is there any feature that we have missed. Please feel free to add through comments !!

Bacha Party Wishes You a Happy 2011

Today is the first day of a new year, first day of a new decade and marks the beginning of a new initiative. It is called “Bacha Party”. Bacha Party is a little initiative to start a social media movement for driving the eventual goal of organizing small parties for the street kids of India.

Parties? Yes, Parties Anything which makes the kids happy and enjoy, so it could be a trip to the ZOO, a classroom session which teaches them the basics of English language or even a coffee outing at CCD!!

To mark the beginning of this new dawn, here’s a special greeting message from the Bachas on Facebook.

How to Join Bachaparty?

Are you a “socialmediazen” and interested to join “Bacha Party” gang? Here is what you need to do:

1. Make an update on either twitter/facebook on 11th of every month at 11am, and express your thoughts/ideas about the Bachaparty cause.
2. Join us on facebook.com/bachaparty and to voice your opinion/ express your support

Bachaparty looks forward to meeting you in 2011. If you’ve any ideas which you would like to share with us please write to us at bachapartyindia@gmail.com.

The Psychology of Facebook Page Engagement: Exploring Status Updates

If you are a marketer responsible for the social media function or a sociosumer (social + consumer = A consumer on the social web) trying to get a grip of user behaviour patterns on Facebook then you might consider reading this further.

They say that beyond “Facebook” profiles, the biggest thing to have happened to Facebook has been Brand-pages. Brand-pages have immensely contributed to Facebook’s exponential growth and commercialization.

If we go by research from http://www.facebook.com/BrandGlue, 99.5 % of interactions on page updates are made over user’s wall or newsfeed. This certainly implies that a “wall/newsfeed” is the critical interaction area for a fan-page post.

At the same time we are aware that “Facebook” shows us the “Top News” by default. This means that a page update would only display in a user’s timeline if it has invoked high number of responses. There are users who change the “News Feed” to “Most Recent” but this number is comparatively very low.

So if you are the page-admin, responsible for updating your FB fan page what does it mean for you?

1. If someone has become your page fan due to a friend suggestion and doesn’t recognize your brand, then your post is a window of opportunity to create awareness.
2. Every single word in the post belongs to the brand and reflects the personality of the brand as a whole.

There is a fair chance that over a period of time the post may carry certainly reflections of your thought-process and your
vocabulary but it shouldn’t weigh-down brand’s philosophy.

Any post that you write will generate either of these reactions:

1. Create an impact – An emotion which is reflected in the form of a “Like” or a “Comment”. By default, you can expect more likes to happen due to user-easiness.
2. A neutralized opinion, your reader views the post in his/her timeline and scrolls over to the next post and possibly prefers to read a status update made by his friend.

Look at it from a user’s mindset when he logs on to Facebook to see what his/her friends are up-to and your fan-page post is directly competing with the user’s friend updates. How often do you calculate this perceived value of your wall-post as a fan-page administrator?

Based on experiences, observation and learning, I will try to address some of the example approaches that have resulted in a successful impact towards creating engagement on Facebook pages. As I write this post, Facebook has started rolling out more prominent designs of News Feed filters allowing a user to set filters. While Top News doesn’t seem to be affected, you never know what lies in store