Of Pandemonium, Purpose & Productivity are we truly comfortable in chaos?

 Recent experiences at  both state & private  owned banks exasperated  & ultimately got me thinking... I've observed many similarities in the corporate world re both stakeholder as well as customer service levels. Chaos is apparant (even inherent? ) from our traffic to our malls & markets to our inflight & overall travel behaviour... I cant help wondering how a country that has managed to reach the cutting edge of technology still teeters precariously at the edge of mayhem... Its a marvel anything gets accomplished at all!

 Culturally we appear to be fine ,even thrive  on chaos... observe any attempts @ queuing in above banks or any other service/ retail related venue & you'll see what I mean... its not just us hapless customers its also the people at the other end of the desk, the employees... they appear to be unable to focus on 1 task/ 1 customer at a time.. oh no they insist  on interruputing or being interrupted by colleagues, system break downs, phone calls, lunch breaks what have you... with absolutely no apology... they have no qualms talking over or under you should you be at the front of the queue to impatient  folks behind you... colleagues across you etc...net result either the said customer is guranteed an aneurysm or at the very least losing a considerable amount of their precious time (& hair?) In their minds it is perfectly ok to  allow customers to wait endlessly.. have no issue with cackling , yelling being ultra casual in the customer's presence.

 Should said customer have the temerity to object, depending on whether state owned or privatised the eyerolls, snappy, curt responses etc may vary to an extent ranging from the straightforward "No , cant help you , go play counter to counter hell do not pass go... next (state owned) to slightly more facetious but equally annoying superliciousness " We are sorry we will try and do this, that and the other but ultimately only manage to waste your time and exhaust you(private owned).  Now I know from first hand experience that customer care / stakeholder management can be an incredibly tough job its equally true that you cant please everyone but I will go out on a limb here and say that when a sincere effort is made, genuine rigour is in place the difference in service levels is apparant. I will also acknowledge that Im certain at least a percentage of the customer care team does genuinely want to do a good job , Id hold their management entirely accountable for failing to sensitise and adequately monitor them.

Typically there is one efficient long suffering sort... who everyone else will interrupt with queries 7 million times and its quite apparant that should that person take a day off (aside from cloning) the entier machination will grind to a screeching halt... do note  though that said staff will have no qualms instructing you to " come back tomorrow" to hell with your time , money and other resources.

Another observation is the fact that most are completely anti acknowledging any error particularly on email, at best you may get a grunted apology over the phone... HSBC once lost my home loan documents ! Am currently engaged in the latest of a lonnnnng line of battles with HDFC over repeated bungles with an online Mutual fund scheme. Despite escalating this to the MD level repeatedly & despite repeated instances of bungling over a period of many months.. I have yet to recieve a single admission of accountability or error on email . Nor has the problem been resolved mind. They seem to think its fine to simply ignore all my repeated queries re process, compliance & regulation. In which part of the developed world would this be acceptable?  They would have had a lawsuit on their hands in a minute. Do not get me started on Vodafone or the likes of Reliance Communications. All these organisations have digital teams which do an excellent surface rinse ie - Our customer care team will get back to you , etc.Id like to know how many issues actually get resolved. The concept of Compensation is an alien one.

Ultimately the onus on the customer to be tolerant of inefficiencys is way too high, the lack of much needed regulation is apparant. Processes are still very gray areas  and the consumer is always expected to be "tolerant" and "forgiving"

Never mind the loss of money & time that would undoubtedly have been incurred (yep Im deliberately repeating this, Ive also observed repeating / nagging incessantly does tend to make a slight dent).

Its not like we dont know better, oh no what with our Ivy league educations , international exposure etc there is precious little excuse now for allowing chaos. On the bright side Ive certainly seen vast improvements at our airports, most of our luxury hotels & most definitely Udipi restuarants ! (have you seen their efficiency levels? Ive never seen them bungle an order, they run like clockwork & their hygeine levels reign supreme). So how come we are ok with all of this? Is chaos inherent in our veins culturally? Do we need it to survive and even thrive? Or is it a lack of proper efficient regulation, mechanisms to protect the consumer?  Would many of these global conglomerates get away with the shoddy service levels, they do here in their corporate "home" offices?  Would our local players run by Harvard/ Oxford (IIM , IITs etc) be so blase then? After all many a CEO will happily turn a blind eye 2 all except revenue related "crimes" .

Most significantly are "we" as consumers  and even in our corporate roles ok with the "Status quo?" is it easier not to "rock the boat" to win friends and maintain equations rather than call people out and make them aware of glaring inefficiencies...& ultimately improve service / productivity levels?  is it more of an effort all around? Sure. As consumers do we want to waste our time escalating matters, creating "hassles" for ourselves and others over small things? Which we could choose to simply "shrug off" and say you know "they are all the same?" Where then will this particular buck stop?  If we dont insist on accountability and improvement? Im hoping in our lifetime at the very least.

Ill wrap this up with a quote accompanying the above image..“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.” ~ Walt Whitman