Technology and customer service

Don't worry I am not gonna bore you with any management theories. Just 2 incidents that happened with me yesterday.

Incident 1: 2 weeks back I had lost my cellphone. I bought a new one 2 days back. I went to The Hutch Shop yesterday to get a new SIM card as I needed my old number back. I was greeted by a friendly customer service representative as soon as I entered the shop. I thought

Wow, things have improved here. I will get my work done fast and have my phone working within a day hopefully.

He told me it would cost me Rs. 99, I knew about it and went ahead. Then he asked for some photo identification. I checked and I had none then

. They wouldn't accept my library card, which was the only photo identification I had then. It was so frustrating not to get the card when I've been already waiting for 2 weeks without one. I just left the place feeling disappointed. Why can't TRAI make use of technology for such things and make our life easier. Why do I have to show documents again when I am getting back my old number, not a new one. As it is, everything is computerised at Hutch. Why not just extend it to the whole of tele-communication industry? Makes life much easier for everyone. I am again thinking of moving to Airtel if I get some good offer. Airtel seems to have much better offers but only for existing customers

Incident 2: After leaving from Hutch Shop, I filled up my CAT form then went to British Council Library to submit books that were due today. Then I went up and borrowed a couple of books. Everything went fine till this point. While checking out the books, the barcode reader while reading from the card, seemed to be giving some error. Then, we realised that I had got the old card that expired last year. I was about to leave without taking the books. Then, the person at the couter called me back and asked me to show my card. He looked up my name and other details in the card and queried the database for my name, got my new membership number and used it to issue the books. Pretty neat and well planned thing. Keeps the customers happy and loyal to the organisation. This isn't the only thing they do for customer satisfaction. They also allow members to renew, search, request books online from their site. They also take feedback from the members quite seriously. I haven't personally had problems with them in the 4 years I have been using their service.