Why I disconnected my Airtel internet account
This post is not to vent ire on a failed service request. Nor is it to escalate through Social media to get the service provider’s attention, which recently seems to have become an effective way to get heard, by calling out on the social loud speaker, when companies turn a deaf ear to direct calls.
Here, I recount experiences from the telco’s failure, and how a simple change in approach could have retained me. I reflect on what drives this non-constructive behaviour, by looking at the dysfunctional SLAs and Target numbers, which sets employees on a tizzy and drives them into creating lose-lose scenarios with their end customers.
The Service Failure
I’ve been using Airtel services for my mobile postpaid, home landline and broadband, for over 12 years now. And I belong to this category of consumers who are non-price conscious, a euphemism for blatantly inefficient & inept folks like me, who sign up once and continue the account blindly for years, without even reviewing the plans.
My problems began when the internet connection started dropping too often. Eventually it worsened to a state of being offline most of the day, and pulling in meagre bandwidth, now and then. I raised complaints, requested field visits and went through the rigmarole a few times. After getting inconsistent answers, I was finally asked to upgrade to their latest V-Fiber modem by paying Rs. 1000.
Growing unhappy over time with the broadband service, level of attention and resolution of queries, I contemplated disconnection of broadband, while retaining the landline to keep the same number. Little did I realise that deactivation requests were more painful that support service requests.
My requests were redirected several times, I was asked to call back at different ‘working hours’ of the disconnection team. Finally, partial disconnection (only broadband) was cited as a technical challenge, which was akin to suggesting that I give up the landline subscription as well. Frustrated, I agreed to get both the services off.
With this request I was finally redirected to a ‘senior executive’ who listened in and gave the usual empty considerations, asking me to stay-and-observe one last time. When I pushed for closure, I was immediately offered a flat 70% discount on the bill for 6 months. This was reasoned as costing me lesser than paying for landline services separately. And then the rep requested ‘Sir, please keep your account active, even if you don’t intend to use it. We’ll give a discount to make your cost lower, but we don’t want you to disconnect now’.
Dissecting the discount and all that drives it
If you look at the discount, it actually works out to ~Rs. 5400 (900 x 6 months), which seemed a genuine action from their end, but what was surprising was that, there was no attempt to resolve the underlying issue to actually get me to stay back. If modem was the real issue and if they were intent on retaining a customer, they could have offered just the modem upgrade for free (Rs. 1000 as opposed to Rs. 5400), which would have worked out at a lesser cost to Airtel. Or, they could have used this discount as a temporary cover to follow-up and get the underlying issue resolved, wherein I might have happily paid for the upgrade.
However, they seemed to be intent in meeting their monthly or quarterly number for the customer base. They really did not seem to care whether I stayed back after 3 or 6 months. As if to confirm this misplaced priority, no new service request was raised, nor did I hear back from Airtel again, after the announced discount.
If you look at the bigger picture, in the face of stiff competition from new players like Reliance Jio and close competitors like Idea, Airtel has been aggresive in customer acquisition at one end and cost reduction at the other, but sadly customer service has been a casualty in between. Not surprisingly, I heard the very same feedback from most of my friends, who had surrendered their personal (and a few corporate) accounts much earlier.
A week later I got a marketing email from Airtel celebrating ‘2 Mn subscribers’. It appears that the Airtel teams had been able to meet their customer-base target in the short run, but perhaps at a heavier long-term cost.
As part of this campaign, ‘surprise gifts’ were announced for every customer, and I discovered that they I had won a 50 GB download limit expansion to my account. But, sadly this was more topping on a connection that just didn’t work.
This is a classic case of companies setting targets for product and customer service teams which drive the dysfunctional behaviour of meeting short-term numbers, at the expense of long-term goals like retention and customer satisfaction. With no clear ownership of these lag targets, teams act against them with impunity, much to the detriment of the organization.
My Exit
Rather than upgrading the modem and playing the guessing game with Airtel, I moved to ACT Fibernet and am in the process of migrating out the landline as well. Meanwhile, a few days back, I received the monthly bill from Airtel and there was no mention of the 70% discount promised!
Unfortunately, I don’t recall getting any confirmation of the proclaimed ‘generous discount’ that was offered. Guess its going to be another battle to follow-up on this, but I’d rather be happy if they got the disconnection done promptly. Perhaps, my mobile postpaid connection with Airtel would also go out next.
