Flipkart makes it mandatory for all top executives to take customer calls

The online retailer has made it mandatory for all top executives including directors to spend one day a month handling customer calls.

MUMBAI: The next time you call Flipkart's customer service to change the delivery date or complain about a product, the agent calming your frayed nerves could be Sachin Bansal, its founder and chief executive. From this week, the online retailer has made it mandatory for all top executives including directors to spend one day a month handling customer calls. 

Co-founder and chief operating officer Binny Bansal had his first session few days ago. 

The customer Binny Bansal spoke to wanted her shoes replaced with a similar pair of larger size. Bansal guided the customer to place for replacement request on the site itself. 

In fact, he had delivered a product to a customer as well a few weeks ago. The COO did not introduce himself, but just went with the delivery man. However, the delivery job has not been made compulsory for the senior team. 

Need to understand customer issues
"My takeaway from the call was that we can do a better job of communicating our return and replacement feature to customers," added Binny Bansal, the co-founder. He will face more customers next month. 

"The leadership team has expanded rapidly in the last one year. They need to understand customer issues and drive the 'customer first' message, which is why it is starting with the senior management," says Mekin Maheshwari, the chief people officer at Flipkart. 

As many as 40 of the company's 85 executives in senior roles joined last year. This top brass includes 85 directors, senior directors, VPs, SVPs, as well as the CEO and COO. 

They will be taught the turnaround time per call and will listen to different kinds of queries, learn who to escalate the calls to and then personally handle 5-10 calls on that day. With time, it will be less of theory and more calls. 

"There was a mail from co-founder Binny Bansal to the senior management last week detailing the process and its importance. Binny Bansal has already spent one day taking calls," said a company executive who did not want to be named. 

Called 'Customer Connect' in the inner circles of the company, each manager will be given their customer satisfaction scores, like their customer service executives get. Although taking calls had been part of the company's three-day induction process from 2009 to 2011, not all went through it, because it was not compulsory. 

The senior management is getting prepared to handle irate customers, change orders and cater to many requests. Camille Gonsalves, senior director for corporate communications at Flipkart, spent a day taking calls when she joined the company three months ago. She had to pacify a customer who wanted her garment shipment to reach before the due date because she was leaving town. 

"It takes a while to get used to it. The calls got recorded and feedback was given to us and one gets to understand the entire backend process," says Gonsalves. But what Gonsalves expected to be part of an induction has now become a monthly affair and she will head for her next call session this May. Flipkart with its headcount of 10,000, including contract and supply-chain staff, has been on a hiring spree across levels in the past few years. 

At IITs, the multi-category retailer offered jobs to 118 students from batch 2014. At B-schools, Flipkart offered 50-55 jobs and 30-35 of such offers were made at IIMs this time. 

The company had boosted its coffers last year by raising $360 million (Rs 2,160 crore) in two rounds and was valued at around $1.6 billion in July. ET reported earlier this month that Flipkart is in final talks to buy rival e-commerce firm Myntra for about $400 million (Rs 2,400 crore). The company reached its $1-billion sales mark this March, a year ahead of the target
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