skroderider's

I probably buy atleast 8-10 books per month from online bookstores in India. Flipkart and Infibeam usually have the lowest prices, so I go there first. Thanks to Swaroop CH’s excellent bookmarklet, searching for the lowest price is not so difficult any more.

Today I wanted to send a gift to a cousin in Delhi, and I got the lowest prices using isbn.net.in. Surprisingly, bookadda.com had the lowest price of all for this particular book, and Infibeam and Flipkart had the same, slightly higher price.

I did not go with bookadda. The reason is simple. I’ve had three bad experiences with them – and all of them had to do with unresponsive customer service. The last time I had to call them up did not give me much confidence from the way the call was handled (the issue was resolved, though, but only after I called them up. Emails? No response).

This book being a gift, I did not want the hassles of non-delivery followed by repeated calls to them. So I skipped bookadda, agreeing to pay 99 bucks more elsewhere.

Flipkart and Infibeam had the same price for the book. Guess which one I went with? Flipkart. Till date I’ve probably bought around 60 books from Infibeam, and I’ve had bad experiences 3 times. These included no responses to emails, unfulfilled promises to get back within 24 hours and no action till I sent them a public Twitter message (!). As far as Flipkart goes, I’ve bought close to the same number from them. Bad experiences? None. All emails get answered within 6-7 hours, and all issues are resolved fast.

All other things being equal, unmatched customer service is how you can add value to your business. Or even have a business in the first place.

Filed under:
books, customer service by hrish