The e-commerce sector has recently been plagued with bad press with the activities of Evaly, EOrange, Dhamaka etc creating a massive trust deficit in the sector.
A few places have been doing it right however, by building trust, taking accountability and understanding what is most important to a consumer.
A recent report published by the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) shows that several platforms were able to resolve customer complaints most successfully, among 21 other e-commerce markets.
The digital platforms are homegrown Pathao, Chaldal, alongside Uber and Foodpanda, some of which had heavily invested in ensuring consumer satisfaction through technology, as well as developing human resources, rather than discounts or subsidized products.
Pathao topped the list of national and international e-commerce companies with a whopping 99.25% grievance redressal rate.
“We have continually invested in technology as well as in building a strong team to improve our services in the region. For every complaint raised, we follow a structured process where we first confirm the veracity of the complaint, gather relevant information from all parties, and then take appropriate action,” Pathao President Fahim Ahmed said.
“This process, along with strong implementation, has worked well for us,” he added.
Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, he said: “We instilled the confidence in consumers to purchase a service online. We also created a culture that allowed people to turn a motorbike into an income source in addition to a means for the commute.”
“We catalyzed the adoption of technology by users. We have long understood that ensuring customer satisfaction, rather than competing on price, is key to achieving sustainability. We did exactly that with an obsessive focus on quality,” he further said.
According to Pathao, it has the fastest delivery time in the market, doubling its food delivery fleet, providing training on health, hygiene, and best safety practices, as well as registering riders as front-line service providers for vaccination.
Chaldal also topped the homegrown list with an 88.95% rate of resolving consumer complaints. It had also invested in technology to sustain the business through customer satisfaction rather than subsidizing products, especially in the challenging perishable goods segment.
“Assuring customers of our service quality takes a lot of effort. We had to invest a huge amount in just the supply chain to ensure customer satisfaction. Complaints are monitored heavily, as we are in the perishable business which means products can go bad very quickly,” Chaldal Founder Waseem Alim told Dhaka Tribune.
“However, our continuous effort of analyzing, controlling the damage, and ensuring freshest products through a trained workforce that knows how to handle the products avoiding any damage has enabled us to face that challenge head-on,” he added.
Chaldal uses a cloud-based inventory system that allows users to see what items are available in real-time and undergoes software development regularly, experimenting with home-grown frameworks, algorithms, thought processes, programming languages, and DSLs.
It also runs local data centres and works directly with country-wide information infrastructure providers, as well as, carries out internal communication with its own software.
According to the founder of Chaldal, it has allowed the call centres and various wings to coordinate and help disburse products such as vegetables from warehouses or relevant places that helps to track movement, analyze monitored data, and take steps accordingly.
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Meanwhile among international platforms, Uber, Daraz, and Foodpanda had also topped the list along with Facebook.
Daraz resolved 958 complaints out of 1,051, Foodpanda resolved 251 out of 322, Uber resolved 125 out of 128 and Facebook resolved 4,288 against 4,982.
Uber told Dhaka Tribune: “We stay committed to offering an enriching platform experience for both riders and drivers in Bangladesh. We have continually invested in technology as well as in building a strong team to improve our services in the region.”
“For every complaint raised, we follow a structured process where we first confirm the veracity of the complaint, gather relevant information from all parties, and then take appropriate action. This process, along with strong implementation, has worked well for us,” it added.
“In the last four years, there were only a handful of complaints against Foodpanda in comparison to the total number of orders we delivered during that period,” Foodpanda said.
“The reason behind having such a low order to complaint ratio is that we deliver a smooth ordering experience for our customers and if there is any customer complaint, we immediately address it with utmost sincerity,” it added.
“Our customer service team is always working to solve any problem that our customers face while ordering food and groceries on foodpanda. The complaints that are open will be resolved soon as per due process,” Foodpanda further informed.
Daraz on the other hand said that it was acquired by Alibaba with a long-term business plan to establish a sustainable business model along with giving special attention to customer satisfaction.
“Even before the issuance of the SOP, Daraz developed its own internal policies to ensure customers, sellers, and other relevant parties’ interest,” it added.
“In addition, we have an efficient issue resolution team dedicated to resolving customer complaints to give them an incredible experience in online shopping, which in turn enriched customers’ experience and assisted us to resolve customer complaints swiftly. This, in turn, established Daraz as a reliable e-commerce organization,” it further said.
