My colleague Hari Subramanyam booked a scorpio and was totally dissatisfied with the response from the local dealer.After a long wait having paid the full amount for the vehicle , he finally writes to President of Mahindra and Mahindra , Dr Pawan Goenka. An excerpt from his mail is as follows :

“… had to write this to you to bring to your notice my abject displeasure of having booked a Scorpio, paid the full payment, all more than a month ago and till today have no information of the date by which I will have the car in my house.

I have chosen this configuration and color ( Misty silver, 8 seater, mHAWK engine  VLS Version - The version lower than VLX ) because of specific reasons …,  but your people now seem to think that  I am complicating things by not changing  my choice to white color.  If  Mahindra will only sell stock, the least I would have expected is that they will tell me when I booked.

I had to postpone a family vacation I planned due to this delay, but I never thought I will even miss Diwali when my whole extended family was there and I had to rent cabs to move around.

Since there seems to be no body around here  who could tell me a status   of when I will get my car, I have taken this liberty of bringing it to your notice  and wondering if you may be able to help me.

One of the main reasons I chose Scorpio was a sense of pride of owning a world class Indian car but now I am coming to an impression that while the product may be world class, at a process level I am getting the impression I am dealing with a Government agency. My customer experience, so far dealing with M & M, as you can easily understand, has been far from enjoyable.

When I told your sales person  that I intended to bring this to your notice, he told me that even if I write to Mr.Anand Mahindra, he ( the sales man) is the only person  who can do any thing for me, which is basically telling me to change my  choice of color to white. I felt,  in the current times, even Mr.Ford would have been less condescending. I am hoping he would be wrong and I have not done a mistake in choosing the Scorpio and M & M. Have I made a mistake,  Dr. Goenka ?…”

To my friend’s surprise , he received a prompt reply from Dr Pawan Goenka as follows :

“Dear Hari, I regret the less than enjoyable interaction that you have had regarding purchase of a Scorpio.  I am currently in Brazil.  Hence I am requesting Subodh from my office to coordinate with our sales people and see how best to resolve the issue and get you color of your choice.  We do change available colors.  As long as the color you have ordered is produced, there is no reason you should not get the color of your choice.  In any case you should not be forced to take a specific color.  I am sure we will find a solution within couple of days. Warm regards, Pawan Goenka…”

Further to it , another communication from  the President’s office  reads “… Dear Hari,This is in continuation to the mail sent by our President, Dr. Pawan Goenka to you today regarding delay in delivery of the Scorpio VLS vehicle to you.We apologise for the delay and I have checked on the status of your vehicle. The desired vehicle is in transit and will reach by 7th Nov. to the dealership. Our Sales and Mkgt have made special arragement of stock transfer from Nasik to make this vehicle available to you.  Pl bear with us till then…Regards,Subodh Morye,President’s Office ,Auto Sector..”

By the time I post this blog my friend must have been happily driving around in his new Scorpio. He is happy with two reasons , he got the vehicle of his choice  he was looking forward to and he is the customer of an organisation where the President is so caring to individual customer needs.He feels empowered. Personalising the direct CEO  connect with the consumers can do miracles in creating a superior customer experience . While he has not told me so directly, Hari probably is M&M’s roving Ambassador now and forever. Internet and personal blogging is one of the way today to make this happen.