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MakeMyTrip had a first mover advantage. As competition intensified, so did their focus on service and delivery... Respondents give them maximum marks for ‘corporate packages.’
By Pawan Chabra

She makes it her business to make everyone’s leisure trip hassle-free; but her own life is surprisingly devoid of any leisurely moments. Jaya Talwar, Senior Executive-Escalation, MakeMyTrip, starts her day at 5:30 am and by the time she gets to her office in the sprawling NCR suburb of Gurgaon, she’s already organised her (seemingly endless) list of things-to-do for the day. But then, she has no complaints, having happily sacrificed her love for cooking to the hurly burly of professional life. Talwar is part of the escalation team that takes care of customer queries and complaints and understands the importance of service in the online travel industry. She starts off her day at office by scanning the previous day’s e-mails, followed by daily meetings. The rest of her day goes into fixing customer problems. A Miranda House graduate, she started her career with the company as an executive in the post-sales department. And now after three and a half years in the travel outfit, she takes immense pride in being a part of the popular online travel portal.

The industry may have been on the back foot after the Mumbai terror attacks and more importantly under the slowdown blues, but industry watchers expect it to be just a short blip just before online travel makes a strong comeback. MakeMyTrip, for one, plans to deal with these ‘short-term hurdles’ by sprucing up their service even more and offering them a great hassle-free experience. “You need to value the importance of a commitment in this industry otherwise there is no way you can reach at the top,” asserts Talwar from her experience. Ask the end users and most consider the ease with which the company’s website can be navigated as the backbone of its success. But Talwar believes that the particular art of following up with the customers to ensure a great service is also a vital pillar for MakeMyTrip’s success. No wonder, she believes, that her department is the most vital part of the organisation’s success!


But doesn’t she get bored handling similar kind of customer queries and problems everyday? Well, her answer is (yes, you guessed it right), a resounding “No!” Says Talwar, “As you have to deal with a new kind of consumer on a daily basis, there is no monotony in the job.” Instead, she says, that she enjoys these daily challenges, apart from the little moments of life and laughter they provide her. She narrates one such incident, while guffawing loudly, “A customer once sent a very long e–mail complaining about the bad service, but when we tried to sort it out we figured that it was actually for one of our competitors.” She claims the complaint ratio to be only 0.5% out of the total customers attended by the company. But if you think that this 0.5% is easy to deal with, you better give it a second thought. Talwar recalls an incident where it took four long hours to make a customer understand that he was at fault when he was trying to cancel a booking for a hotel on a very short notice and asking for a refund. The customer was notified earlier of the company’s ‘no refund on cancellation’ clause, she adds.

Talwar spends most of her day dealing with such customers, but her primary concern is to ensure a delightful experience to every customer she handles. After all, in her industry, the cost of getting a new consumer is 10 times higher than retaining an older one. No wonder then the priority is to retain every customer at all cost. “When Kingfisher and Air Deccan merged, the new airline changed its PNR no. No customer was able to get the refund from the airlines in case of cancellation. MakeMyTrip had to give the refund to consumers from its own pockets to ensure that they remain satisfied with our service,” recollects Talwar. But try as you might, there is always room for improvement in the service industry. Queries and complaints are a part of their life. Well, the next time you are dissatisfied with a service in their bouquet, at least you know who to contact :-)

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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