I had written this long blogpost last year same time – Why the constant followup, Mr. Mahindra ??. Ofcourse as expected neither Mr. Mahindra nor any employee of Club Mahindra got back with an explanation or even a simple apology. Well, that’s one way to lose customers. Not listening to them :). Many businesses use this as a tool and its a great turn off.
The Early Payment Offer Gone Wrong
I won’t repeat the story of our being Club Mahindra members and how we had to followup and pay the last instalment that was due to them … A probable first, where the customer follows up to ensure the service provider is paid their due.
Every year, the ASF payment is due on May 31st. Come May 1, Club Mahindra wakes up from its year long slumber and starts with text messages, emails and phone calls to followup. Its exasperating. Especially the phone calls disguised as “a very interesting upgrade offer”. This year I told the young lady as politely as I could (wasn’t grinding my teeth 🙄) that if I receive one more phone call to remind me about the payment, I will cancel my subscription and go to court stating harassment.
They continued to call, but I just stopped picking up calls where I didn’t know the number. Atleast I was saved the trouble of trying to keep my anger in check.
The early payment offer that Club Mahindra has put together, is a sure shot way of LOSING customers ! Just see the screenshots of their text messages –
Till May 9, the offer was to get Rs. 500 Resort E-Voucher, a totally insipid offer that really means nothing.
The insipid offer got doubled till May 20 where you get e-vouchers for Rs. 1000/- that will buy you a plate of pakoras at best.
See how the offers get better as May 31st gets closer. Till May 26, they threw in a 750/- off the payable amount. The insipid offer of Rs. 1000/- e-vouchers continued.
Hallelujah !! They finally gave me Rs. 1000 off. I paid on May 30th and saved a 1000 bucks.
For a moment imagine if I had paid before May 9th like the good customer that I am… I would have felt like a fool 15 days later when they gave a discount of 1000 bucks. Someone in Club Mahindra doesn’t want it to succeed :(. Why design an early payment offer that is sure to lose customers than making them pay early ? And then whoever came up with this daily followup for a whole month before your due date needs to be terminated with immediate effect.
Customer Retention is possible ONLY if you follow the basics of customer experience….Listen to them, solve their problem, and don’t harass them with unnecessary followup/upsell/platitudes. Whoever is training customer service reps at Club Mahindra, PLEASE get the reps to lose that sugary sweet tone. Its nauseating because they don’t solve any problem of mine. And Mr. Mahindra, you may just want to check in once in a while and listen to a Club Mahindra customer who is upset.
Bondurant, Sridhar here. I liked your post on Club Mahindra. I too am a fellow sufferer. I fully agree with your views and appreciate the points you made last year about them. As you know, it probably is useless to try and talk to their reps asking them not to call again. However I am surprised that Shri Anand Mahindra hasn’t responded ( I’m assuming that you emailed him as well).
I read your blogs avidly and would love to touch base. My mail id is cesridharus@yahoo.com. pls drop a line with your phone contact details.
Regards
Sridhar Cheruk
Thanks Sridhar ! How are you ? Will certainly connect over email. 🙏