Change on the horizon
Prolonged cases in courts, general perturbation of people, and heightened deception regarding the shambolic provisions in the service sector have eclipsed the faith of the common man. Passing years have witnessed the rise of competition across services sector adhering to the modernisation of the society in contemporary times. Even so, the increased competition didn't make way for better quality services, rather they focussed on being a shade better than their competitors for their vested interests. Having absolutely nothing to do with a consumer's satisfaction, their concern for the same has been more or less a formality. In these cynical times, the Bureau of Indian Standards' (BIS) move to provide standards for quality of services offered to consumers is like a downpour after days of drought. The mandate seems set to stir the service sector stakeholders' control on quality grounds regarding the intangible products that they have been exploiting the market with, ever since the turn of the century.
The mobile phones, computer, white goods, automobile, etc., industries have all had one thing in common which is the prevalence of poor after-sale services that are rendered to the consumers on account of their investment in products that these companies roll out. The same story is everywhere with the customer support being ignorant or negligent and the graph of customer satisfaction and sustainability experiencing a downside. Services have their own benchmark below which they never look and above which just means further exploitation in a variety of ways. Service sector can be said to have a gala time setting their own rules of the game, ruining the market. Construction giants have utilised the lack of regulatory norms to their profit so dearly that their ongoing court proceedings stand testimonial to their misuse of consumer trust. E-commerce being the latest entrant has just paved its own way into the same chaos inflicting similar damage to the customers, albeit subtly as put against other notable services.
The need for a divisional council by BIS to set up technical committees is similar to classes being handed a class teacher that will ensure no foul play and a fair competition. The proposal to include representatives from these industries along with experts and government officials is the mixture that will ensure optimum framework, strengthened by the all governing body of BIS. India is on verge of experiencing a sizeable change in their service sector provisions!
