Flipkart's customer service pain — can these new strategies turn the tide

Online shopping is a tricky territory, surprisingly, even in 2024. What is the return/exchange policy? What is the quality of the product? Do they have a cash-on-delivery option? When will my product be delivered? What is the customer support like? Will I get a refund if my order isn’t delivered? Is the website even legit?

The festive season sales saw a boom in 2022, yet not all was smooth sailing, according to a report by FarEye, a logistics and supply chain management company. Anticipated delivery delays and returns caused nearly 60% of consumers not to shop online during the period, the report said.

Flipkart, which is said to have a current valuation of around $35 billion as of January 2024, has one of the biggest festive season sales in the e-commerce industry with its Big Billion Days saleand yet, faces hiccups in addressing simple consumer issues like product delivery.

While this problem isn’t unique to Flipkart, the brand’s instant recall and reach magnify these issues.

Most recently, a consumer disputes redressal commission found Flipkart guilty of adopting unfair trade practices and ordered it to pay a customer ₹10,000 for the mental harassment he suffered after it cancelled his iPhone order.

“As per the complainant, a Dadar resident, he ordered an iPhone from Flipkart on July 10, 2022, and paid ₹39,628 using his credit card. The phone was supposed to be delivered on July 12, but six days later he received an SMS from the e-commerce company that his order was cancelled. When contacted, the company told him that their Ekart delivery boy had made several attempts to deliver the product but the complainant was unavailable and hence, the order was cancelled,” a report from PTI said.

According to Jeyandran Venugopal, Chief Product and Technology Officer of Flipkart, this may change soon as the company invests in its infrastructure and customer support practices, especially during increased traffic and demand during the festive season.

To make sure customers are not sold counterfeit or wrong products, Flipkart came up with the Open Box Delivery feature that allows customers to verify and inspect their orders before accepting delivery. It is applicable on high-value items like mobiles and laptops of certain brands, as well as most large appliances, to select PIN codes in India on deliveries made by eKart. So far, Flipkart is the only e-commerce platform to implement such a consumer-first feature.

Building on that, Venugopal added that Flipkart also performs counterfeit checks at multiple stages of onboarding a product on the platform. “We pass the sellers through a thorough Brand Regulations process to ensure the seller is the rightful owner/distributor of a particular brand. Post-listing the product, we monitor the performance of the listing concerning customer returns and complaints continuously. Our algorithms are designed to detect counterfeit listings at the earliest possible stage and take down such listings and sellers,” he said.

But what if your order never reaches you and is cancelled by the seller? For those instances, Flipkart engages AI chatbots for customer redressal, which serve as personalised customer assistants, offering responses to inquiries, resolving issues, and guiding purchasers, according to Venugopal.

“Clear and timely communication is key, and our dedicated support team actively monitors social media for feedback and complaints. Flipkart's commitment to innovation has not only heightened customer satisfaction but also fostered increased customer loyalty,” he added.

However, it seems that the efforts will need more time to take effect. A quick scan on X (formerly Twitter) shows that a user placed an order for the Nothing Phone (2a) from the platform and was delivered the wrong product, which CNBC-TV18 was able to verify. Despite several attempts at placing a return request, Flipkart was of no help until the issue was highlighted by media publications.

On March 20, Tuyyab told CNBC-TV18 that Flipkart was in constant touch with him regarding his return and new shipment. The platform also agreed to an open-box delivery despite the service not being available in the area.

He added that Flipkart’s Senior Support team was extremely helpful and willing to do anything possible to resolve the issue.

“However, what’s particularly disheartening for the average consumer is the difficulty in reaching the senior support team, as not everyone can navigate past the basic support level,” he added.

This was just one of many such incidents. On February 28, The Economic Times reported that Flipkart and smartphone maker OnePlus were fined by the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Chandigarh for shipping an old device to a customer in July 2023.

Another ET report from October 2023 stated that a user named Aryan, who ordered a Sony TV, received one from Thomson in a Sony box. The TV was replaced in a few weeks after several attempts by the Flipkart team.

In July 2023, the Bengaluru Urban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission fined Flipkart for failing to deliver an order from January 2022 even after the customer made the full payment in advance, according to an IANS report.

When asked about the number of return requests raised on Flipkart in the last quarter, Venugopal said, “We have implemented various measures to offer a seamless product return process. For example, doing troubleshooting over a call, arranging technician visits at the customer’s doorstep, or facilitating resolution via the brand’s authorised service centres.”

It is because of the measures Flipkart is actively taking that its user satisfaction rate is among the highest in the e-commerce industry. According to a report by marketing research firm CyberMedia Research, Flipkart's user satisfaction was at 52% in 2023, second only to Amazon at 63%.

The issues about wrong deliveries, late deliveries, cancelled deliveries and others are reported across e-commerce platforms regardless of their reputation. More often than not, it is the seller to blame and not the platform itself. However, it does not mean they cannot be resolved.

This year, Flipkart even plans on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and data science to enhance its customer experience, improve accessibility, and streamline operations. The plan includes Flippi, a Generative AI assistant that enables personalised product discovery through intuitive conversations.

In 2024, Venugopal said that Flipkart’s focus areas will involve improving its supply chain to enhance the delivery experience. Let’s hope that translates to authentic and timely shipments, and easy returns before the Big Billion Days sale.