Now, algorithms to understand and resolve complaints in India

At present, the company has added around 3000 companies in the four primary areas of telecom, retail, finance and travel.

Companies can incur a 39% cost efficiency if consumer complaints are handled effectively by more structured mechanisms in place. This, among other key aspects, was found by online complaints redressal forum Resolver.in in their pre-launch market research and data insights. 

Last year, a 42% spike was seen in complaints against ecommerce companies as per data given in Parliament by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Incidentally, the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) receives more complaints every year from disgruntled users in the ecommerce space as opposed to other sectors such as telecom and banking. 

Keeping this in mind, Resolver India has a two pronged approach for speedy resolution – empowering consumers to connect with companies in a streamlined way and helping businesses understand customer grievances better, thus making way for amiable solutions. Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are used to suggest recommendations on next steps that can be taken by consumers and organisations. 

 

First few steps 
Started by James Walker in UK when his complaints were left unattended by an energy company, Resolver Group revealed that the UK website used to end up receiving atleast 15,000 queries from India every month. The group has now invested in the India arm and is hopeful of replicating their UK success by helping Indian consumers and businesses as well. 

 

Founded by Pratyush Singh and Himanshu Singhal in India, the startup has received funding from the Resolver Group UK and also a seed round of investment from Manish Gupta, Chairman, Jagannath International Management School (JIMS) and UINCEPT Incubator. When someone registers an issue on the forum, they are explained their consumer rights, assisted in preparing, recording their email or chat communication and a case file is created of their complaint, and the next steps are shown as a part of the resolution processes.

 

At present, the company has added around 3000 companies in the four primary areas of telecom, retail, finance and travel. On the anvil is also a SaaS platform for startups which will specifically cater to all SMBs. “Resolver’s idea is to build trust because we believe that companies actually want to grow. The only way to do that is to get repeat customers. And repeat customers are possible only if the customer service is excellent. So that’s the idea with which we have built this tool,” says Prayush Singh, CEO, Resolver India. 

India – a volume led market 
But an obvious concern that comes by is that can such a platform find its way in a market which is poised to become the third largest consumer market in the world by 2030 and is predicted to scale up to $6 trillion from the current $1.5 trillion, as per the World Economic Forum – Bains 2019 report. Growth of the consumer market would also imply a logical increase in the scale of consumer complaints that w ould come in. 

Brand expert Harish Bijoor says that the capability of such complaint redressal mediums will be tested to see what volume of complaints can be managed by them. “In India, a lot of grievances are also of a much smaller nature. India, as opposed to the UK market, is more volume driven than value. That will be the real challenge to cut across.” 

Bijoor’s opinion is seconded by Nigel Eastwood, partner, Indusbridge Capital Partners and an advisor on the Resolver India board, who feels that while dealing with volumes could seem daunting, this startup comes at the right time in the market owing to the fact that there is now increased engagement of consumers with brands. “The consumer is more active digitally. One has to find ways to control the churn. I feel this business will eventually become a household name in India,” he says. 

 

While Eastwood sounds bullish on the success of Resolver here, a look down memory lane points to some misses. Similar inroads were tried in 2009 when Akosha, also positioned as a consumer redressal forum, stepped in to resolve issues with an internal team in place as well as legal experts who drafted the necessary documents that had to be sent to the consumer forum. However, in 2014, the company became a chat based model known as HelpChat which used chat as a primary medium to interact with consumers before finally getting rebranded as Tapzo in 2016. In October last year, the Sequoia-backed company in an email communication to its users had said that it is shutting shop so that they could close any pending transactions with the company. 

Retaining customers 
Investors, however, feel that such an idea can definitely be considered intriguing because of its essence. They are of the view that it can be a bright spot for companies who, a lot of times, seem to be in the dark on finding the best way to interact and engage with consumers. “No company wants to lose their customer. Customer acquisition costs are very high and on many occasions, companies are clueless why customers dropped off. So any business which brings you closer to understanding consumer insights and psyche will be looked at with compelling interest,” reasons Archana Jahagirdar, CEO of Angelworks, an Indian consumer market focused investment firm. 

Interestingly a lot of such consumer insights, Walker says, have been observed in the UK by the way consumers fill out their details online while registering complaints. He feels the trends will be on similar lines in India as well. “In UK, for example, an issue raised on a Sunday afternoon when it is raining implies that the issue would probably be over three months old since you anyway can’t step out in the current weather conditions. If it is raised on a laptop versus a phone, we understand that it is a more serious issue since you tried to get a bigger keyboard to explain your issues,” he highlights. 

Walker adds that the algorithms that they have created help to predict what is low key, escalation, annoyance or vulnerability. “It is interesting to see how the way we talk and what we say gives a lot of background about the way we feel. When one starts studying the data, one realises that we all are acting the same way and therefore if you just start using that for decision making, you allow businesses to work better,” he asserts. 

For Resolver India, the task is cut out. Plans are lined up to connect with large, mid-scale and small scale companies in a bid to give a more systematic face to plaint management in the Indian set up. 

Article Credit: ET