Complaints? Bring it
As residents across the UAE increasingly take to shopping over the Internet, online retailers say that they are focused on ensuring that any complaints that they receive are handled in an efficient and fast manner. Remember: customer care is key to e-commerce.
dubai — As residents across the UAE increasingly take to shopping over the Internet, online retailers say that they are focused on ensuring that any complaints that they receive are handled in an efficient and fast manner.
Addressing concerns about how online retailers handle a growing number of customer complaints day by day, Ulugbek Yuldashev, CEO and founder of Awok.com, said that Awok is committed to providing customers a seamless and convenient online shopping experience.
“The customer is guaranteed a 100 per cent no questions asked product return in case they want to return it back,” he told Khaleej Times. “This is facilitated easily through our efficient customer care support center or through just an easy three-click step process to ask for a refund.
He also revealed that Awok has taken a unique initiative to tackle after sales services. For low cost products up to Dh50, the customer needs to click and sends a picture of the product to the Awok Customer Care or upload it on the website. The customer is then provided with a coupon code, with which they can immediately buy the same product again on the Awok website or any other product of the same worth. If the value of the product is above Dh50, the product is sent back to Awok to be checked by the quality control team. If it is defective, the customer is provided with a coupon code to buy a new similar product.
“Awok also has an effective
Awok also has an effective feedback policy when it comes to any customer complaints Ulugbek Yuldashev, CEO, founder of Awok.com
feedback policy when it comes to any customer complaints. Each case is reviewed by the appropriate supervisor and the feedback is posted on the company portal where every relevant department have access to it and go through it to ensure such errors are not repeated again,” he added. “The average time to solve a customer complaint at Awok for low cost items is 2-3 hours and for higher cost items is around 24-48 hours.”
Shedding light on how online buyers are protected from fraud, Ahmad Al Zaabi, acting director of Consumer Protection at the Department of Economic Development, Dubai, said that the DED, under its Digital Protection initiative, has signed an agreement with more than 40 online portals to protect consumers.
“In addition, the DED conducts consumer awareness campaigns across various channels. On receiving
The penalties on violations in offline retailing is applicable to online retailing too Ahmad Al Zaabi, Acting director Consumer Protection, DED Dubai
complaints against online shopping portals, DED examine them and take necessary action including imposing fines if it’s an issue that falls under DED’s jurisdiction,” he said. “The penalties applicable on violations in offline retailing is applicable to online retailing too, including fines and shop closure. The DED will also cooperate with the authorities concerned to ban websites found to violate the applicable consumer protection laws.”
He added: “The same procedures and channels that the DED uses to receive and resolve consumer complaints are applicable for online shopping too, and they include the hotline number 600 54 55 55, e-mail (consumerrights@ dubaided.gov.ae) and also a first of its kind ‘Smart Protection’ service we recently added. The new service, available on the ‘Dubai Consumer’ smart application, adopts artificial intelligence to receive, record and resolve complaints in less than five minutes.” Similarly, a noon.com spokesperson, said that customer care is central to the ecommerce platform.
“Our customer complaints are handled by a specialised team we call ‘Experience Experts’ who implement an extensive situation analysis first, followed by coordination with other departments to resolve all complaints as swiftly as possible,” an e-mailed statement said. “We aim to acknowledge complaints within 4-6 business hours, with a target resolution time of 16 business hours. However, this is highly dependent on the complexity of each scenario. We also have in place a 24/7 web support service to address any queries, if needed. Additionally, a quality assurance vertical owns the compliance check and conducts audits to ensure processes are adhered to, while highlighting any discrepancies, if any.”
Another statement from Souq. com also spoke about how customer centricity is key to the business.
“It is our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. Customer feedback is central to this, and we provide customers with many ways to get in touch with us such as through email, phone, mobile app, as well as our customer service team on social media. Customers trust that when they make a purchase through Souq they are buying the products that they want at the lowest possible prices, in a convenient way. That trust is built through the protection they are provided by our customer guarantees, whether they make a purchase from Souq or a third-party seller.”