The Challenge

Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), a leading telecom provider in India with over 230 million customers and 450+ retail stores, faced a growing challenge in managing customer feedback on Google Business Profile reviews. These public reviews, reflecting customers’ physical experiences at stores, had been left unattended, creating a disconnect between the online and in-store experience.

As customer expectations for timely responses grew, Vi realized the need to address this feedback effectively. “Google came to be this converging point between the physical and digital customer experience, a space known as ‘phygital’,” says Ashish Sharma, Executive Vice President, Customer Service Head at Vi. Despite their visibility in search results, Google reviews were often overlooked, creating a missed opportunity to improve the customer experience.

Under the previous process, Vi agents asked customers to email for assistance, which led to a poor experience for both the customers and the agents, who lose the context of the original details posted to Google.

Vi needed a solution to close the loop on customer feedback, allowing its team to engage with negative Google reviews constructively, capture customer information securely with minimal drop-off, and integrate Google reviews into their existing Sprinklr CXM processes. The goal was to turn negative experiences into positive customer experiences.

All the retail, physical, and digital experiences are converging for Vi. We can now utilize Social Listening to encourage better in-store retail experiences. This has created a pipeline for us to hold store executives responsible in a way that was not possible before.”

Ashish Sharma

Executive Vice President, Customer Service Head

Vi

The Solution

Vi used Sprinklr Service to design a seamless process for addressing Google reviews. Now, agents reply to reviews that require follow up by sharing a link to a secure, single-use form. This creates a confidential channel to capture a customer’s mobile number and the store they visited.

It also creates a case in the Sprinklr dashboard that includes a link to the Google review. This ensures that all details are on-hand for easy reference by customer service agents.

“This process has given us a way to handle negative reviews organically,” says Sharma. Capturing information in this way enables Vi to provide a direct follow-up process, where a contact agent places a phone call to the customer for a highly-personalized response. With this new approach, Vi agents are now able to address customer concerns expressed in Google reviews. In a best case scenario, a customer may even opt to update their review to reflect their improved experience.

Embracing digital reviews in physical stores
With a new process in place to address digital feedback about physical experiences, Vi can now fully embrace Google reviews as a channel for capturing real-world feedback on in-store experiences. The company has now rolled out QR codes in nearly 400 stores to ask current and potential customers to share their feedback on Google reviews. Vi’s idea is that the more customers are encouraged to give feedback, the better the ratings will be. This theory has held true in 2022, as customers with positive experiences are encouraged to post reviews.

The Outcome

Vi has seen massive improvements in its Google review process since it was launched in June 2022. The volume of positive reviews has spiked dramatically, while response time to reviews that need attention has dropped precipitously. With positive signs of success from this new review workflow, Vi is looking to expand the approach to other channels with similar needs, including Google Play Store reviews and LinkedIn.

“All the retail, physical, and digital experiences are converging for Vi,” says Sharma. “We can now utilize Social Listening to encourage better in-store retail experiences. This has created a pipeline for us to hold store executives responsible in a way that was not possible before.”