A few weeks back I very seemingly fell into the trap of a fake online website called Outcome Offer. I’m usually very cautious, but what did me in (which I realized in a couple of days after making the purchase) was the cleverness of the fraudulent e-commerce site. They went gung-ho with their Facebook promotions, even had fake accounts that commented on how wonderful their products were. And lo and behold, like several others, I got carried away and made a not too hefty purchase.
It was all so smooth. I selected the products, added them to the cart, checked out as a Guest without creating an account and reached the payment page. Once there, I just couldn’t find a Cash On Delivery (CoD) option. But then I shooed away my instincts and believed in all those praiseworthy comments on the brand’s advertisement comments section and went ahead with a credit card payment – probably my saving sensibility, and you’ll know why.
Following this, I promptly received a confirmation email – not from the e-commerce site, but from Razorpay, a renowned payment service providers and payment gateway providing company in India. For the uninitiated, Razorpay operates in the same space as PayPal or an Apple Pay for merchants. A little while later, I received an email from a Gmail account with the list of products I ‘purchased’. The fact that I received an email from a Gmail account kept nagging me.
48 hours later my instincts kicked in and I decided to contact this company to find out the status of my order because the email did not mention a delivery timeline. And there in their Facebook business page all I saw were cries of other customers who were duped – some to the tune of over 10,000 Indian rupees.
Reporting the business as a fake one on Facebook was not my top priority at that point in time – though I eventually did it. Back then, I first needed to ensure that my hard-earned money did not end up in the fraud’s hands, however miniscule it might have been.
Razorpay truly came to my rescue.
The company’s website has an extremely simple interface that allows a customer to enter the payment order number and raise a refund request. Within 24 hours I received an acknowledgement from the company – and mind you, this was a human who responded to my query and not a bot that sent me an automated email. The customer support representative not only acknowledged my refund request, but also assured me that I would receive a resolution within 48 hours and shared his name and contact details on which I could reach out to for further queries.
True to their assurance, I had my funds back in my account within the 48-hour window.
Immediately after, I informed other duped customers who had posted on Outcome Offer’s Facebook page informing them of the steps to try and retrieve their money. At least 10 people individually responded to me informing that they received a reversal of their payments via Razorpay.
Now if you are wondering what does this story have to do on Engaged Strategy’s blog, well, it is a story of great experience with Razorpay. I am not a direct customer of Razorpay; yet, their prompt response, proactive interaction with a grievance raiser and quick solution to alleviate someone in distress has made Razorpay a preferred choice of a payment gateway for me since then for many other online transactions that I initiate. Even more, I have even been encouraging family and friends to prefer Razorpay for their checkouts when there are multiple payment gateway options only because I have begun to trust this brand for its proactivity and the security it seems to offer.
Having worked across B2C and B2B industries, I have found that Values make certain organisations more successful than others in the long term. Customers are always attracted to brands that they can relate to from a value standpoint. When a customer feels valued, cared for and supported – something that they receive in a family environment that makes them feel secure – the customer develops an emotional connection with the brand. And this is the beginning of developing Brand Loyalty.
I personally believe Brand loyalty is an emotion that once strengthened can last a lifetime and even at times transfer to future generations. Do you agree? Do share your experience/ thoughts in the comments section.
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