Our guests are at the heart of everything we do at OYO. We understand that one of their biggest pain-points was the delay in manual credit of refunds in service-deficiency cases. Not only was it disappointing to have had a less-than-perfect experience, the delay in refund became a source of further stress and unhappiness. The delay was process-and-system driven. Refunds were credited through NEFT/ RTGS, taking anywhere from 7-14 days for the money to hit the bank. Once the investigation on the complaint was completed, the process that our team followed was:
Get approval on refund –> Take bank details of guest –> Update bank details in database –> Secure internal approval on money transfer from three different teams –> Upload NEFT refund –> In case refund is unsuccessful return to step #2
In this era of instant-everything, this long-drawn process was contributing to needless delay besides avoidable stress and annoyance. So we decided to turn to the people who could help us come closer to a solution i.e., our guests.
In response to a survey, 60% of OYO guests identified Paytm as their preferred wallet option.
We have therefore onboarded a tool that makes the process as simple as 1-2-3
- Approve refund
- Confirm guest’s phone number
- Refund appears as credit in guest’s Paytm wallet
What’s more – unlike the earlier cumbersome multi-step approval, we have empowered our call centre representative to be the approval authority on this refund. We have already piloted this to a small base, and are delighted to share that 100% of these refund cases approved following investigation, were resolved within an hour.
So go ahead and book your OYO for a hassle-free stay. And in the off chance that there is non-fulfillment of service (which includes any service related escalation, issues with WiFi, TV, Breakfast, hygiene or staff behaviour) you can be assured of on-the-spot refund through Paytm.
And while we intend to ensure that this is one service you never have to call in for, we feel better knowing we have a backup plan.
