On October 18, 2021 a Zomato app user wanted a refund for a missing item in his online food service order and contacted the company’s customer care agent over Twitter. The customer was from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where Tamil was the native language and a matter of parochial pride. What had started as a minor food order detail escalated into an online nationwide language debate with the accompanying hashtag #Reject_Zomato. The entire episode and ensuing online debate lasted less than 24 hours. But the matter created an indelible trail of negative publicity and scathing media coverage for Zomato, denting the company’s reputation. Was Zomato’s public response to the issue appropriate? Should the company review its use of Twitter as a customer care channel? More broadly, what changes should be considered for Zomato’s customer support function to deal effectively with culturally-attuned customer communication in a diverse market of 1.4 billion people with many different regional identities, cultural pride levels, and spoken languages?
On October 18, 2021 a Zomato app user wanted a refund for a missing item in his online food service order and contacted the company's customer care agent over Twitter. The customer was from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where Tamil was the native language and a matter of parochial pride. What had started as a minor food order detail escalated into an online nationwide language debate with the accompanying hashtag #Reject_Zomato. The entire episode and ensuing online debate lasted less than 24 hours. But the matter created an indelible trail of negative publicity and scathing media coverage for Zomato, denting the company's reputation. Was Zomato's public response to the issue appropriate? Should the company review its use of Twitter as a customer care channel? More broadly, what changes should be considered for Zomato's customer support function to deal effectively with culturally-attuned customer communication in a diverse market of 1.4 billion people with many different regional identities, cultural pride levels, and spoken languages?
Indiagro is a national-level farmer produce company (FPC) primarily operating in the government-to-business (G2B) segment. The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) and the Department of Consumer Affairs have appointed Indiagro to procure 10,000 tonnes of onions from the Bhavnagar and Amreli districts in Gujarat under the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF). This case discusses the challenges Indiagro's chairperson, Padma Shri Genabhai Patel, faces at different levels of onion procurement. Since onion is a perishable commodity, this process has its own set of dynamics and complexities. The case tries to examine how Indiagro managed its supply chain operations and developed its systems and processes around these complexities. It focuses on the substantial role Indiagro plays in filling the institutional voids in the agricultural commodity markets in India. It helps understand the value created by Indiagro for its member farmers compared to when they operate individually or through the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC).