If you say to yourself that I will do it immediately, but don’t do it, it may be called procrastination.
But, if Indians promise someone else (Indians or Non-Indians) saying ‘I will do it immediately’ or ‘it will be done immediately’ or ‘it is being taken care of as I have started the ball rolling immediately’ – please be assured that this is an Indian Immediate that roughly means ‘ as soon as possible’.
I understand the perils of traffic jams when travelling to fulfill that immediate promise or the bad directions to reach the place or the bad information obtained or many other bad or misleading things that could happen taking the punch out of the word ‘immediately’.
However, I do not understand why there is no decency to update those who are waiting to receive the goods and services with a courteous call. With even a low-skilled or unskilled worker possessing mobile phones, why don’t they use it? Again, someone who was passing in front of my house said – this is India, don’t get frustrated. What! What a silly thing to say when my time is being wasted without any regard or respect, and, I am barred from doing anything else except to wait with the fear of missing out, and, I have to keep others waiting for me!
I do not understand this ‘immediately’ aspect of the Indian way of doing things. It’s a shame that these bad and unwanted and not required habits continue well into the 21st century. Many who read this blog may shake their heads and mae advice me to start accepting the realities of the Indian ways, but let me ask this: this ‘immediately’ word, has it taken its place along with the words that we come across regularly like – please, sorry, thank you – where they have lost their charm and the meaning nowadays?
Is there a way to go about correcting this? Yes, we can. Let those customer care reps, who hassle you with ‘how was the service?’ calls to you, hassle these promise-breakers with reminders that they need to call the customers who are waiting and without fail. There is yet another way that may not need customer reps looking the other way around. I strongly feel that a customer rep or sales rep will become accountable as soon as a sale was made. Hence, kick-in an escalation service whereby the phone, that is being carried by the service people, calls the customer by itself through the GPS software. Mandate that GPS software to be a must if you are delivering goods and services.
May be then, I can deal with this Indian Immediate in a much better fashion.