New Delhi: A latest online spat between Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola Electric, and comedian Kunal Kamra did the rounds aplenty, highlighting many gaps in customer service and corporate communication within the electric vehicle sector.
The controversy started as Kunal Kamra criticized the condition of Ola Electric scooters kept in view as display outside a dealership, hinting they looked much neglected. He appealed to customers to raise their complaints by tagging in persons of authority and officials like Roadways Minister Nitin Gadkari. The post questioned whether Indian customers deserved such treatment as the two-wheelers are a lifeline for many daily wage workers in this country.
In response, Bhavish Aggarwal hit back on X formerly Twitter with a sharp reply. He suggested that if Kamra cares so much, he should come and help the company, even offering to pay him more than what he earns as a comedian. According to Netizens, Aggarwal’s reply had a very dismissive tone that said shutup by letting Ola focus on solutions that actually matter to its customers. This post soon went viral on social networking sites, with many users criticizing the comments of Aggarwal for being “rude,” “arrogant,” and “ignorant.”
Since you care so much @kunalkamra88, come and help us out! I’ll even pay more than you earned for this paid tweet or from your failed comedy career.
Or else sit quiet and let us focus on fixing the issues for the real customers. We’re expanding service network fast and backlogs… https://t.co/ZQ4nmqjx5q
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 6, 2024
The backlash was sharp. People pointed out on social media that complaints regarding Ola scooters have reportedly reached about 80,000 per month. Critics asked why Aggarwal chose to enter into a public argument rather than following these rising customer issues. A user said, “Public arrogance by a successful businessman can really hurt the brand image of Ola Electric.”.
At the same time, Zomato head Deepinder Goyal earned accolades for his grassroots approach to customer service. His recent experience of delivering food orders himself can be seen as a means of understanding the challenges faced by Zomato’s delivery partners. This way, he gets appreciation as an open leader who is receptive to feedback and interacts directly with his team members.
The incident has also attracted reactions from industry experts and politicians. Some entrepreneurs came to defend Aggarwal, realizing that the kind of effort needed to build an electric vehicle company in India is massive. Vatsal Sanghvi admitted the effort that had gone into making Ola Electric to grow but said Aggarwal could have handled it much better.
Political reactions also arose in the form of Congress Kerala expressing its discontent over the government’s decision to support Ola Electric with the PLI scheme. It stated that this move would give favoritism to Ola at the cost of many other Indian companies, such as Ather Energy, and affect fairness in direct government support for new industries.
