Ola Cabs CEO Bhavish Aggarwal recently addressed rising service issues at Ola Electric, including the number of complaints, around 80,000 monthly۔ He says these were “manageable” for a company operating close to 800,000 vehicles. On an earnings call discussing the problem, Aggarwal framed service issues at Ola Electric as an outcome of growth. He discussed plans to improve the customer experience.
Aggarwal said Ola currently operates at around 780 service centers, which will be raised up to 2,000 by March as Ola Electric’s service issues remain pending. He also admitted that the services capacity issues had caused problems for Ola in second-quarter operations, adding that most of those backlogs are now wiped, hopefully to improve efficiency and response times.
More than half of the complains are solved within two days as per CEO’s claims
According to Aggarwal, nearly 80% of service requests are now processed within two days, which relates perfectly with the T+1 service standard that the company accords.
Ola Electric’s service issues have caught the eye of regulators; that was when the Central Consumer Protection Authority issued a notice in October for potential misadvertisements and consumer rights concerns.
CEO Aggarwal denies service issues at Ola Electric, says daily complaints are “only maintenance requests”
In rebuttal, Aggarwal aired that a major chunk of the daily complaints come from routine maintenance requests and minor operational inquiries instead of the product defects. More than two-thirds of reported service issues involve minor adjustments or clarification on vehicle software, he said.
“More than two-thirds are actually around these kind of minor issues where no part is actually changed,”
The stock of Ola dipped during the course of Monday but rose 6.05%, rather a market resilience considering the persistent service issues at Ola Electric. That said, the company has reported a year-on-year improvement in its Q2 financials with net losses narrowing to ₹495 crore, though quarterly losses rose compared with the previous period.
Revenue from operations also went up by 39% from a year ago, hinting at growth potential however driven by operational challenges. Still, analysts were cautiously optimistic that the long-term potential of Ola might outweigh the short-term service issues at Ola Electric.
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