The Big Book Box: A Counterculture Business Model
Please allow me to begin by clarifying in no uncertain terms what this post is and isn't.
It ISN'T:
With the expectations settled, let's dive right in.
In their own words, "The Big Book Box is a New Delhi, India based monthly Book Subscription Service that sells Books and literary merchandise." This is just one of many that are catering to a rapidly growing audience in India. Their key differentiator from established ecommerce behemoths like Amazon, Flipkart, etc. is that they provide a curated service which not only gets you books that you might love, but also goodies that enhance your book ownership and reading experience as a whole, not to mention they make for some astoundingly popular Instagram posts under hashtags including but not limited to #bookstagram. Fact: my friend was introduced to this through Instagram posts and mentions; Educated guess: it's very likely that they get majority of their customers in a similar fashion through social media posts. Now that the first half of this post's title is explained, let's move on to the remaining half.
I'll get to the "counterculture business model" by defining the mainstream first. This is clearly an era of "customer obsession". Amazon and Jeff Bezos' success are testaments to the validity of this philosophy and it is quickly being picked up and regurgitated across businesses of all manners and sizes. Thus the counterculture I speak of, is around "customer condescension". Needless to say it assumes that the customer needs to be patronized in terms of what products/services they desire and deserve. My friend's experience was of this kind, which I'll make apparent through verifiable facts.
It was my friend's birthday in December so some of her friends, all delighted by The Big Book Box's (henceforth referred to as TBB) instagram posts and user comments ordered the "December Box" for her as a gift. This is the message they received on November 30th -
Now they were a bit chuffed that their gift would arrive ex post facto but to TBB's credit, they set that expectation up front in their site. Thus, the wait began. However as January passed by, there was no communication from TBB about the status of the order. A query posted to their Instagram handle as well as to their mail ID, came back with the response that there were unexpected delays around one of the books' publishing and rollout, causing the delay on TBB's end. An ETA would be given by mid-February. Please bear in mind that the event for which this was the gift occurred mid-December. The wait till mid-February just to get an ETA then was far from pleasant. However, seeing that nothing else could be done about it, they dug in for another fortnight of waiting. And again, the calendar flipped several dates ahead with no word from TBB, causing them to post a follow-up query, this time with a bit of understandable, yet still polite frustration. A week later, it earned the response that "the box" would be dispatched by March 21st. I bring to your attention again - the event has long passed in mid-December.
Come March 21st, third time in a row, the day turned but there was no update from TBB. Now in considerable anger, they took to Instagram to voice their complaint but were met with angry and condescending messages on their DMs (private message in Instagram). Some of the screenshots of this verbal altercation can be seen below -
Now I had been aware of this entire episode since the beginning but what really caught my attention was their condescension in addressing their customers as "Darling..." and then belittling of their interests in "As curators, we are much more excited...". Still, to TBB's benefit I surmised that maybe it's a kneejerk reaction by an inexperienced intern - they are a new startup still finding their feet after all, and intern disasters are not uncommon in enterprises even. But when I saw that they are actively deleting comments, no wiggle room remained. It became clear that they're actively suppressing unhappy customers to maintain the facade of an efficient business. Not only were my friends' comments deleted, upon a little research I found this gentleman's answer on Quora complaining about the same thing. To see how far it went, I played a little game - let's find out negative reviews for TBB.
Unsurprisingly, I turned up empty-handed. Turns out that their Insta posts are meticulously checked for comments which could contain even the remotest hint of dissatisfaction and if found, are instantly deleted. Google TBB's reviews and you'd find a couple of happy unboxing videos on YouTube and some blogposts with raving reviews. I appreciate the honesty of thebooksatchel.com in advertising their discount code that could be applied on TBB for a 15% off - so you know you can't fully trust this review to be honest. Other blogposts like this one by Owlish Writer, or this one by Coffee Table Talks mention a brief tale about issues around communication and on-time delivery but seem not to dwell on it much and overall sing praises, as they assumed it to be a one time thing. However since I am comparing and compiling notes, I can't take solace even in that excuse. Further, it did not surprise me that when I clicked on the link to "Rate my experience with big book box" on this site, it gave me a 404, Page Not Found. This wasn't some kneejerk reaction or in millennial parlance, a snowflake getting offended. This is a business actively scrubbing bad reviews off the internet.
Processing all this, the first question that came to my mind - is this legal? Turns out yes! Businesses are perfectly within their rights to scrub negative reviews online. I understand how this is necessary because if not for this, the quickest takedown of a business would be to pay a troll army to blast negative reviews for a product or service and then watch it disintegrate. Therefore, some organizations like this provide guidance, or even paid services to wipe the negative comments clean. Further, since it is well documented that businesses can go to any extremes to protect themselves, there have been examples of objectionable actions undertaken to strong-arm consumers/reviewers. However, not all businesses react the same way as shown in this NYT article. "It’s still important to join the conversation diplomatically", it mentions and makes me feel that at least some have their heart in the right place, or for that matter at least have one.
Coming back to TBB, if they are reading this - this is not a takedown. This is simply a question - is this really how you want to grow your business and achieve milestones proudly displayed on your website? I'm no pundit and won't make any predictions about how things would turn out for you, but I can tell you that presently, you are leaving a lot of unhappy customers in your wake.
It ISN'T:
- An embellishment piece - I barely scratch a readership in double digits so it doesn't make any sense for any organization, be it non/for profit to come to me with such a request. I write this out of conscious and independent volition.
- A takedown piece - I do not wish to defame any person, group or business, and give my word to have open and free dialogue with any parties concerned, so long as it is agreed that the conversations remain respectful.
- An objective examination of the experience of one of my friend's transaction with The Big Book Box.
With the expectations settled, let's dive right in.
In their own words, "The Big Book Box is a New Delhi, India based monthly Book Subscription Service that sells Books and literary merchandise." This is just one of many that are catering to a rapidly growing audience in India. Their key differentiator from established ecommerce behemoths like Amazon, Flipkart, etc. is that they provide a curated service which not only gets you books that you might love, but also goodies that enhance your book ownership and reading experience as a whole, not to mention they make for some astoundingly popular Instagram posts under hashtags including but not limited to #bookstagram. Fact: my friend was introduced to this through Instagram posts and mentions; Educated guess: it's very likely that they get majority of their customers in a similar fashion through social media posts. Now that the first half of this post's title is explained, let's move on to the remaining half.
I'll get to the "counterculture business model" by defining the mainstream first. This is clearly an era of "customer obsession". Amazon and Jeff Bezos' success are testaments to the validity of this philosophy and it is quickly being picked up and regurgitated across businesses of all manners and sizes. Thus the counterculture I speak of, is around "customer condescension". Needless to say it assumes that the customer needs to be patronized in terms of what products/services they desire and deserve. My friend's experience was of this kind, which I'll make apparent through verifiable facts.
It was my friend's birthday in December so some of her friends, all delighted by The Big Book Box's (henceforth referred to as TBB) instagram posts and user comments ordered the "December Box" for her as a gift. This is the message they received on November 30th -
"Confirmed: Your Subscription to The Cappuc.... Your order No. is xxxxx
You have Subscribed to the December Box which will be shipped by Mid-Last January. Thank you for subscribing to India's Most Loved Book Box"
Now they were a bit chuffed that their gift would arrive ex post facto but to TBB's credit, they set that expectation up front in their site. Thus, the wait began. However as January passed by, there was no communication from TBB about the status of the order. A query posted to their Instagram handle as well as to their mail ID, came back with the response that there were unexpected delays around one of the books' publishing and rollout, causing the delay on TBB's end. An ETA would be given by mid-February. Please bear in mind that the event for which this was the gift occurred mid-December. The wait till mid-February just to get an ETA then was far from pleasant. However, seeing that nothing else could be done about it, they dug in for another fortnight of waiting. And again, the calendar flipped several dates ahead with no word from TBB, causing them to post a follow-up query, this time with a bit of understandable, yet still polite frustration. A week later, it earned the response that "the box" would be dispatched by March 21st. I bring to your attention again - the event has long passed in mid-December.
Come March 21st, third time in a row, the day turned but there was no update from TBB. Now in considerable anger, they took to Instagram to voice their complaint but were met with angry and condescending messages on their DMs (private message in Instagram). Some of the screenshots of this verbal altercation can be seen below -
Now I had been aware of this entire episode since the beginning but what really caught my attention was their condescension in addressing their customers as "Darling..." and then belittling of their interests in "As curators, we are much more excited...". Still, to TBB's benefit I surmised that maybe it's a kneejerk reaction by an inexperienced intern - they are a new startup still finding their feet after all, and intern disasters are not uncommon in enterprises even. But when I saw that they are actively deleting comments, no wiggle room remained. It became clear that they're actively suppressing unhappy customers to maintain the facade of an efficient business. Not only were my friends' comments deleted, upon a little research I found this gentleman's answer on Quora complaining about the same thing. To see how far it went, I played a little game - let's find out negative reviews for TBB.
Unsurprisingly, I turned up empty-handed. Turns out that their Insta posts are meticulously checked for comments which could contain even the remotest hint of dissatisfaction and if found, are instantly deleted. Google TBB's reviews and you'd find a couple of happy unboxing videos on YouTube and some blogposts with raving reviews. I appreciate the honesty of thebooksatchel.com in advertising their discount code that could be applied on TBB for a 15% off - so you know you can't fully trust this review to be honest. Other blogposts like this one by Owlish Writer, or this one by Coffee Table Talks mention a brief tale about issues around communication and on-time delivery but seem not to dwell on it much and overall sing praises, as they assumed it to be a one time thing. However since I am comparing and compiling notes, I can't take solace even in that excuse. Further, it did not surprise me that when I clicked on the link to "Rate my experience with big book box" on this site, it gave me a 404, Page Not Found. This wasn't some kneejerk reaction or in millennial parlance, a snowflake getting offended. This is a business actively scrubbing bad reviews off the internet.
Processing all this, the first question that came to my mind - is this legal? Turns out yes! Businesses are perfectly within their rights to scrub negative reviews online. I understand how this is necessary because if not for this, the quickest takedown of a business would be to pay a troll army to blast negative reviews for a product or service and then watch it disintegrate. Therefore, some organizations like this provide guidance, or even paid services to wipe the negative comments clean. Further, since it is well documented that businesses can go to any extremes to protect themselves, there have been examples of objectionable actions undertaken to strong-arm consumers/reviewers. However, not all businesses react the same way as shown in this NYT article. "It’s still important to join the conversation diplomatically", it mentions and makes me feel that at least some have their heart in the right place, or for that matter at least have one.
Coming back to TBB, if they are reading this - this is not a takedown. This is simply a question - is this really how you want to grow your business and achieve milestones proudly displayed on your website? I'm no pundit and won't make any predictions about how things would turn out for you, but I can tell you that presently, you are leaving a lot of unhappy customers in your wake.
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