Swiggy’s #WhatTheFalooda is a thought provoking take on toxic complaints

Swiggy, India’s largest online food delivery platform is back with yet another video, this time centered around customer care executives. Titled #WhatTheFalooda, the campaign aims to sensitise customers against the use of abusive language while interacting with customer care executives through chats, calls and on social media.

Just a glance at some of the customer complaints that brands in the consumer internet space receive on social media will reveal how many are peppered with profanity. Conceptualised in-house, #WhatTheFalooda intends to create empathy for customer care executives who are on the receiving end of complaints.

According to a global study, when customer care representatives receive a heightened number of angry or abusive calls, it impacts them psychologically and emotionally. Some even end up worrying about these encounters outside of their work hours, deeply influencing their mood the next morning. The anonymity offered by the online, voice and chat-based platforms sometimes makes us forget about the human being on the other side. With this campaign, Swiggy encourages customers to think twice before hitting ‘Send’ on a hurtful message, especially when dealing with customer care teams across the service industry.

“Tens of thousands of users interact with customer care executives each day across various organisations. Some of them might unknowingly hurt the emotions of these anonymous executives who work around-the-clock to sort out grievances and ensure a hassle-free experience. We tend to forget that they are human too, and words of profanity can hurt them deeply. Through this campaign, we are hopeful that many such users will relate to it and become more conscious of their choice of words. As always, we have tried to marry humour into our communication, while highlighting the concerns faced by customer care executives not just at Swiggy, but across the entire service industry”, said Srivats TS – Vice President Marketing at Swiggy.

This campaign follows the footsteps of Swiggy’s hugely popular ‘What's In a Name’ video, which garnered over 35 million views across social channels and close to a billion ‘impressions on YouTube. Within a short while of the campaign going live, several customers promised to start calling not just Swiggy delivery partners, but also their other service partners by their name. Through Swiggy’s understanding of consumers and partners, these videos aim to drive a conversation and build greater empathy for those we so frequently interact with.

The #WhatTheFalooda digital campaign will be hosted on a microsite (https://whatthefalooda. swiggy.com/) from where consumers can download a special plugin for Chrome and Firefox browsers. This plugin automatically detects profanity in the text while nudging users to reconsider their choice of words and replace them with words related to different types of food like Biryani, Idly, Falooda etc.

Team Credits:

Campaign Idea: Swiggy In-house Team

Film Production: Flying Saucer

Extension Development: Bowstring Studio