Around the time of successful completion of the IPO and listing, the Ola Electric company received a lot of negative flak in the market. Most of the issues were product and service related. For example, people who bought the e-scooters had figured out that there were some serious problems with the hardware of the EV. In addition, there were also glitches in the software supporting the EV, which also became an embarrassment for Ola. But, the biggest embarrassment it faced had to do with quality of after sales service and the availability of spares and parts. 

In short, for Ola Electric, it was all about getting its logistics and sales story totally wrong. People who buy consumer goods believe what they see and in this case of e-scooters, they saw the lack of service capabilities and the shortage of spares. In India there is no shortage of dramatics and the situation was worsened by some over-zealous buyers even burning their e-scooters out of frustration. The service capabilities of Ola Electric had just not kept pace with the growth in demand. It had become the largest selling e-scooter in India, but Ola Electric just did not have spares and the servicing network to take care of a huge customer base pan-India. 

For Ola Electric, the imperative was about doing the right thing at the right time. And that is exactly what it did. On a war footing, the company completed the four-fold expansion of its sales and service network from 1,000 outlets to 4,000 outlets. That now provides the company with the firepower to service a much bigger array of customers with its largely expanded network. In handling customers, points of presence (POP) is of paramount importance; both from the service point of view and also from the perception point of view. In addition, Ola Electric also ensured that the hardware and software glitches in its product were rectified on priority. For now, the issue may be resolved, but it is best to be wary. 

When it comes to businesses; especially start-up businesses, perception matter a lot. We saw the implications of flailing perceptions on the fortunes of Byju’s. As much as positive perception can help on the way up, impact of negative opinion gets magnified on the way down. That is what Ola Electric had to be wary about. Valuation models of start-ups are still evolving. A classic example of holding on to public perception is the way Swiggy and Zomato have ensured that their public perception is not impacted in any way. That is what Ola Electric has also done and it lives to fight another day. But it is essential to be perpetually wary!