Zomato issues apology on Twitter after social media outrage

Netizens took offense when a Zomato customer service executive said Hindi is India's national language.

We live in sensitive times where brands have to be careful of the content it posts on social channels. The latest brand to be trolled for its content is Zomato. #Reject_Zomato was trending on Twitter after a customer posted screenshots of an exchange with its customer service executive.

Hi Vikash, this is unacceptable. We'd like to get this checked ASAP, could you please share your registered contact number via a private message? https://t.co/jcTFuGSv2G

— zomato care (@zomatocare) October 18, 2021

The grievance the customer had posted was regarding a missing food item order. The conversation took a turn when the customer service executive mentioned that Hindi is India's national language and that everyone must know Hindi.

India has no national language and the most commonly used official languages in communication are Hindi and English. Shortly after the customer, Vikash, posted his grievance on Twitter, Zomato responded to his query with an apology statement both in English and in Tamil.

Vanakkam Vikash, we apologise for our customer care agent's behaviour. Here's our official statement on this incident. We hope you give us a chance to serve you better next time.

Pls don't #Reject_Zomato ♥️ https://t.co/P350GN7zUl pic.twitter.com/4Pv3Uvv32u

— zomato (@zomato) October 19, 2021

Shortly after Zomato had posted the apology letter, the co-founder Deepinder Goyal also took to Twitter to tweet a thread of his opinions about the ordeal. Read the tweets below.

An ignorant mistake by someone in a support centre of a food delivery company became a national issue. The level of tolerance and chill in our country needs to be way higher than it is nowadays. Who's to be blamed here?

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 19, 2021

On that note, we are reinstating the agent – this alone is not something she should have been fired for. This is easily something she can learn and do better about going forward.

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 19, 2021

Goyal had tweeted this as Zomato was being criticised for firing the agency after this incident.

And remember, our call centre agents are young people, who are at the start of their learning curves and careers. They are not experts on languages and regional sentiments. Nor am I, btw.

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 19, 2021

Having said that, we should all tolerate each other's imperfections. And appreciate each other's language and regional sentiments.

Tamil Nadu – we love you. Just as much as we love the rest of the country. Not more, not less. We are all the same, as much as we are different.❤️

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) October 19, 2021

(This is a developing story.)