Balaji's musings - Customer service

Hi Friends, Hope all of you have been having a fabulous 2011, so far; thanks to the numerous friends who kept nudging me to start writing again (for various reasons)

Customer Service

Often, we as consumers come across different types of customer service…here are 2 very diverse situations that I encountered

(1) World of Titan……
Before I go into my actual experience at the World of Titan, I was reminded of a good joke. Here it goes

A keen Indian lad applied for a salesman's job at a city department store. The store was the biggest in the world and sold everything under the sun. "Have you ever been a salesman before?" the boss asked during his interview.
"Yes, I was a salesman in T'nagar," the lad answered.
The boss took an immediate liking to him and told him he could start the next day. "I'll come and see how you made out after we close up," the boss said.
The day was long and hard for the young man, but finally it was 5 o'clock. The boss closed up the store and found the lad sitting, slumped and exhausted, in a chair.
"How many sales did you make today?" the boss asked.
"One," said the lad. "One?" said the boss, obviously displeased. "Most of the sales people on my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the sale worth?"
"Exactly Rs.401,334.50," said the young man.
"How did you manage that?" asked the boss, flabbergasted.
"Well," said the lad, "this man came in and I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium fish hook, and finally a really large hook. Then I sold him a small fishing line, a medium one, and huge one. I asked him where he was going fishing, and he said he was going down the coast. I said he'd probably need a boat, so I took him down to the boat department and sold him that fancy 22-foot fishing boat with twin engines. Then he said his Car probably wouldn't be able to handle the load, so I took him to the vehicle department and sold him a new Ford 1-ton pickup truck."
"You sold all that to guy who came in for a fish hook?" the boss asked in astonishment……

The story goes on….but I will stop here, considering the decent audience –
(Ok OK, the story is modified and the Ford piece was my addition!!)

Now coming back to my experience – My wife had gone to service her Titan watch in the Titan Showroom (as the salesperson proudly said “ this is a Tata's OWN showroom”);
the watch got serviced and was ready for delivery, so my wife / daughter went to collect it.
As they were waiting for the watch to come, my daughter liked a new watch which was on display. So the mother & the Daughter made a deal and then the Father, who was still parking the car in T. Nagar finally came by.
So after more reviews of other watches on display, one watch was selected – while waiting to pay, the innovative salesperson was giving some free offers!!!
- First, a small water bottle, nothing costly, but in the hot scorching sat afternoon sun, it was like “Sweet nectar” – not enough, he still offered more water bottles!! Real Cool!
- Then some free gifts for the watch purchase – A trendy bag with a small snacks box inside -- that’s nice!!
- More!! A small coloring book with a few color pencils !! Super!!
- Not finished though – he gave a Titan card – which would enable me to accumulate points as I purchase each time and I can offset against future purchases.
- More!!! A Free sapling -- This is environment week – wow!! Slightly dazed by now!!

A bright idea sparks for my wife….our next purchase was for a function the next day – some silver articles! (Silver prices seem to increase faster than gold these days)
She says, why Silver, why not a watch for the Angel we are going to see the next day…that’s a bright idea and so…

We go back bought another watch for this angel also!! Result – one more teak sapling (neatly packaged in a Titan paper bag), one more set of coloring book / pencils, bag and snacks bag, etc… At the end, we came out as a very Satisfied and happy customers!

To crown it all, when we presented the watch in the function the next day, we also gave the sapling…lot of appreciative comments from the audience and the parents of the Lil girl (for the saplings)!! Hmm, that made us Happier!!

Hey, Wait a minute – my wife had just gone to service her watch!!! (hmm...now you can connect to the joke)

Scenario 2:
We went to shop for a Kitchen item in another shop in T.Nagar…famous showroom, centrally located, best prices (Advt said so!!), multiple brands, etc…well the Service, if anything to find a decent word - "Pathetic” – yes, we finally still bought the item, because we needed it “Urgently”, but whether we will go there again – I doubt it!!
Not that the freebies mattered, but the salespeople were not willing to explain the product features or the finer details of the product or details about the different brands available. Not that the shop was over crowded, but sheer callous attitude to customers!!!

A simple lesson: Many of us are in the Service industry(Directly or indirectly), so just like how we would enjoy being in the first scenario, look at how we can give our Customers a feeling of “Yes, You mean a Lot to me!!” and I am sure they will keep coming back to you!!!
It is win-win guys!