Not Being Sarkari

In this cutthroat competition in technology retail game, one retailer Micro Retailer is growing and revenues increased nearly 150% in last two years. But how they have achieved it?

By focusing on the customer.

"If you continue to focus on the customer—even when it is painful—the customer will not let you down." Said Kevin Jones, Micro Center's vice president of merchandising.

Read the full story here.

I was looking for a book called Slideology. Checked out in book shops like Landmark, Books and Beyond and OM Book Shop. I could not find on the book shelves in any of the book stores. I requested the employees to check in their databases. All were courteous enough to check and informed that book is not available.

I decided to check one last book store Reliance Timeout which is little away from my place .I could not find the book on the shelves and I asked from Customer Service Representative. He was polite, courteous, and willing to help. He checked in his database and it was not available with them. Then he logged onto Amazon and checked whether I am referring to a book or not. He checked the launch date on Amazon and informed me that since it is new launch it will take three-four more days to arrive in India.

This is small but extra information which I admired a lot.

Read this small description of coffee in Cafe Coffee Day menu

"South American brew fit for the Gods or as we like to call them, our customers."

Customer is God, without doubt. Period.

Consumer Online Resource and Empowerment Centre (CORE) has come out with list of brands which are not consumer friendly. Top three worst performing brands are Vodafone, Tata Sky and Sify Broadband & Online Shopping.

Criteria followed is number of complaints received against the company, and response and resolution provided by the company. CORE writes

"The procedure followed by CORE Centre in this regard is to forward the complaints to the concerned Organization, with a request to respond to the complaint, within 15 days.

While most of the Organisations respond within this period, (provide link) some of them take a longer time. In such cases a reminder is sent to them requesting them to respond within another 15 days. Regretfully, some Organisations do not respond even within the extended period. Nevertheless, one more last chance is given to such defaulting Organisations to respond to the complaint within another 15 days, warning them that their names would be included in a list of Brands not Friendly and not Caring for Consumers posted on our Website, as an Organisation which does not respond, despite ample opportunity being given to them, to resolve the complaints of Consumers."

Vodafone received 210 complaints and they have responded to none. Great!! I thought they are happy to help.

TATA Sky received 45 complaints and responded to none. Not expected from TATA brand.

Hopefully things will get better and they will listen to their grieving customers.

"Here is a simple but powerful rule - always give people more than what they expect to get."

- Nelson Boswell

Seth wrote about sing it. He wrote

A concert isn’t about the music, is it? And a restaurant isn’t about the food. The funny thing is that learning to Sing It is a lot easier than learning how to play the guitar. For some reason, we work on the technique before we worry about adding the joy.

Even shopping in malls is more than shopping. It is about fun, joy and experience.

Visited Ambience Mall during the weekend. They were celebrating Teej and cultural programs were going on in the mall. Mall had the festive feeling and customers were loving and enjoying dance, music, pupet shows and . Although it could have been better by engaging customers with mehndi for ladies, paintings for kids etc. Nonetheless it was good experience.

"People don't refer business to you because you meet their minimum expectations. They refer you because they expect you to do a good job which, in turn, enhances their relationship with the person they are referring." --Ivan Misner




Sometime back, I was in Pune. I saw a local coffee shop 'Coffee Jar'. Being an ardent coffee lover, I decided to check out Coffee Jar. I checked out the menu and then decided to ask cashier their best cold coffee. Without blinking, he said "Mocha". His voice had warmth, was full of confidence and I decided to try. They served me after 5 minutes. And voila! By far the best cold coffee I ever had (at such reasonable price). Taste remained with me for quite sometime but what will remain with me forever will be employee warmth, confidence and the fact that he understood customer experience.

Why this kind of warmth and confidence is missing from national coffee chains like Cafe Coffee Day and Barista?