Small things can make lot of difference.
My office does not have dedicated parking place inside the office complex and I have to park my car in thepublic car parking. Initially, like all parking wallahs, he is difficult to deal with.
Do not park here. Park your car in other corner of lane. You have parked in wrong slot. Give me change as I do not have change.
Blah. Blah. Blah... the list goes on.
But with time, he started recognizing me and realized that I am his regular customer. Slowly, his list of don’ts decreased. Ultimately, he got rid of his whole list.
Then I started to see the other side of his personality. He started blocking parking space for my car near my office. I now come at my regular time; drive straight to my ‘allotted’ parking space. No more hassles for change, in fact he has started giving me discount. Instead of charging regular price of Rs 20, he charges me Rs 10. I am not the only one for this kind of special treatment; he tries to give this kind of treatment to everyone in our office.
I am surprised to see other side of his personality.
With this small change, parking wallah’s almost customized the parking slots based on individual preference.
This I call as Law of Small Contribution as his minimum contribution made lot of difference to my parking experience. And this law makes a lot of difference in customer service and customer experience.
by thethoughtfultrain , on July 21, 2009 11:36 PM
Interesting! I remembered how in the early days of our shifting to a new locality, the local grocer first dint have a lot of things I wanted but continually shopping with him has made him give me special privileges and so on. :-) You put a name to the phenomenon!
by A journey called Life , on July 22, 2009 10:29 AM
whoa! slashing prices by 50%, one smart operator he is ensures perinial flow of customers and also word of mouth publicity from satisfied ones
by Ramesh , on July 23, 2009 6:12 AM
This is customer relationship at its best. Very nicely summarised and put as a concept Adesh. Maybe one day, you may want to be a Prof !
by Sabareesan , on August 3, 2009 6:00 PM
I checked out your blog based on the comment from Ramesh, I have also had the same experience at Mumbai, is it that you are ensuring that the bread and butter of the business is always happy, while the occasional topping need not be pampered as they are not regulars.
I can recall that the word TiP "to insure prompt service" may be based on the same analogy.