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Rocket Singh-Customer Service Person of the Year




Last weekend, I saw new movie called "Rocket Singh:- Salesman of the year" (probably one of best office movies made in India. BTW office movies are hardly made by Bollywood). I would like call this movie as "Rocket Singh:- Customer Service Person of the year" as movie is all about providing execellent customer service to clients and clients will take care of everything.

Rocket Singh believes in


  • providing on-time delivery,
  • committing what you can deliver and deliver what you have promised
  • always-on-service for clients
  • making relationships and not sales


He also aligns his whole team and partners towards company's customer service first and then company goes for asking business. Needless to say with such customer centric approach, business follows automatically.

I know this is all repeated at a lot of places (including this blog) and nothing is rocket science which is portrayed in the movie. However, it seems implementation of such philosphies is elusive and looking for some kind of rocket science that can help in implementation.

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My watch died (almost)...

My grandfather bought HMT (Hindustan Machine Tools) watch in 1965.  HMT is a Government organization and at one time they were synonymous with watches in India. Before the entry of corporate houses like TATA in watch industry with brands like Titan and before the onslaught of foreign watch brands like Swatch, Rado, Pierre Cardin etc, HMT watches ruled the Indian market. And they made watches on whose quality people used to swear upon. My grandfather's 50 year old and hand-winding watch is still functional. It may be outdated in terms of fashion but it does best what it is suppose to do i.e. announce time.

Cut to present. Zoobie gifted a Swatch watch two years ago. I was happy to get it. Why? Because
  • Swatch is considered to be an affordable premium brand. 
  • Watch was beautiful. 
  • It worked well. 
  • Onlookers admired it. 

I loved my watch...

But as soon its warranty got over, it conked. I thought it to be a battery problem. I went to the shop from where I bought it. They checked it and told me it is not battery problem. It is something else and to find out more on the problem, I have to visit Swatch's service center. Though, I have yet to get it checked in service centre but the person (who checked my watch) sounded as it is all over for my watch. He was almost sure that it is beyond repair though he did not announce that in so many words.  

Oh, God! What is this irony. A Sarkari Indian company makes watches which work well over 50 years. A company is run by babus for so long and yet able to deliver a quality product. On the other hand, we have world a class brand which swears by its quality but their watches lose steam in just over two years.

I know mine can be a one-off case and I am yet to get the final verdict from the service center. But the fact is, I  am feeling little let down by this WORLD CLASS brand called Swatch. Hence, this post.


I Will miss you...

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Miracle or mirage...



Just saying...

You can check out story behind Aloo Kachalu here. More Aloo Kachalu are here.

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First Marathon - View from the back

 
 

Me at 10 KM



Yeah, in winters 5:30 AM means dark
 
On December 6, I ran my first marathon (organized by runningandliving) in Gurgaon. I started practicing for this marathon from August 15. My sole purpose was and still is to have some form of exercise which keeps me fit. I ran close to 500 KM in practice and spent close to 70 hrs in practice. During the course, I ran two half-marathons and enjoyed running them.
 

Me at 35 KM Mark

Dr Roy running his 99 marathon. It's so cool man...
 
I was slow and for most of the time I was at the back of the pack. View from the back was very interesting. In the beginning, I was running near Dr Roy (77 years old) who was running his 99th marathon. In the end, I spent some time running with a college student who had some interesting stories to share from his earlier marathon.
 

 

 Cheering crowds does make difference
 
There were enough of high-fives with fellow runners who were cheering each other. Running slow did not mean that my calves were not in pain, did not have any back spasms or thigh muscles were not aching. By the time I approached finish line, all muscles in my body were in bad shape. Looking at the positive side, pain is temporary and pride of running a marathon is forever.
 

 
 
I knew that I had not prepared hard to run fast in this marathon but then, I only wanted to cross the finish line to see that I could do it. I am glad that I have done it. And waiting for next one.

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Real Time Reviews - Trend for 2010



Zoobie posted a feedback regarding a restaurant on Facebook. 
 
Customers set up a website to protest against faulty Time Machine Capsule.
 
I blogged, tweeted, reviewed,facebooked regarding my poor service experience rendered by IFB.
 
Dell hell blog post rocked Dell customer service in 2005. A prolific blogger wrote few posts over 20 days before Dell look into his problem. But that sounds too 2005-ish. These days Real Time Reviews (RTR) are in.
 
Real Time Reviews of products, services, by users and customers will be one of the trends to look out for in 2010. Real Time Reviews are already a rage. Tools like Twitter, Blogs and Facebook are fuelling this trend.
 
These real time reviews spread like a forest fire. Tweets get re-tweeted. Facebook status get comments. Blogs unite customers with same issues.
 
But bigger problem is most of the customer service departments in India are not ready for this RTR onslaught. They still believe in surveys which are meticulosly designed and carried. They still believe in good olds ways of structured feedback wherein feedback forms are given, feedback comes to customer service department, then it goes to respective departments, who act on it and reverts to customer service department who then get backs to customers. Phew! Too many layers to encounter.
 
I really wish customer had patience to go through so many layers. Trendwatching has come out with top 10 trends for 2010.

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Thanks for remembering me...




My marriage anniversary was on November 18 and I got a discount coupon from Pizza Hut. I was glad to know that they at least tried to use data which I have filled innumerable times in their outlet. They are not the only ones who gather this data. I have filled such details in almost all places but it was good to know that at least someone used it.

They have done a couple of good things here. They have sent me a list of stores along with their addresses and phone numbers. This is small, mundane but extremely useful thing to do. They are not assuming that I know the locations of Pizza Hut and they are also giving me an opportunity to visit some other Pizza Hut outlets and not my regular ones.

Pizza Hut have given me a window of one month to avail the discount coupons. It is not that I have to utilize these coupons on any given date and time. I can enjoy a sumptuous meal as per my own convenience. A thoughtful thing to do.

In terms of implementation, they could have done better. A personalized mail would have been great. A less-strict-sounding T&C would have had a more soothing effect on me.

Anyways, I am thankful to them as they remembered me on one of the most important days of my life. Thanks, Pizza Hut.
 

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