Category Archives: Customer Service

My Experiments with Customer Service Part II

The Indian Optician, January-February, 2010 Issue

(contd. from the last issue Part I) ….. There was another chemist near our new residence. A much better laid out shop ….. much better stocked with a much wider range of products. This seemed like a great alternative !! We also became members of the ‘frequent buyer’ group and got a ‘loyalty’ card that allowed us accumulation of points which could be redeemed on subsequent purchases. They announced ‘24X7 service’ and ‘free home delivery’ on signages in and outside the shop, on the loyalty card, invoice copies, carry bags et al. This was ‘The Promised Land’, I thought to myself, very happy with my decision to have tied up with them !!

I started visiting the shop, shifting our required chemist related purchases there. One day, due to some pressing engagements, I decided to order for home delivery on the phone. After what seemed like eternity, my call was answered by a voice at the other end, telling me to hold on and that they would take my order in a short while. This was even before I could lose my cool and ask the voice at the other end, why it took them so long to pick up the phone. So I held on to my end of the line …..

To share how I felt then and how things shaped up subsequently, let me request you to hold on to your end of the line till the next issue and to try to figure out my feelings at that moment. Needless to say, you may curse me for my arrogant sounding closure to this article ….. and I must say that that is quite close to how I felt on being told to hold on to my end of the telephone line by ‘The Land of Promises’.

Part II

Sure enough, the feeling was of anger, helplessness, despair. Many of you wrote back to me saying that you have been through similar situations and understand and empathise with me. Some even wrote saying that you were waiting for the continuation and wanted to see what happened next. Not that what I shared was something new or had great insight, but I guess it did strike a chord with some of you. We all are aware of the several ‘Dos and Don’ts’ of Customer Service. The idea here is not to ‘list’ down the same and preach in a didactic manner. No, not at all. Infact that is quite easy and simple. There are several ‘Commandment type texts’ on this topic. But that is not the objective really. That is, I don’t want to be and sound like a preacher. I just thought that through this medium, I could share some of the situations that I went through, some examples of good and bad customer service from our daily lives. Hence, the format is more ‘experience sharing and conversational’. I hope in the subsequent issues I am able to share more such ‘live’ cases with you. So let me continue from where I left in the last issue …..

I kept holding the line, waiting for someone to get back to me. No one did. The line got disconnected on its own after some time. I dialled once more. Again, after many rings, the call was answered. Some improvement this time though. The voice at the other end said politely ‘Good Evening !! XYZ Pharmacy, how can I help you ?’.

‘I want to place an order for home delivery ?’ I said. I was told that the person who takes orders was not at the counter and I should call again after some time !! I put the phone down and counted 10 (I was told by someone, that that is the best way to calm one’s nerves). The sequence of dialling and holding the line and listening to the recorded message (this was something to the effect that my call was very important to them) at the other end continued. Finally someone came on the line and I repeated my request for placing an order. ‘Sir, we do not have delivery boys right now. Your order cannot be delivered today. Can we deliver tomorrow morning by 11.30 AM ?’ the voice suggested. ‘But you promise home delivery and 24X7 service’.

‘Sir the delivery boys leave at 6.00 PM. It is already 5.30 PM. We cannot deliver your order today.’

‘Do you realise it is a medicine order. How can it wait till tomorrow ? The first dose has to be taken now.’

‘Sorry Sir, we cannot deliver it now. There is no one to deliver’.

‘But I am a loyalty card holder, you talk of 24X7 service, you promise home delivery. How can a big name like yours not live up to its commitments ?’

‘Sorry Sir, there is no one to deliver right now.’

‘But …..’ I started and stopped, realising that this was not going to go anywhere.

Why ? Why at all would anyone use Big Slogans and Lofty Promises if they do not wish to live by them, I wondered. The only reason I could think of is to mislead customers to walk in, even if it meant creating a false perception of what they stand for. But this is so short lived. The customer will walk in once, but if the ‘seller’ doesn’t ‘Walk The Talk’, repeat visits will not take place. Not only that, it spreads a negative word of mouth. Positives travel much less than negatives. In so many of my interactions with people, whenever there have been discussions related to customer service levels, always, descriptions of negative experiences have come first and have been more numerous than those of positive experiences. In a highly competitive environment, where positive referrals depend so much on service levels, they are also more difficult to elicit. The task becomes even tougher then !!

My mother had a knee problem last year and had great difficulty walking. The doctor advised knee braces of a certain type. I went to the same pharmacy again, sticking to the same store, thanks to the loyalty card and also because, as I had mentioned earlier, the store was well stocked with a wide range of product offerings. It was the first time that I realised how many variants are there in knee braces as well. One would have thought that it is a simple contraption, something that one pulls up upto the knees. They did not have the recommended ‘size’ in stock though. However, the counter person was kind enough to check with their central warehouse and promised to arrange for it after ‘two’ days. I called after two days to check if it was there. No luck. Another day and then yet another passed and I finally picked it up after 5 days.

To our surprise, the brace would not slide up to her knee level. Fortunately, the pack did not have a sealed wrap and she had tried only one brace, which also did not move beyond the calf area. I promptly packed it again and rushed back requesting for an exchange of size. Maybe I was removed from reality and had misplaced expectations. ‘No Sir, we cannot exchange it please’, was the straight answer from the same counter boy who had so ‘kindly’ arranged for the size in the first place. The pair had cost Rs.4000/- !! No amount of reasoning helped.

Stuck that I was, with no other option and the fact that I had to get the correct size for my mother, I went to another shop. ‘Sir, try this other brand ….. same quality, same design, same purpose and better price too’, the counter person said. I told him that I would buy it, but asked if I could I take it home, get my mother to try it and if at all it was required, exchange for a different size ? ‘No problem Sir, if it does not fit, take another size’, he smiled and said. I took it home and my mother tried the new pair of braces. The size was perfect, the fit was extremely comfortable. I never used the ‘loyalty card’ from the previous shop again ….. I never needed to.

More …..

J.P.Singh

JPS Customer Value Academy

Just Plain & Simple

….. Helping Create Customer Value

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My Experiments with Customer Service

The Indian Optician, November-December, 2009 Issue

I think of myself as quite a calm person, who gets along well with most people. My relationships have been generally warm and cordial. I try to stick to my commitments and believe very strongly in truth, ethical behaviour and integrity. Whenever I have sensed people deviating from these values, I have just casually kept distance and walked away from them, rarely losing my cool and creating a raucous.

However, there have been times when my wife and children have had to intervene to get me to keep my temper down and to calm me. These situations, generally, are related to levels of customer service that I find against the values I described above or are straight irritating and unacceptable to me. My sensitivity to such situations, quite possibly, could also be due to heightened awareness due to my involvement in ‘Customer Value Creation’. So maybe I am unreasonable in my assessment to some extent. But I do believe, that to varying degrees, most people would empathise with me.

Also, not to say that there have not been experiences of pure delight in customer service, where I have reciprocated through my continued patronage and loyalty, shifting more and more of my purchases to the shop, preferring to buy from there even if it was not the core offering, but the owner still stocked them as peripheral items.

A case in point is the neighbourhood chemist shop owner in the locality where we used to stay earlier. Every visit to the shop (and remember that a visit to a chemist shop may not always be without a certain level of anxiety) was accompanied by a pleasant greeting. Even if there was stress due to an illness in the family, not that the stress would go, but the smiling acknowledgement of one’s arrival did not definitely aggravate the situation. He would ask about the well being of family members, occasionally check how work was going or discuss current happenings, depending on circumstances. Over a period of time, familiarity and comfort level increased and I found myself shifting our monthly purchases of toiletries also to this shop, since he stocked them too. If anything was out of stock at that time, he would promise to organise delivery and always stuck to his commitments. We rewarded him generously with loyalty and by increasing the basket of what we bought from him, adding toothpastes and soaps and deodorants to our list of medicines to be purchased ….. Prices were never discussed !!

We then shifted to another locality. Due to distance, obviously we could not continue to patronise this chemist shop. But still, whenever in that area, we would stop by to pick up certain things we remembered or just to say hello.

There was another chemist near our new residence. A much better laid out shop ….. much better stocked with a much wider range of products. This seemed like a great alternative !! We also became members of the ‘frequent buyer’ group and got a ‘loyalty’ card that allowed us accumulation of points which could be redeemed on subsequent purchases. They announced ‘24X7 service’ and ‘free home delivery’ on signages in and outside the shop, on the loyalty card, invoice copies, carry bags et al. This was ‘The Promised Land’, I thought to myself, very happy with my decision to have tied up with them !!

To share how I felt then and how things shaped up subsequently, let me request you to hold on to your end of the line till the next issue and to try to figure out my feelings at that moment. Needless to say, you may curse me for my arrogant sounding to closure to this article ….. and I must say that that is quite close to how I felt on being told to hold on to my end of the telephone line by ‘The Land of Promises’.

To be continued …..

J.P.Singh

JPS Customer Value Academy

Just Plain & Simple

….. Helping Create Customer Value

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When God was ridiculed …..

The Indian Optician, October, 2009

A few weeks back, I was with a big group of dealers from the optical trade. Various topics of common interest were brought up and the discussion moved towards how one could maintain and increase customer footfall. There was, and rightly so, concern and anxiety about the issue. Everyone was genuinely involved and interested. Increasing competition, organised players, mushrooming of shops, improved ambience, price cuts etc. were indicated as being factors that played an important role.

At that point, someone asked for my comments. “In such a situation, one cannot compete on ‘pricing’ and/or by spending money on ‘advertising’ alone. Each of these can be matched or overdone by other competitors, draining everyone’s resources, leaving everyone’s efforts ineffective or yielding suboptimal results”, I said. My view is that ‘customer experience’ becomes important to create a difference under these circumstances. One should not only look at ‘customer satisfaction’, but beyond that, at ‘customer delight’ ….. leading to loyalty, repeat visits and referrals !! See whether you have a ‘delighted’ customer walking out of your door !!

“How does one know that the customer was delighted ?” asked someone. While there are techniques and ways to find this out (like calling up the customer, having a feedback form, tracking repeat visits or just plain and simple asking the customer there and then) your sixth sense helps you know, feel and realise within yourself after you have dealt with the customer …..

At this stage of discussion, someone in the group stood up and said “Where does this lead to ? The other day I had a customer in my shop, who was bargaining for Rs.20/- for a solution bottle. She would go to a parlour and spend Rs.1000/-; she would spend Rs.200/- at a chaat shop without asking any question. But for a solution bottle she was bargaining for a mere Rs.20/-“. At this, the whole group broke into a hearty laughter and applause, as if each one was saying “Yes, I can understand this so well, it happens so often at my shop too”.

This reaction was quite shocking. My question to the group was “Do you have a plaque in your shop with ‘Customer is God’ written on it ?”. Everyone acknowledged having similar quotes put up at some location or the other. All I could say is that it was belief in that quotation that would make a difference in ‘customer experience’, leading them from mere ‘satisfaction’ to where they would know for themselves whether they were giving delight or not. It is one’s conscience which plays back the ‘truth’ in all such situations and that they should go back and ask themselves whether the ‘applause’ really showed that they ‘cared’ for their customers and ‘respected’ them ….. This was the time I thought God was ridiculed …..

Care and Respect are the initial and very basic conditions in the long and tough journey towards customer satisfaction, delight, loyalty, repeat visits and finally referrals, where the customer becomes your ambassador ….. helping you create your very own ‘Distinct and Unique Brand Identity’, which no one can match or replicate.

How or why should one then expect the customer not to bargain for Rs.20/- ? If the customer happily keeps feeding on ‘gol gappas’ without asking a question, she definitely sees more value creation and a better experience from this ‘chaat’ seller, compared to what she is paying !! One necessary condition for creating this ‘experience’ is that the ‘perceived value’ by the customer, should be higher than what ‘price’ she pays. This is the only way the equation will work !! And The Only Way to create a distinction and acceptance, is to ‘Step into The Customers’ shoes and see how things look from there …..

There is saying in India ‘Atithi devo bhava’ (A Guest is to be treated like God). In any case, even if a customer does not buy anything, he/she is a guest in our shop, to be treated like God !!

Would the person, whose comments about his customer brought an applause from the group, buy from himself ?????

If ‘Customer is God’ the least one can do is answer the following :

Do I truly care for and respect my customer ?
Do I feel good about representing my organization – and its products and services? Why / why not?
Why should customers invest their time and money with us?
If we were the customers, would we want to do business with us? Why / why not?
What can we do to improve the experience our customers have with us?
Why should we bother? What are the benefits for us?
What do we need in order to make that improved experience happen?
What can we do to help each other be more successful in that effort?

God is about love, and we can dialogue with Him and ask Him anything we want to know. Same is true for customers as well.

Have a delightful journey ….. but DO NOT RIDICULE YOUR GOD, ever ….. remember that he feeds your family too !!

J.P.Singh

JPS Consulting

Just Plain & Simple

….. Helping Realise Potential

JPS Customer Value Academy

….. Helping Create Customer Value

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Customer Service Capability Building

Adding Value to The Selling Process

The Indian Optician, October, 2008

Packaging of a product, they say, is a silent salesman. But it ‘speaks’ louder than anything else.

So also, in today’s competitive & professional world, plain functional skills as a product offering are not enough & need packaging as well. Having functional skills is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Infact with rigorous academic curriculum & examinations, functional aspects of a subject, hopefully, (though the relevance of some of the subjects being taught is continuously debated) should be taken care of adequately. Employers feel a general lack of employability even if candidates have relevant academic qualifications & subject knowledge. Quite often ‘soft’ skills are where the gap lies, they say & most interviewers would be checking these in an interview situation.

The area of development could be plain simple communication skills, related to working English or in many cases even effective communication in a vernacular language. Body language, clarity of speech, dialoguing & listening skills are important basic elements here. At the next level, personal grooming/hygiene, planning, time management etc. are areas which should be given particular attention.

Again, ‘personal/individual’ specific areas of development are not enough. Organisations are an interplay of multiple relationships. Therefore adaptive thinking, flexibility, right behaviour/attitude & teamwork become essential for effective & productive functioning of any organisation in order to maximise results. Most courses/degrees do not handle these areas at all. Specific attention is needed to develop these very important attributes of one’s personality. Sensitivity to view points of team mates, peers, superiors and subordinates will be possible only if proper behavioural training & inputs are given or rather taken proactively by the candidates to not just sensitise themselves but to internalise these traits.

Since every organisation exists for serving the customer, one way which can help candidates to develop the above attributes, is to develop a strong customer orientation. Quite often, lip service is given to this term. However, if this is understood & ‘internalised’ well, then the need for all the areas discussed above (be it communication, grooming, listening, teamwork, behaviour etc.) will become automatically clear & one would understand their significance in organisational working. Colleagues are to be seen as internal customers & hence the concept is helpful in cross functional alignment & working as well.

Needless to say, none of these so called soft skills can be picked up a few days before appearing for an interview or be played in isolation or faked. These should be developed continuously over a period of time so that they become second nature to one’s personality ….. bootstrapped together to present an integrated whole individual, facing the challenges or rather opportunities of the world GRACEFULLY ….. !!

J.P.Singh

JPS Consulting

Just Plain & Simple

….. Helping Realise Potential

JPS Customer Value Academy

Just Plain & Simple

….. Helping Create Customer Value

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Luck is the by product of Continuous Improvement

The Indian Optician, August, 2009

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.
— Eleanor Roosevelt

This is a short story that dates back to the 1960s but the wisdom expressed by the principal lead is very much relevant in today’s fast-moving world.

Not even two full decades had passed since India’s exciting independence and the traumatic partition, which resulted in a state of affairs wherein positive and negative aspects occurred together, just like two sides of the same coin, as happens so often in life.

We were staying in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar area. Kundan Sahib ran a small bakery shop, called Kundan Bakery, in the local market.

In 1947, the then very young Kundan Lal Sahni had migrated to Delhi with his family, leaving all material possessions behind in Lahore, where the family had seen great times and plenty of wealth. Armed with perseverance, capability and willingness to work hard, he landed in Delhi as a ‘refugee’ and set up a bakery shop – not a simple task during those trying times – but the ingenious Kundan Sahib took his work seriously and as a reward for good service and honesty, gradually, step by step, the volume of business increased and people flocked to his store to enjoy his delicious fare.

I still recall how as kids we often used to go to Kundan Uncle’s (that is how all the neighbourhood kids called him) bakery to buy bread, cakes etc. It was always a pleasure to go there, whether in a group or alone, as Kundan Uncle always had a kind word, a joke or a sweet for everyone. We used to play pranks with him and he enjoyed with us. He was like a family member to all of us. When adults went to buy something at the bakery, they and Kundan Sahib would have discussions on all sorts of issues – politics, Nehru, Raj Kapoor – anything. Kundan Uncle used to know what each of his customers liked. “Mrs. Mehta, I have this fresh bread that came in just now, the type Mr. Mehta likes. Should I pack this also?” or “Mr. Sood, it is your son’s birthday next week. Shall I bake that special cake he likes?” The best part was that throughout the day one could enjoy the fresh and tasty products. Personal requests regarding different kinds of products were also easily taken care of and we could not even dream of ever going to another bakery. Kundan Uncle was a part of the ‘ecosystem’ there and an integral part of our daily lives !!

Years went by. Our family moved to West Delhi. I went out to study and then for work to various cities. We stayed in touch with Kundan Uncle though – sometimes through telephone calls and occasionally, visiting his shop to share a cup of tea while passing by that area. It used to be about a once a year contact. His son’s Rajeev and Manoj were of the same age as me. We had played together as kids. Kundan Bakery continued to flourish. Clientele grew and a very loyal clientele at that !! Customers still would not go anywhere else for their bakery needs. Rajeev and Manoj also joined the family business. They opened more shops : one to start with, then two, three, four and five, in nearby localities of South Delhi. Kundan Sahib and his sons learnt to manage the business, shuttling between shops. They continued to have one central bakery where everything was baked and then distributed to different locations in the city.

Two years ago, I got a surprise call from Kundan Sahib. “Son, you have a management degree and have worked in big companies. I need to talk to you about our business. Can you come over?” he asked. “Sure”, I immediately agreed. We fixed a time to meet at his shop – the first one. I reached there at the time agreed. Rajeev and Manoj were also there. After some pleasantries and a cup of tea with the usual cakes, Kundan Sahib, now in his mid-seventies, said “Son, business has been going well. We have expanded and now have five shops. Rajeev and Manoj have been managing the business with me. Their children are also growing up. Lately, our family discussions have centred around finding a future direction for our business and we thought we should take your views also.” Manoj, the younger one, added “A few years back, a national company called Montana Bakery, started opening bakery shops all over the country. Montana has opened thirty shops all over Delhi, out of which fifteen are in South Delhi. They offer a wide range of bakery products : cakes, pastries, breads etc. Montana has a huge central bakery and distribute products twice a day, through temperature controlled vehicles. Our business is doing well, but Rajeev and I are worried that we may start loosing out to Montana going forward. We are telling Papa that we should look at some other businesses and reduce our risk, otherwise Montana could take away our business. It is a big brand. How can we match them? What do you suggest?”

“Kundan Uncle,” I said, “you have seen life. You have a lot more experience than all of us. While I may have an opinion on this, what is your suggestion?”

Kundan Sahib : “Son, I started this business from nothing and with nothing in hand. Over the years, I nurtured it and worked hard. I have tried my best to keep my customers happy. I have personally interacted with them, and by God’s grace, Kundan Bakery is a much respected name today. I am proud that my children Rajeev and Manoj continue to follow my tradition. Now, my grand children have also started getting involved in this business and I am happy to share the knowledge gained through my personal experience, with them. I am aware that Montana has brought in new technologies and business practices and that this has made them more effective in today’s business world. They are fully equipped to meet the changing needs and requirements of customers; they have hired professionals to look at logistics, marketing, selling techniques, human resources, customer care etc. But although we may not have all the resources that Montana has, we do know a lot about our customers. My suggestion is that perhaps we should look at upgrading our processes, that is, the way we do business. This would mean a new way of approaching marketing, technology, inventory management, customer service skills, our people and hence our business outlook, while building on our customer relationships. This will make us more efficient, profitable and competitive enough to not only survive, but to come out stronger in the coming days. We have to upgrade and look at new ways of doing business in these new circumstances. Son, I have seen tougher times and I have always learnt new ways of doing business with changing times. That is what made me successful in my life”.

I was amazed at the way this man in his seventies looked at situations and circumstances !! He was willing to ‘relearn’ and change even at this age. I was reminded of a well-known personality, who, I am told, in his late eighties used to start a discussion with, “Twenty years from now …..” . He was always living in the current context with a dream for the future !! Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals”.

Kundan Sahib concluded by saying “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t. You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. The mind moves in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts.”

I was immediately reminded of a popular saying, “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction”.

I thought to myself, “What advice can I give this man?”

“Kundan Uncle, you are very wise indeed, and have truly understood the situation. You have obviously given a great deal of thought to this impending threat but I am sure your way of tackling this problem is probably the best option and I am sure, your business will emerge stronger and more competitive going forward. Efforts at brand building, newer techniques in logistics and inventory management, investing in employee development and customer service, so that your employees take care of customers as well as you did ….. are things that will definitely pay dividends ”, I declared after much consideration. After all, as another time-honoured maxim goes, “Luck is the by product of Continuous Improvement”, I reflected.

Note : This is a true story. Names and some facts have been modified for reasons of confidentiality.

J.P.Singh

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