Two days in a row, I saw a common link in different customer service experiences I had with 2 brands.

1. Day before - Manpreet and I finished our meeting with a new colleague who has just come board and decided to make a stop at a Pizza Hut. This is a brand that has won my heart many times over lately.

   We ordered our drinks and our new colleague ordered a Pan Pizza, while Manpreet and I took a bit longer before we finally decided to share a pizza.

   One of the pizza's landed quickly, but mine and Manpreet's seemed to be taking unduly long.

   I was thinking about calling the the boy serving our table, to check status, when I saw him walk briskly in our direction - he placed a portion of freshly baked 'garlic bread, with cheese' on the table, apologized and explained that the pizza was taking longer due to a mix-up in and if we could bear the delay for just a bit longer. In the interim, he'd be delighted, he said, if we enjoyed the garlic bread - on the house.

   The focus shifted, from the delay in service to "Good people."

2. Yesterday - I finished my interactive session with communication teams from some 'not-for-profit organizations' and asked my driver to collect a friend from the airport who was bringing along a new harmonium I had ordered for my father.

   All cash I was carrying, but Rs. 60/-, went into an envelope, for my driver to hand over towards excess baggage that my friend had already paid. I settled down at a Costa Coffee outlet to work, while he returned from the Airport.

   After working for a couple of hours, I walked up to the counter and ordered a Cafe Mocha - the bill came to Rs. 66/-, at which I asked the gentleman at the counter, who knows me (from another Costa outlet he used to work at earlier and which I am family visited regularly and again from his present outlet where too I, friends and colleagues visit many times during the week) to give me a Cappuccino instead as I wasn't carrying enough cash.

   It took him not even a millisecond to suggest that I continue with my original order and that I could pay the difference next time around. I suggested that I could very happily drink a Cappuccino instead, but he insisted. For all I know he paid the difference from his pocket.

   As you can guess, he won my heart.

What do you say to these instances? Coincidence or Company Culture?

You can clearly see that differentiated customer service is associated empowered employees who can take impromptu decisions, to delight the customer.

You have had some great experiences like this? What's been your learning from those? Keep writing.

The Internet seems to be down, "Is there a problem on the network?" you ask. "No Ma'am, the network is working fine, please try rebooting the computer." 5 minutes, 3 reboots later, you call again. "I am sorry ma'am, there is problem in the main server. It will take 3 hours to sort out the problem." What is more upsetting... that the connection is down or that the problem wasn't acknowledged? Or even more that they didn't call you themselves to confirm that a problem had been identified?

"Ma'am, I am sorry about the inconvenience caused but I cannot courier the statement to you - it is not our bank's policy to send it by courier, we can only send over normal mail." You may have tax returns to file but the packet can only reach you in 7 days, and not 2, because the bank doesn't use a courier and they won't make an exception, even if you offered to pay for the courier." Sometimes however you manage to reach someone high up and it has been possible to organize a courier.

A cheque you deposited 6 months ago, hasn't been received in the recipient's account and you are trying to trace it by calling phone-banking "Ma'am, I understand that you need details of the cheque. What I can tell you though is that the cheque has been withdrawn, for more details you will have to go the home branch." They won't give you the number of the branch, so you request a call back. A call is promised but never happens. You land up at the home branch and the manager on the desk goes through the regular motions, even writes a mail to the HO (right in front of you) to figure out what happened! Only you are not so sure, if he knows HOW he needs to figure out what has happened. Five minutes, 3 interruptions later he suggests you meet the Branch Manager. The branch manager greets you politely, listens to your situation, looks into the records and confirms that the money had been transferred to the recipient's bank but final transfer into the correct account needs to be checked at that bank - explains the procedure, hands you his business card and suggests that you call him on his hand-phone if there is a further problem - now or later.

I am sure all of us have had umpteen similar conversations. As customers, we curse when we are not heard, but perhaps forget the embedded lessons, making the same mistakes as marketers/ customer service professionals. Pleasing a customer isn't really that difficult, as the bank manager perhaps understood.

But before we ask ourselves what customers want, a moment's pause about what do they NOT want?

1. Don't want apologies: Simplest recourse that every customer service person seems to resort to, not understanding that an apology doesn't actually solve a problem and that the customer is not in a mood to listen 'until' the problem is resolved. Later she may be willing to forgive - but not right now.
2. Don't want to change partners: It's painful to look for new partners, new relationships. Customers don't want to change - they chose us, over others. They want to 'stay' unless they are really forced to change.

Do we want to keep them? What do they really want?

1. Want to be heard: Our executives (we) are in a hurry to get over with that call, to get on with the next. There may be a prescribed time limit or we've heard similar problems, so we don't want to 'hear' it again. But the customer has a problem that she thinks is unique - it is - and she wants us to 'listen' first. She doesn't want to be rushed, interrupted.
2. Want us to acknowledge: The problem may or may not exist, but it's real for her. Do we acknowledge that she may be facing a problem. Acknowledgment is the only way a customer is sure she has been heard.
3. Want the truth: Often enough, even if we know of the problem, we don't want to acknowledge, for whatever reasons - liabilities; media reportage; customer satisfaction scores. Telling the truth makes the customer a 'partner' and more manageable in my experience.
4. Want us to sort out the problem: What are we doing about it, to actually sort it - other than recording the problem, passing it on etc.
5. Want us to close the loop: The problem was resolved. Who informed the customer? She is waiting to hear from us!
6. Want things to work: Customer, like us, are busy with their lives - they don't want to bother us with calls and visits. They just want things to work as promised.
7. Want to leave us alone! Only possible is things continue to work, as promised.

What do you think? Add to this list on the comments!

One of the subjects that I am constantly trying to explore is, 'customer experience'. Does a brand that promises "Customer Delight" as its chosen pursuit actually deliver it? Or is it mostly just a sexy line that has no connect whatsoever with ground reality?

Is there a brand that exemplifies "Customer Delight" for YOU? Which one?

I am looking for some 'touch and feel' examples. You can help by sharing your experiences.

I am hoping to use the examples on my blog/ website or a future newspaper column/ book etc.and I take if that I have your permission to do so.

Request you to use the form please.

A series of random events made me think about the 'weak link' in customer service:

1. My mobile rang, the young lady on the phone was calling on behalf of the car company I had recently purchased a new vehicle from and wanted me to participate in a brief survey. This is my second car from their stable and as a happy customer, so far, I agreed. Where I thought, she perhaps wanted my feedback on how the vehicle was doing etc. (it has since had an axle change), nothing like that interested her...

   She jumped straight into a sales spiel - the company had launched a new device to protect my vehicle from theft, would I be interested in buying? I protested that this was not a survey at all and requested a call-back from the Head of Customer Care to share feedback. I did, indeed, get a call back the very same evening. A deputy manager first called and finally succumbed to my demand of speaking with the Head of Customer Care.

   The gentleman, first didn't agree that it was possible his team could be doing something like this (his DM knew) - I told him either he was acting naive; or he thought I was; or if he really didn't know, my sympathies were with him. I told him that I am just sharing feedback that:

   - As a customer who has just posed his faith in his product, the first call I expect from the company should be to take my feedback on my driving experience - he agreed.

   - I don't have a problem in speaking with his team for purchase of another product, but I refuse to be cheated into it by a 'survey' spiel - he agreed.

   A few days later, someone else called to take my feedback - it didn't matter to me anymore; there is feedback form that I received a couple of days ago, it is lying unattended.

   I test drove another of their vehicles recently and enjoyed the experience. My overall experience with the brand, over the years, has been good and I think I will buy again but I do hope they call me to take feedback first, if and when I do

2. A mega jam, en route to Gurgaon on my birthday earlier this year, forced me to request my friend to get a sandwich for dad/ us, from this ultimate brand built on it's promise of 'fresh' and 'healthy' meals, to sustain us until dinner later. Driving on, my friend recounted how one of the boys at the counter was handling veg and non-veg products at the same time, without changing his gloves. It had happened earlier at the same outlet,owned by someone known to me, and I had let the boy go with a warning that I would let the owner know the next time. This time I did...and he promised to look into it.

   Even as we settled for dinner later, my father developed a severe stomach pain and had to be rushed to the doctor - who diagnosed a stomach infection. Did the sandwich cause it? Did the problem go beyond just handling of veg/non-veg together? Maybe veggies and stuff cut and left open? We will never know and it doesn't matter, I discontinued my patronage and am actively dissuading my friends from consuming their products

Earlier this morning, I was reading this article by Govind, most likely inspired by an experience that he had recently, and decided to punch in a post, mostly as a 'notes to myself' reminder, about very logical behaviour by consumers (including myself), the understanding of which marketers (including myself again) perhaps find so elusive that we spend a considerable amount of time, effort, money on paid research, rather than just closely observe ourselves and our surroundings:

Customer expectations are Dynamic

• One of the young executives in my previous office was disappointed that his client score on the service quality index was stagnant for the last 2 quarters, where the team had consistently delivered better results. Smiling, my CEO explained to him that having delivered excellent service in the past, the team will now need to surpass that as the client expectations too had kept pace - the existing high service having become just STANDARD
• Sometimes, the score can actually go retrograde for seemingly vague reasons - I found the customer relations team of my credit card company to be consistently exceeding my expectations, this continued for about a year or so. One day, delighted, I decided to speak with the floor manager and asked him who I could write to/ speak with, to communicate my feedback and congratulate? Obviously happy (how many happy customers actually call?), he asked me to be on the phone for a minute and managed to get the head of customer service to speak with me. The gentleman too was very pleased to learn that his team had done well and gave me his email id, upon asking. I told him that I would write the team a letter of praise - I did. I never got a reply or an acknowledgment from him. From a score of 10:10, I brought them down to 9:10.

Right now of course, they have earned my huge displeasure, for some other reasons. As you gain height, the climb become Steeper

• In one of my previous assignments we found that real journey had just begun, as we touched guest satisfaction of 90% - moving from 80% to 85% was a breeze; the jump from 85%- 90% took twice as long. To wow a customer is not that easy...

Unhappy customers need to be recovered Quickly. Will Govind fly the same airline again, by choice? That would also depend on what Jet did to control damage

• At my aforementioned place of work, in hospitality, based on a daily audit of customer feedback forms, the head of quality would personally call up all cases of critically dissatisfied guests, the very next morning and offer apologies and corrective measures taken by the organisation. Remaining complaints would be mailed a letter, within 24 hours of feedback received, informing guests corrective measures taken
• I rarely mention brands by name, but I think I need to mention my experience with Airtel and how I think they managed to retain me as a customer - this was a few years ago- I was 'furious' with the atrocious quality of connectivity, and handling customer care executives that Airtel offered. The list of complaints just kept piling. One day, simply livid, I somehow managed to get the head of customer care on the phone - we spoke for about an hour. Not just did she listen to me patiently, she made notes, thanked me for the feedback, gave me her personal hand-phone number, in case required for any future assistance and THEN, in about two weeks time, went on to actually execute many of the suggestions I had offered (a significant one, to protect user interest, was my request to display 98 100 98100 (instead of private/ blank/ etc) when a call actually emerged from their network (I had just had an experience, at that time, of someone trying to derive personal information, using a number that proved to be unreachable upon trying to call back). I called the lady on the handphone number she had given me, expressed my thanks, but she thanked me again in turn. I continue to be with Airtel - the general service of course is much better and so is the quality of customer care executives (though I wish they would quit reading the entire 1 minute goodbye spiel: "Thanks for calling customer care. Is there anything else I call help you with? I hope you have a pleasant evening!" even as I am saying...I have gotta ruuunnnn.

It would seem that most Indian marketers choose to simply hide behind the reasoning that "Volumes don't justify," for not acting on customer feedback:

1. After years of leaving feedback after feedback, I still cannot get a shirt with sleeves in length that fits me


2. After years of leaving feedback after feedback, I still cannot get trousers in waist size 33"


3. Last winter, I couldn't find a pullover in ANY Indian brand that was less wide at the waist, than at the chest - they seem to only be designing for the unfit male - I had to finally settle for a foreign label that cost me a bomb. Shame I think.

This one beats me:

1. After years of feedback, I still cannot get a coffee bar to serve me soup (even a pour hot water in cup, over a sachet 'maggie' variety, sold at a premium over listed price?) as they are a 'coffee bar', then why serve tea and assortment of other drinks? Simple logic that every time a guest wants to have something liquid, it doesn't necessarily have to be 'sweet' doesn't seem to cut ice

Original post here.

I find it funny…

How can the marketer 'own' the customer? Why should the customer be referred to as 'loyal'? "You are our loyal customer, you deserve to be rewarded," we say. Isn’t it derogatory to the customer? Shouldn’t the marketer be loyal instead, and hopefully the customer would reward by buying or if are really lucky, continue to buy and endorse to others.

This large multi-national bank that held my salary account, had extended me a huge overdraft facility, but then, I moved out of my job - the f & f settlement was in process and the cheque was expected any moment. In the interim, I decided to use the overdraft facility and a crucial Service Tax cheque, with last date for payment due, was in the queue. Calling to enquire about receipt of my f & f cheque, I was informed that I was short of funds and the pending cheque would be rejected. The overdraft had been reduced by half. It took half-a-day of requests, follow-ups etc. to get the bank to just HOLD the cheque for another day. My expected f & f cheque arrived the same day, bringing a pile of money and the cheque was cleared.

Of course, it is the bank’s money and they don’t owe me anything to be so generous as to clear the cheque with no funds in the bank, but I think they owed it to me that someone wrote to me/ spoke with me just to keep me informed that they had reduced my overdraft limit. I settled my account with the bank, the same day, and moved the remainder of my money to another bank. I am not likely to bank with them again – too tiny to matter? Of course, but it is those small-subtle things that make a customer stay.

I don’t know if he would agree that this episode could be called breach of loyalty at all, but to still borrow his words - Ashwani may have said something like this “The cup was great, but the coffee was cold”. Doesn’t help.

The hospitality business has great learnings to offer I think:

• You are as good as my last experience with you – you may have served me a a great meal yesterday, but today the soup sucks and I think you are no good. Consistency matters.
• Wow, the food is great but why is the AC so cold (it could also be “Why is it so warm?”
• Wow, perfect food, perfect service… but hey, there’s no soap in the loo?
• Great view from the room, nice bed and room service is great, but hey, why must I suffer the noise if the gentleman next door has a bad case of a Delhi Belly?

The hospitality business appreciates a smile from a guest - they know that they must have done something right to earn it. I also think they understand the value of surprise: When I go to a restaurant, I expect great food; great service; great ambience – that’s what I have paid for. Then one day, the chef walks out of the kitchen, surprises me by greeting me by name and offers to prepare anything special – doesn’t matter if it is not in the menu. Ummm - the meal was just perfect; dessert and coffee follow (the coffee has been specially brewed by her). The cheque doesn’t cover dessert and coffee – “You have our guest many times, the dessert is on the house today. Hope you enjoyed your meal”.Accumulated reward points, to be redeemed at milestones (only to find that the item you received costs half the ascribed value) are not a patch.

I feel frustrated (or amused, depending on my mood) when:

1. I walk into the 'largest' bookstore in town and it is playing LOUD music
2. Each time I ask for a book at another 'large' bookstore, attendant/s have a blank look on their face
3. I am expected to buy music without being able to sample it (and can't help feel guilty when I meekly request the store to open a copy for me, but adding that I may not buy if I don't like it)
4. We take the elevator in a mall and the staff is busy speaking with each-other, loudly
5. We eat at a pizza chain outlet (this happened a few years ago) and the staff delivers a personalised note -complete with drawing of a pierced heart- along with the cheque "It was lovely to have such a wonderful couple dine with us." or something like that (I was out for dinner with my sister and this one brought an amused smile.Their pizza was (and remains) good though and the staff is quite cool now)
6. A tele-executive informs me that they have generously approved a loan for me, based on my past purchase record - the purchase happens to be a medical test I ran

You have an amusing customer service or marketing related anecdote to share? Leave a comment or drop me a line.

Original post is here!

Even as multiplexes expand their presence into B cities and serious talk is now beginning to be heard about cinemas going digital, I think the overall movie going experience has however come down over the years, in cities like Delhi.

The quality of screen, projection and sound is all superb, but what about service quality? I have been thinking about this for the last couple of months and was on a specific lookout today as we went to watch 'Devil wears Prada'.

Compare your cinema going experience with one in any hospitality environment - a restaurant (fast food, casual or fine dining), hotel/ resort; an airline or for that matter any other service industry segment, I think the customer is being short changed in the first. For example, even though the entertainment tax got cut substantially, the ticket price has stayed constant. But let's forget the ticket price completely today and just concentrate on the experience...

My innumerable attempts to buy a ticket over phone have always yielded the same outcome - failure (phone is off the hook or no one picks it up); irrespective of which brand you try it with, the payment gateway on their websites doesn't work (irritating if you have spent 15 minutes, each, registering on respective sites); there's a queue at the ticket counter but only one window, of three, is manned; even when reasonably free, the staff at the counter doesn't even look you in the eye as they talk to you, leave alone smile - the voice is harsh and untrained; the guard's touch doesn't differentiate between a college student, me or my father - it's equally rough; the washroom floor is wet; carpet inside the cinema smelly; air-conditioning gets too cold and needs to be switched off from time-to-time. This is my personal experience with several multiplexes, but of course there could be exceptions and experiences may vary.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to reach out to the cinema manager when the young gentleman manning the ticket counter arrogantly said he only had front row seats left, but his body language was telling me something else. I asked the cinema manager if that was true, he apologized and gave me 2 tickets for the back row!

It's not all complaints, there are a few nice experiences too. Last week, after waiting in the queue for about 7-8 mins (and after being told by everyone that Lage Raho Munnabhai is sold out) I decided to opt for 'Devil wears Prada' and even as the gentleman manning the counter punched my request into the computer, I asked availability of LRM tickets for a show later that evening. He stopped, looked at the chart, gave me 2 tickets of LRM that I wanted- for the current show! I was speechless!

I remember this instance, a few years ago, when I had gone to meet a good acquaintance of mine - head of marketing for one of the multiplex chains at that time - he had called for a fizzy drink for both of us, but upon finding it flat not just did he send it back, but also asked his staff to recalibrate the dispenser immediately; I left my feedback with him about smelly bathrooms at their flagship property and the problem had disappeared next time when I visited the cinema hall. I asked the guard manning the gate today, if they ever greeted their guests with a 'Good Morning/ Afternoon/ Evening' etc. and if they had received any training towards that - the answer was a 'No' on both counts.

I am convinced that a great customer experience has nothing to do with big monetary investments, rather is about training & empowering the staff to delight the customer with little things when they are least expecting it, as my Munnabhai experience would perhaps validate.

I was listening to FM today...

Radio has always thrived on non-traditional & local advertising and one of the prime advertising categories on radio these days, thanks to the continuing boom in the economy, is real estate. There is a constant flurry of ads by builders and land developers, one more obscure than the other, but each claiming to have your and my vishwaas, as if trust was an overnight phenomenon, their right (almost) from the moment these companies were born. It doesn't seem to matter to them that we haven't even heard their names before.

However, an appealing ad 'on air' for the last couple of days is Bank of India's new campaign - the voices are engrossed in an engaging conversation that would usually take place between close friends or relatives, except that one of them eventually turns out to be a banker, from Bank of India, bringing cheerful news (about money of course :) ) to an account holder- Rishton ki Jamaa Poonji. I truly hope it is like this at BoI and that is not just a punchline. My own experience with the banks has been very different and I would happily switch to a bank that invests into relationships - am tired of negligent bankers, intrusive tele-sales agents, recorded voices...

It made me think though - when finalising messaging for clients, the biggest challenge is to identify a true differentiator (What's the offerering? How are we really different? Reasons that the recipient of this information should believe us?). It is an intense exercise and from this is supposed to come the unique promise of a brand. A lot of advertising today seems to just invent a punchline, without much worry about whether the brand really stands for or fulfill the promise?

So just catchy advertising or truly about 'wealth of relationships'? I will have to open an account to find out! Might just :).