I was explaining to the poor customer care lady from my car service station (Jay Bharat Hyundai) that I cannot remember how the service was done. My Hyundai i-ten was serviced in Jan. that information was also provided by her. I can’t remember when it was done. I don’t even remember what I had for lunch yesterday. She still insisted that at least I know if what I said or had complaints about were addressed. Lady, how can I know that? We are right now in May. At best I might remember if you had botched up the service. Which I don’t think you did. My car is running fine right now.
After a few minutes of me stonewalling and refusing to say something I don’t remember at all she agreed and moved onto the next question in her interview. Could I please rate the service on a score from 0 to 5. Oh shit man. Lady. I just told you I don’t remember anything. Do you remember what you did in Jan. Do you remember what you did last week? What were you doing yesterday? You don’t right? How can I score you guys if I don’t remember what experience I had? It’s been four months.
Sir, but at least some score. NO. I DON’T REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED. Surely you did not screw up big tie and hence I have no bad memories but I have none. What part of that did you not understand?
That’s proactive customer service for you. We care so we call you. Even four months from then and ask you what had happened then. Hopefully you don’t remember shit and you score us good. Since you guys are obviously so polite not to give us bad marks on things you don’t recollect. Hence I have a great customer satisfaction score and I am doing a good job.
I told my wife about the conversation and she was wondering why the call was made. She had already got the call a few days after the service was done. That’s a good thing. A decent follow-up call, just after. After four months your call can be at best a call that checks to see if your car is working all well. Not to score what happened four months ago. Especially on something as unearthshaking as routine car service. Why? Don’t you realise we get shit from tele marketers all the time.
While right now its pretty cool to have follow up service, my prediction is that this too will become a nuisance factor soon enough. The companies that will do well will be the companies that do not need follow up calls as their processes and procedures themselves are tight enough to provide the best service and their redressal mechanism would be swift and powerfull while being accessible.
But that seems to be pipe dream. In India we are busy chasing growth and are tapping into the vast India as it gets richer and richer. Who cares for the leaky bucket if the tap on top continues to pour its bounty? Growth always comes at a cost. Rapid growth comes at an even higher cost. If it is too good to be true then it is too good to be true. I don’t think our immature capitalism understands this yet.
I am probably needlessly taking off on Hyundai right now. It is a wrong thing to do. At least they are trying to do something. But the point is that in trying too hard they end up getting data that is wrong. Data has to be understood in its context and not by itself.
I hope companies like Hyundai understand this and not merely take action on quantitative scores. A process to get the data is as important as the data that is being gathered. Everyone knows that, even the folks at Hyundai. But we end up being so lazy that we don’t bother to put in a check for this. It won’t affect the short run but it will hide serious flaws in the wrong run. Anyone remembers ‘the broken windows theory’ made famous by Malcolm Gladwell? Look it up.
Showing posts with label customer service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customer service. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, September 14, 2009
wasted chores
‘DOMESTIC CHORES SAP WOMEN’S ENERGIES. IF THE FAMILY BECOMES THE LIMIT OF YOUR WORLD, THEN YOU CAN NO LONGER THINK BIG’
Haha. Well said Krishna Sobti “Hindi fiction writer and essayist” in the Tehelka.
I have always believed that women have much more potential than is being used. The potential being eaten up by the domestic chores. I don’t believe that domestic chores area waste of time and effort. They definitely add value to the family and keep them going. The question is of margin. Like the old Surf washing powder line – agar kum dam mein utni safedi mile toh phir koi surf na le? If you are wasting potential on chores that can be done by others leaving you to focus on what you believe is important to fulfill your potential, then something is wrong.
Jasmine has been a housewife and we think its important part of Jispa’s growing up. We believe that not having a 24X7 maid in the house for Jispa is important to Jispa’s growing up and our sanity. We can take care of her better and nurture her better. We are also ill prepared for a maid whom we see as a liability. It mean we have to sacrifice a bit but its worth it. Jasmine is definitely adding value to our home by making the conscious call of being a full time mother. But I have always urged her to look around and expand her interests in the free time she gets. We missed having her working before Jispa, something I blame both her family and my mother equally for. I thought it was important for her to work somewhere, anywhere… but hell, we have lived with a lot of calls that conservatism thrust upon us. Add one to that total.
I have seen many women enter the workforce in the time since I started working. You get equal number of them being dim or bright as the men in the workforce. The poor dim women are highlighted and being ridiculed as they are women where as the men, as dim or worse tend to get spared. My take is that given equal probability of intellectual capacity, the women breaking through the glass ceilings and prejudices tend to better than the men. I first tried to have women in my team to balance the ratio, then when it got women centric I tried to balance the ratio the other way. It just couldn’t work. I just couldn’t get any decent men. After specifically asking human resources for men, I still ended up hiring women. The men were just so dumb. Or maybe we just attracted the worst men to apply. Whatever the fault, I ended up having one guy and three girls in the team and the team is kick ass.
Yesterday we were at café coffee day and there also I have been seeing a trend of women being the waiters. These are typically women from possibly middle middle class, speaking simple English and having confidence to talk to customers. They are better than the men waiters for sure. The men tend to be dumb, stupid and lead headed. The women tend to be sweeter, receptive and understand service. You get your oddballs everywhere but I think the probability is better with women. I think it’s the same reason. It takes much for a woman to break tradition and hence by natural filtration the good one pass the sieve. This works at all income levels, as I have seen equal prejudice even at higher incomes.
With so many women entering working class, it creates more competition. It’s a GOOD THING, in case some chauvinists were wondering. There are gains in eth economy that this workforce will add. In India my belief is that this huge economic multiplier is missed by many economists. It is rarely spoken of. I find it quite odd. The benefits go beyond the increase in income level. There are benefits of exposure, understanding, confidence and the like that permeate the population. Mindsets change, minds open, options emerge, directions change.
Do whatever you want as long as you get to choose what you want to do. House must be a choice not a chore. For too many years we have needlessly corked this potential. What a waste!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
seekho
The last post I spoke of how there are a multitude of learnings to be had one one is exposed to as many situations as possible. Take the case of the taxi guy I take when I am in Delhi. Delhi is a notorious city. I distrust every Delhi’ite I meet on the road. Every person is a seen with suspicion for a tourist. In the past I have tried avoiding delhi altogether in my travels. Then I chanced upon one man. Ashok. He runs a private taxi service. He has one Indica. I got him through my office in Delhi. Whenever I am in Delhi I contact him. He is busy most of the time but he ensures that some or the other trusted taxi is at my landing point ready to pick me. Typically in Delhi you would have quite a few hours in between your trains. This is the time to be visiting the monuments that make Delhi the capital of India. The last time he arranged for a taxi to take us around and we got to see Humayun’s tomb and Qutub Minar. This time I had to switch stations between Nizamuddin and Old Delhi. He got me a trusted guy. Since we had 4 hours to kill we took the taxi to Connaught place (now rajiv circle) left the luggage in the car, did some shopping, browsing and eating before proceeding towards our station.
On the way back the train was supposed to come in at 4 am. I called him the day before. This time he said he would be there to pick me. In the morning the train was about an hour late. But on the dot at 4 am, I get a call. It’s him. He is waiting ready at the station. We figure the meeting point at the station. When we do alight and catch him the first thing he asks me is if I am with my family. Then he asks me what time is my connecting train. It’s an 8 am. He doesn’t say anything. We exit old Delhi station and he takes us outside. He shows us Chandini chowk and the various points in Old Delhi. I assumed that was the route, but he suddenly did a u turn and I realized the dam thing was a guided tour. He then went on to Lutyen’s Delhi to show us the parliament etc etc. He asked us if we wanted to have some tea. When we nodded to took us to this special Garhwali guy who is supposedly cleaner. He got special chai made with kum cheeni. He even paid for the chai saying that he is taking us for tea and not the other way around. Then took us further around and onto India gate. “ab time hai saab, gaadi mein ghumon. Station pe kya baithna” why go to the station and wait there. Roam around in the car rather than wait at the station, was his logic. We then roamed around India gate and then he decided that it was time to leave as we wanted to grab a bite at the station restaurant.
All this he did on his own. I had not discussed money or anything with him. I knew the drop was around 400 bucks. All he had to do was drop us off at the station in 15 minutes flat and pocket 400 bucks, but he decided to take us around and show us the place knowing we were wearing our tourist hats. He also had bottled water and biscuits in the car. I looked at jasmine and proudly told her – now you know why I call only this guy, and why I don’t take a dam prepaid taxi.
Needless to add I gave him 500 rupees which meant a 100 buck (25%) tip. I think he expected it.
Ashok is a simple a Himachali man who has understood service. Its common sense. When will we MBA’s see this and get embarrassed.
For those traveling to Delhi and want to use his trusted taxi service here is his cell number – 9971257823. He said he is upgrading to an Indigo in a month’s time.
On the way back the train was supposed to come in at 4 am. I called him the day before. This time he said he would be there to pick me. In the morning the train was about an hour late. But on the dot at 4 am, I get a call. It’s him. He is waiting ready at the station. We figure the meeting point at the station. When we do alight and catch him the first thing he asks me is if I am with my family. Then he asks me what time is my connecting train. It’s an 8 am. He doesn’t say anything. We exit old Delhi station and he takes us outside. He shows us Chandini chowk and the various points in Old Delhi. I assumed that was the route, but he suddenly did a u turn and I realized the dam thing was a guided tour. He then went on to Lutyen’s Delhi to show us the parliament etc etc. He asked us if we wanted to have some tea. When we nodded to took us to this special Garhwali guy who is supposedly cleaner. He got special chai made with kum cheeni. He even paid for the chai saying that he is taking us for tea and not the other way around. Then took us further around and onto India gate. “ab time hai saab, gaadi mein ghumon. Station pe kya baithna” why go to the station and wait there. Roam around in the car rather than wait at the station, was his logic. We then roamed around India gate and then he decided that it was time to leave as we wanted to grab a bite at the station restaurant.
All this he did on his own. I had not discussed money or anything with him. I knew the drop was around 400 bucks. All he had to do was drop us off at the station in 15 minutes flat and pocket 400 bucks, but he decided to take us around and show us the place knowing we were wearing our tourist hats. He also had bottled water and biscuits in the car. I looked at jasmine and proudly told her – now you know why I call only this guy, and why I don’t take a dam prepaid taxi.
Needless to add I gave him 500 rupees which meant a 100 buck (25%) tip. I think he expected it.
Ashok is a simple a Himachali man who has understood service. Its common sense. When will we MBA’s see this and get embarrassed.
For those traveling to Delhi and want to use his trusted taxi service here is his cell number – 9971257823. He said he is upgrading to an Indigo in a month’s time.
Monday, March 02, 2009
just ask for it
Now that Jispa has learnt cycling and V-inu has given us one cycle, we have discovered the fun of cycling in the mornings on holidays. With the lovely Bhakti park garden it was just a matter of time before we need one more cycle. So on Saturday we went to buy one more.
First we had to take our cupboard and ship it to a friend of Jasmine who could use it as we didn’t really need it. We were wondering how to ship it when we thought of the brain wave and attempted to fit it in the iTen. We folded the back seat and pushed the front seats to the max. We pushed the cupboard inside and secured it. Thus we were well set and I found it quite amusing to drive with my chin breathing down the steering wheel. After delivery we went to get the cycle. Getting the cycle back meant the same scene (well, almost same) getting repeated. A funny incident happened while we were buying the cycle.
When we wanted to fix the seat for V-inu’s cycle we realized we had all the spanners from size 5 to size 16 but did not have the crucial size ten, as the size 8X9 was repeated in the set. So at the cycle counter I asked for a 10X11 spanner as well. I really wanted a spanner with the round grip types. It easier to work with those. The guy working on fitting out my cycle was listening to it and said I could get from the hardware shop across. Suddenly he says, ‘arre paanaa (spanner) gira’ and he goes half way across the road. I assume he is going to buy the spanner for me. He returns from the middle of the road and asks me what size I want. I say 10X11. I then realize he has just picked up a spanner that just fell in the middle of the road. That was a 10X11 round grip spanner. I look on incredulously, ‘kya?’, “Yes sir, this spanner just fell and that’s why I went across the road.” “And it’s the size I want”. “haan sir.” Even as he looks on with amusement he says “kuch aur maangna tha, who mil jaata” hahahhahaa. It was like what I asked just popped from the heavens. I can’t believe it. Neither could Jasmine.
Yesterday we had coffee at Costa Coffee at their outlet at phoenix. They have three outlets in one mall. That’s aggressive. But they do serve excellent coffee. Café coffee day has lost their taste, Barista is getting it back but Costa comes out tops. What I love is also their friendly service. We were at the outlet below Croma and we ordered coffee (mocha – jasmine and my favourite) along with their bowl of salad. The coffee came out lovely as usual, but their salad was sadly bad. We have had this salad before at the Juhu outlet (nice) and this one was a disaster. Not fresh at all and only lettuce (90%). We spoke to the waiter, who said that it was fresh, till the manager called him and told him to agree with the customer. I told him to not waste it but simply top it with some fresh salad, carrots etc. It come back, with some top up, but no extra dressing. On being told, promptly it goes back and comes back with the dressing. Jasmine and me have it but somehow still did not like it. We call in the manager, a sweet guy called Rohan. We complain about it. He is apologetic but is surprisingly responsive. I ask him where I could write the feedback. He gives me the feedback form. We have this lovely cordial conversation. He didn’t get defensive at all. That’s a sign of good training. He accepts everything. At the end I thank him and say that I will write my feedback in detail and casually ask him if he has a refund policy. In fact I ask him ‘you don’t have a refund policy, right?’ wonder of wonders, he says sure and promptly gives me back my money. 3 seconds is all that it took. No screaming, no hassle. 100% money back. That too after I finished the salad. That is customer service. Costa Coffee – you rock. I am going to be back. Trying doing this at the other coffee outlets. Go ahead just try it.
I think this weekend, god just gave me whatever I asked for :)
First we had to take our cupboard and ship it to a friend of Jasmine who could use it as we didn’t really need it. We were wondering how to ship it when we thought of the brain wave and attempted to fit it in the iTen. We folded the back seat and pushed the front seats to the max. We pushed the cupboard inside and secured it. Thus we were well set and I found it quite amusing to drive with my chin breathing down the steering wheel. After delivery we went to get the cycle. Getting the cycle back meant the same scene (well, almost same) getting repeated. A funny incident happened while we were buying the cycle.
When we wanted to fix the seat for V-inu’s cycle we realized we had all the spanners from size 5 to size 16 but did not have the crucial size ten, as the size 8X9 was repeated in the set. So at the cycle counter I asked for a 10X11 spanner as well. I really wanted a spanner with the round grip types. It easier to work with those. The guy working on fitting out my cycle was listening to it and said I could get from the hardware shop across. Suddenly he says, ‘arre paanaa (spanner) gira’ and he goes half way across the road. I assume he is going to buy the spanner for me. He returns from the middle of the road and asks me what size I want. I say 10X11. I then realize he has just picked up a spanner that just fell in the middle of the road. That was a 10X11 round grip spanner. I look on incredulously, ‘kya?’, “Yes sir, this spanner just fell and that’s why I went across the road.” “And it’s the size I want”. “haan sir.” Even as he looks on with amusement he says “kuch aur maangna tha, who mil jaata” hahahhahaa. It was like what I asked just popped from the heavens. I can’t believe it. Neither could Jasmine.
Yesterday we had coffee at Costa Coffee at their outlet at phoenix. They have three outlets in one mall. That’s aggressive. But they do serve excellent coffee. Café coffee day has lost their taste, Barista is getting it back but Costa comes out tops. What I love is also their friendly service. We were at the outlet below Croma and we ordered coffee (mocha – jasmine and my favourite) along with their bowl of salad. The coffee came out lovely as usual, but their salad was sadly bad. We have had this salad before at the Juhu outlet (nice) and this one was a disaster. Not fresh at all and only lettuce (90%). We spoke to the waiter, who said that it was fresh, till the manager called him and told him to agree with the customer. I told him to not waste it but simply top it with some fresh salad, carrots etc. It come back, with some top up, but no extra dressing. On being told, promptly it goes back and comes back with the dressing. Jasmine and me have it but somehow still did not like it. We call in the manager, a sweet guy called Rohan. We complain about it. He is apologetic but is surprisingly responsive. I ask him where I could write the feedback. He gives me the feedback form. We have this lovely cordial conversation. He didn’t get defensive at all. That’s a sign of good training. He accepts everything. At the end I thank him and say that I will write my feedback in detail and casually ask him if he has a refund policy. In fact I ask him ‘you don’t have a refund policy, right?’ wonder of wonders, he says sure and promptly gives me back my money. 3 seconds is all that it took. No screaming, no hassle. 100% money back. That too after I finished the salad. That is customer service. Costa Coffee – you rock. I am going to be back. Trying doing this at the other coffee outlets. Go ahead just try it.
I think this weekend, god just gave me whatever I asked for :)
A post script – I wrote a feedback mail to Costa Coffee – slamming the salad and praising the service. I get instant call back, apologizing for the salad. Whoa… pretty cool. I was the one telling him don’t worry. I will be back. I love you guys more now. Keep it up.
Take shit, convert it, turn it around – you have customers for life.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
a little bit of humility, please.
We had gone the other day to Imax Adlabs, now called Big Cinemas. We wanted to watch the dark knight on the Imax dome theatre. Should be fun, we figure, to watch batman and his nemesis magnified a zillion times. It is quite a crazy complex movie. I have already seen it once when it had originally released. Sitting back, researching it and then understanding it; made it important to see it again.
We sit nice and happy waiting for the movie to start at 6 pm. Five minutes on – no movie. Suddenly the national anthem starts with no warning. Everyone gets up. Oops. 54 seconds up and we sit again. More waiting… some music starts. Ok. Then suddenly the producer logo starts playing without the lights being dimmed. Ok. Then its stops. Ok. Then some more waiting. Some activity near the pursers cabin. The purser comes out and announces a technical snag. Five minutes more. The air conditioning is off. We start feeling warm. Then people start shouting for the screen to come on. Wise cracks fly all over the place. Suddenly the movie starts, sputters for a brief moment, dies a natural death. Now this is getting unnerving. It does seem like the joker is on the loose. 30 minutes up and the joke is on us. 40 minutes and lot of shouting and reassuring later the movie starts, but mind you, this is not the beginning, it is 5-10 minutes into the movie already. We resign to our fate and sit. Then we realize something is amiss. Oh come on… the soundtrack was not in sync. In the action scene it didn’t make a difference. The bullets were whizzing all over the place. But when the dialogues started one realized that the sound was actually five seconds before the scenes. Weird.
Every one got up, screamed. They stormed out. In a few minutes one came back and announced that they were giving refunds. The crowd and the action moves to the box office. The manager is trying to pacify the crowds. The crowd is asking for something more than just a refund. The manager does some calling and figures that he can give a refund along with a chance to watch the movie again till Thursday. Who watches movies on weekdays?
We see an ironic poster – if you have feedback please sms us. Type WOW followed by your feedback to xxxx. What shit? How preposterous. Forcing me to type wow automatically turns me off when I want to send negative feedback regarding something. Eliminating negative feedback is how people grow.
I don’t understand this stuff. There is no power given to any manager. The dome runs on 5 to 10% capacity in any case. The cost of the screen, staff and AC is fixed in any case. If something goes wrong, why can’t you just offer a complete refund instantly along with a free voucher to see the movies again? This way if the guy comes in again at least you make money off the popcorn and cola, which is a ridiculously high margin item. I would have given at the very least a free movie ticket and a free upgrade your pop corn voucher. This way I am sure he will but some pop corn and hopefully some colas along with. But no… these chains will spend on the décor, the funny irreverent advertising but will have no standard procedures for any delay, technical snags etc. Instead of converting customers to ambassadors they will ensure dissatisfied customers. I understand arrogance when your halls are full, but the dome runs empty. Use it you idiots. Give tickets left right centre. Do anything. But have a customer appeasement program, please. Even the marginal cost of the pop corn tub and Pepsi cannot be more than 5-10 bucks. If some stupid tax laws do not allow you to give free tickets use the dam pop corn. BUT for heaven sake do something. Aagggghhhhhhhhh.
I once had a chat with the brilliant guy (not a sarcastic comment) who did the Adlabs advertising. They did some smart stuff on the posters etc. My take was simple. That’s lovely stuff, but if your staff is unable to follow through then you risk having a higher expectation and ridiculously high difference in expectation standards. This is exactly what played out. This makes me hate advertising and marketing. Sometimes it better for your organization to talk less and behave better. Humility pays.
We sit nice and happy waiting for the movie to start at 6 pm. Five minutes on – no movie. Suddenly the national anthem starts with no warning. Everyone gets up. Oops. 54 seconds up and we sit again. More waiting… some music starts. Ok. Then suddenly the producer logo starts playing without the lights being dimmed. Ok. Then its stops. Ok. Then some more waiting. Some activity near the pursers cabin. The purser comes out and announces a technical snag. Five minutes more. The air conditioning is off. We start feeling warm. Then people start shouting for the screen to come on. Wise cracks fly all over the place. Suddenly the movie starts, sputters for a brief moment, dies a natural death. Now this is getting unnerving. It does seem like the joker is on the loose. 30 minutes up and the joke is on us. 40 minutes and lot of shouting and reassuring later the movie starts, but mind you, this is not the beginning, it is 5-10 minutes into the movie already. We resign to our fate and sit. Then we realize something is amiss. Oh come on… the soundtrack was not in sync. In the action scene it didn’t make a difference. The bullets were whizzing all over the place. But when the dialogues started one realized that the sound was actually five seconds before the scenes. Weird.
Every one got up, screamed. They stormed out. In a few minutes one came back and announced that they were giving refunds. The crowd and the action moves to the box office. The manager is trying to pacify the crowds. The crowd is asking for something more than just a refund. The manager does some calling and figures that he can give a refund along with a chance to watch the movie again till Thursday. Who watches movies on weekdays?
We see an ironic poster – if you have feedback please sms us. Type WOW followed by your feedback to xxxx. What shit? How preposterous. Forcing me to type wow automatically turns me off when I want to send negative feedback regarding something. Eliminating negative feedback is how people grow.
I don’t understand this stuff. There is no power given to any manager. The dome runs on 5 to 10% capacity in any case. The cost of the screen, staff and AC is fixed in any case. If something goes wrong, why can’t you just offer a complete refund instantly along with a free voucher to see the movies again? This way if the guy comes in again at least you make money off the popcorn and cola, which is a ridiculously high margin item. I would have given at the very least a free movie ticket and a free upgrade your pop corn voucher. This way I am sure he will but some pop corn and hopefully some colas along with. But no… these chains will spend on the décor, the funny irreverent advertising but will have no standard procedures for any delay, technical snags etc. Instead of converting customers to ambassadors they will ensure dissatisfied customers. I understand arrogance when your halls are full, but the dome runs empty. Use it you idiots. Give tickets left right centre. Do anything. But have a customer appeasement program, please. Even the marginal cost of the pop corn tub and Pepsi cannot be more than 5-10 bucks. If some stupid tax laws do not allow you to give free tickets use the dam pop corn. BUT for heaven sake do something. Aagggghhhhhhhhh.
I once had a chat with the brilliant guy (not a sarcastic comment) who did the Adlabs advertising. They did some smart stuff on the posters etc. My take was simple. That’s lovely stuff, but if your staff is unable to follow through then you risk having a higher expectation and ridiculously high difference in expectation standards. This is exactly what played out. This makes me hate advertising and marketing. Sometimes it better for your organization to talk less and behave better. Humility pays.
Monday, April 23, 2007
weekends are best for thinking
Today I seem to have a lot of things on my mind to write. It’s always a lot after a weekend. There are so many things that one notices and promises to… well… make a note of. To start with I have always seen a lot of women crossing the road on a lark. Most of these kind are in their own world while crossing the road. No left no right just cross and then look at the incoming car in their path with horror as it swerves to avoid them. Aaiiii. Its not that I have anything against women (for those who accuse me of type casting), there are many men who seem to do this as well but the sheer numbers of women who do this is unnerving. The man will always at the last moment jump out of the way but the women will just stand there and scream. This thing is going to get worse. Why? Because of the earplugs that are now in their ears perpetually as they listen to their iPods or the music from their FM/MP3 phones or they are simply merrily talking away. This way they won’t even notice the most blaring of all horns. The numbers of iPod accidents are set to rise before we see an outrage in America calling for banning them due to this increase. Or closer back home I assume some fanatic mob will break the shop of the nearest iPod vendor blaming them for the accidents.
I put another call to the bubbly content editor at Oxfords (random) and was pleasantly surprised to get a warm bubbly conversation at the other end. This is the same lady whose service paeans I was singing. I remember reading one book that said that customer service people are inherently a different breed of people who are naturals. There is nothing you can do with the rest of the sad people. You have no option but to recruit only the good ‘born with the attitude’ guys. Hmmm.. I am beginning to believe he is so right. You either have it in your blood or you don’t. People who are cynical or skeptical of all around and believe that the world is out to cheat them make for lousy customer care people. I think people with inborn trust and cheerful disposition must be kept for these roles. Thank you Ms Ray for teaching me more.
People teach by just being themselves.. what say?
I went to attend a wedding of an old kid who used to report into me. She and her team will always be special to me. This was the first team that I led purely by following Theory Y. I refused to get angry, always believed that they were right, treated them with love and affection and protected them from the horrendous sales guys. They were the customer service guys who used to get smashed left right and centre. They had no leadership, no standing and were generally bad on delivery. I was heading marketing then. I was given additional charge of the team. Past sales experience always taught me to crack whip and kick them into performing. I remember changing my mental note when I took them on. I transformed them slowly but surely into a team that believed in themselves and gave the sales guys back when they deserved so and also built a sales focus so as to not unnecessary kick the sales guys as finally that’s where the moolah came from. So coming back. The head of that team was Kavita and I took a particular fondness for her. When she was given to me she was broken, her review had just gone very average and she was bypassed for a promotion. Her morale was down. I worked on her, gave her ‘teeth’, and energized her. The result that at the end of the year she got her promotion, performed phenomenally, and a huge raise and bonus. She almost had tears in her eyes when she got that letter. More than that the best compliment came when the operations head (a person I really respect) told me that Kavita has come of age and she now has the confidence she required. She and I have now gone on to many more milestones in our respective lives. I was attending her reception on Saturday. There was a queer sense of pride in my heart while I saw the couple arrive. I don’t know but I found myself grinning from end to end. I felt so nice to see one more milestone in a nice person’s journey.
There is more that I want to write but generally I try to limit myself to not more than one page. So tomorrow I shall some more about the experiences about the weekend.
I put another call to the bubbly content editor at Oxfords (random) and was pleasantly surprised to get a warm bubbly conversation at the other end. This is the same lady whose service paeans I was singing. I remember reading one book that said that customer service people are inherently a different breed of people who are naturals. There is nothing you can do with the rest of the sad people. You have no option but to recruit only the good ‘born with the attitude’ guys. Hmmm.. I am beginning to believe he is so right. You either have it in your blood or you don’t. People who are cynical or skeptical of all around and believe that the world is out to cheat them make for lousy customer care people. I think people with inborn trust and cheerful disposition must be kept for these roles. Thank you Ms Ray for teaching me more.
People teach by just being themselves.. what say?
I went to attend a wedding of an old kid who used to report into me. She and her team will always be special to me. This was the first team that I led purely by following Theory Y. I refused to get angry, always believed that they were right, treated them with love and affection and protected them from the horrendous sales guys. They were the customer service guys who used to get smashed left right and centre. They had no leadership, no standing and were generally bad on delivery. I was heading marketing then. I was given additional charge of the team. Past sales experience always taught me to crack whip and kick them into performing. I remember changing my mental note when I took them on. I transformed them slowly but surely into a team that believed in themselves and gave the sales guys back when they deserved so and also built a sales focus so as to not unnecessary kick the sales guys as finally that’s where the moolah came from. So coming back. The head of that team was Kavita and I took a particular fondness for her. When she was given to me she was broken, her review had just gone very average and she was bypassed for a promotion. Her morale was down. I worked on her, gave her ‘teeth’, and energized her. The result that at the end of the year she got her promotion, performed phenomenally, and a huge raise and bonus. She almost had tears in her eyes when she got that letter. More than that the best compliment came when the operations head (a person I really respect) told me that Kavita has come of age and she now has the confidence she required. She and I have now gone on to many more milestones in our respective lives. I was attending her reception on Saturday. There was a queer sense of pride in my heart while I saw the couple arrive. I don’t know but I found myself grinning from end to end. I felt so nice to see one more milestone in a nice person’s journey.
There is more that I want to write but generally I try to limit myself to not more than one page. So tomorrow I shall some more about the experiences about the weekend.
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