Customer delight

It started raining.  Flight no AI 950 was on the tarmac awaiting signal from the Air-traffic control for take off. I had settled in my seat 1A with only 4 passengers in the Business Class.  Unmindful of the safety announcement, I was making phone call to someone, whom I failed to contact despite having spent the entire 35 days of my vacation. May be to improve the customer friendly image, nobody insisted me to switch off my mobile in the middle of my conversation.

Expectedly, the leader of cabin crew was one Mrs SR ,an approaching a senior citizen, although she looked much younger to me, may be by the way she had carried herself.

Being the leader of the crew, she was in charge of inflight service for the Business Class.   Barely I switched off my mobile when the flight was speeding on the run way and took off swiftly.  Somehow I felt that the take off was very quick and unusual. I thought the captain would have gone for a quick take off in view of the wet runway due to rains.

Mrs S.R went to the public address system and announced, "dear passengers, in a few minutes from now, the popular tamil movie "KO" will be played.... and especially for those who enjoy tamil movies, please take pleasure in watching the same..  the head set is kept behind the seat pouch in front of you..."

Some how the system played truant and failed to start... She tried to remove the DVD and placed it again but it failed to start..
With an apologetic tone, she came again on the public address system saying.."well there appears to be some problem, we beg your pardon for not able to play the movie.. you may however watch other programs from our inflight Entertainment system.."

I gave a mischievous look to her.

Mrs SR greeted me and asked me if I would like to try some hot drink.  "hot drink? ok .. can I have some Red Bull"?.....
"Oh sorry sir" she regretted that 'Chennai sector does not serve Red Bull like the Mumbai sector which is run by Air India whereas Chennai is handled by the erstwhile Indian Airlines'.

When she asked me an alternate choice of a drink, I thought for a while and said "well, can I have some fresh juice"?

Again, she felt bad that she could not fulfill my request as there was no fresh juices in the flight kitchen.  With a sudden glow in her face she asked me, " would you like to have some fresh lemon juice, only if you can give me some 10 minutes to make it.."?

I said yes to her.

After about 5 minutes, an young steward came to me with Lemon Juice mixed with sugar salt and little pepper in it.

I drank it.   It was quite nice and refreshing.

Later on, after I have taken my veg meal, Mrs SR came to me and confessed that for a moment she did not know what to offer when I asked for fresh juice and that she caught up with an idea that she could use the lemon that was available in the flight kitchen on that day.

I felt special & delighted with the serving of lemon juice, although my expectation of  juice was from other fruits!   The reason for my elated feeling could be because, no one else was getting so much attention on that day...

My mind was thinking about the new mantra about 'customer delight' in marketing parlance.. about which even I used to goad my marketing guys!

Well today, I got the answer as to how you can achieve customer delight...

Yes!  Customer delight happens when you exhibit service beyond the call of duty!

Man who knew too much!

My spectacle had broken during my recent visit to Chennai.  Since this happened at the fag end of my holiday, I did not have the time to repair it or buy a new one.   After returning I was planning to buy a new frame and fix the spectacles.

I visited an opticals shop near Rolla.  The shop keeper was alone with no other customers in the shop.  I showed him my spectacles in its broken condition.  One side arm had broken from the corner of the spectacle with the metallic edge still attached to the glass corner.  The shop keeper took the spectacle, examined it and removed the metal piece from the corner and asked me "why don't you repair it instead of buying a new frame?"

" I can solder it for 40dh if you are ok with it or else, you may go for a new frame which will cost you heavily".

 I thought for a moment, when he went on to say that if you buy a new frame I will get only 20 dh margin but you will spend a lot of money;  whereas I can nicely solder it  and you can avoid spending too much money..."

Although not convinced fully by his idea that it can be soldered, I said "yes" to him.  He told me to come next day evening, when he will keep it ready for collection.

I asked his name and noted on the visiting card that he gave me and before leaving and in return I told him my name.  He immediately observed, "oh Subramaniam? the name does not have good vibrations!"  Although a bit taken aback by this observation, I asked him,"do you know astrology... can you tell about some body from his name"?

To this he said in Hindi,"Everything I can foresee"..  I left the place by muttering ".. oh you must be great"

When I called him next day evening, he said that the technician has not yet finished the job and that I can collect the same from the shop the day after at 10 am.

I called up the shop next day when his assistant took the phone.  He told me that the technician has returned the spectacle saying that it cannot be soldered, and that I can collect it from the shop in 'as is' condition!

When I went to collect the spectacle in the evening the same person was there who handed out the spectacle to me quietly.

Collecting the same, I gave a passing remark to him saying that no one can foresee every thing!

In love with chaos

Just returned from vacation.  Yes it was over one month this time & full of action.  We had to shift our base from Mumbai to Chennai and did not feel as to how the time flied past!

Mumbai has some orderliness in a state of disorderly growth!  Chennai is different.  Chennai is chaotic!  Driving a vehicle, I would stick to the lane discipline only to look stupid among other road users.  The other day we had hired a taxi and the taxi driver happened to be one who had worked in Gulf.  He was narrating his experience as to how he was caught and jailed for jumping red signal, whereas in Chennai people tend to stop only when the green signal flashes!

I observed  traffic in Chennai to be interestingly notorious!  All two way roads have become 'no way' and one way roads have become 'all ways'!

Initially I was getting frustrated but soon became used to it and even started loving it!  May be in a place where petrol is expensive than any edible oil, after all, you should only thank that you can just turn your vehicle anywhere and everywhere to head for your destination, no matter if there is a signal or it is a way or no way!

The other day, on TV education show, some one was explaining what  entropy is, which is known to represent a degree of disorder or randomness.  Any fluid will flow faster from one place to another where entropy is more.

So also, we moved from Mumbai to Chennai which is having high degree of entropy only to find ourselves in love with chaos!