Ditto!!
Is it just me or does every venture around the city of Hyderabad/ Secunderabad seem to start out fresh, new and completely different from others and then slowly but surely slip into the known , tried and tested format.
Be it schools, eating out, jewellery, clothing, electronics .. the search for something unique and different almost every time ends with a new place. The fact that the city is lined with extremely predictable “ditto” hoardings does not help the literal going around in circles.
I so wish that there were more places that were silently different than those screaming their similarities.
“How is everything?”
Rating the restaurant experience is probably one of the most under rated of surveys. Most diners, while being fussy eaters and despite a bad meal, end up giving ratings that hover at average when providing feedback of their dining experience.
It is also amazing how often restaurants choose to ignore the indifferent replies that fill the survey cards. While, being polite is the easy way out for the staff and the diner, it also almost guarantees another night of mediocre experience (if the diner chooses to return).
The wise thing for the diner to do is to stop the tantrums and just tell the staff just how good/bad they were – and more importantly how they can improve. The wise thing for the staff to do is to not give any scope for the customer to complain, and if they do – find out exactly why.
After all while feeding keeps the restaurants busy, a feedback would add an extra ka-ching to the cash counters.
Happiness
That’s what everyone desires. The definition of what makes people happy has been evolving and is manipulated by the marketers.Businesses are out there getting money out of happy meals, happiness sales and happy homes. Lot of money is pumped into the illusion of what happy is.
Coke may not satisfy thirst but it sure promises to make happy times happier. A miniature burger does not satisfy hunger, but it does seem like the perfect “happy” meal.
Or does it?
It is interesting – this craving to be happy. Consumers are stocking up on things that seem to make them happy. A dream that is kept alive by the tremendous media effort put together by the marketers.
Once the illusion of happiness is taken away, there really isn’t much that customers perceive as worth buying.
In short if you are the seller, keep the illusion of good times up, and if you are the buyer it’s about time that you did a reality check of what you want and what you really need before you make that next purchase.
When everyone is king.
Not so long ago, the Indian customer was at the mercy of product and service providers. Options were few and waiting for purchases to actually translate into ownership was normal. A two wheeler would arrive years after booking, so would the telephone connection, LPG connectivity, water supply etc. Bills were paid after spending hours in a queue, banking was a pain. The local kirana guy decided the prices for all commodities and eating out in a place that provided the right mix of ambience, food and service was a luxury.
All that has changed drastically, no more long waiting periods, transactions can be done from the ease of home, efficient service is provided almost everywhere you go. The customer has been raised to the position of King. This of course has its own side effects.
Expectations are sky high, after years of oppression the sudden sense of power has made the Indian customer extremely demanding, impatient and sometimes even inconsiderate.
No matter how great the service, product or scheme a minute flaw is enough to tick the customer. The only time good service is noticed is when it goes wrong. Great ambience, variety of choice, valet parking .. all that is fine but I am paying for it, they are not doing me a favor seems to be the general attitude.
The shopping malls provide near perfect ambience; every need of the customer is taken care of – sofas for those accompanying the shopper, eating options close by, membership privileges, clean washrooms free goodies and polite considerate treatment – and yet we cannot get over the delay in billing.
Interestingly these accusations are directed to those who really are trying to be perfect, nobody complains about slow service in a local restaurant, nor do we complain about delayed letter delivery from the government post office. We do however, go out at the four star restaurant when the dessert is five minutes late, we crib if the telephone billing service is slow -after all we all had to wait for a good ten minutes till they got the server up and running. An otherwise prompt courier service receives bad reviews if the letter arrives a day late.
The side effects of making customer the king are many, good and ugly. It could have turned the otherwise overtly tolerant Indian consumer into a critic looking out for the smallest of flaws.
I feel that understanding, patience and a genuine appreciation are required from both involved – the consumer and the provider.
Home Tutorials .. for the professionals
Ok, this is a simple idea.
As children most of us would have walked over to a home in the neighbourhood, where some instructor would teach song and dance. At times the instructor would come over to our homes and take personal sessions. Win-win situation for the kids, parents and the teacher.
The challenge now – provide a similar ‘home service’, only this time for the working professional. Even though there is so much more to learn (dance, yoga, martial arts, new languages, music, painting, cooking, prep for entrance etc.), the constraints of time and accessibility are hindering many people from joining these classes .
What if professional learning institutes started accommodating home tutorials? What if it was taken a step further and ‘single neighbourhood’ classes were started? Imagine the number of people who would enroll.
Any takers?
The ‘small’ excuse
My friends and I were planning a weekend vacation in a lesser known hill station near Pune. The last two days were spent on attempts to contact the only hotel operating in that area. This lone hotel does not have its number listed either on the local search directories or with the travel agencies (Private or State). Despite being the only player in the region it depends on another website for its internet promotion.
The only way to contact them was via e-mail. A couple of mails (from different mail accounts) were send seeking details on room reservation and possible ways of getting there. The response was delayed and disappointing. None of the queries were answered; instead a road map for reaching the hotel was send as an attachment. After a few more hours of online hunting we managed to get in touch with the person in-charge for room reservation. He choose to respond to our queries with statements like “As we are new to this and far from the city, that would not be possible”, ”Travel agencies numbers are difficult to find, so I am not sure if we can arrange car hiring”.
You would think that small hotels would be more proactive and aggressive in their approach. Startups are known to provide better service, in their quest to gain word of mouth and a loyal customer. In this case however, being small was used as an excuse for the lack of service and poor quality of experience provided.
Examples of small businesses that have made it big, challenged reach and used imagination to advantage are many.
Small should not be an excuse for mediocrity or lack of preparedness, it should be more reason to use possible opportunities to gain more ground.
Internship and Training Periods
Summer jobs provide companies with a fabulous opportunity to market themselves. It is during this time of the year that they can gain a great future employee or a loyal consumer. The opportunity important to the intern is of far greater value to the employer.
Despite this, students are seen doing meaningless door to door surveys, making presentations on topics that have long lost relevance or doing clerical work as part of their internship program. Why is there such a blatant waste of fresh ideas and young talent? Blame on a poor mentor, excessive hiring of interns are mere excuses, which encourage further negligence towards the students and the projects assigned to them.
Examples of wasted talent are many. Interaction with a intern may appear to be of low consequence, but think of the bad word of mouth that a disappointed student can generate. What of the lost talent , the missed opportunity to position the brand, the monetary loss from carrying out this exercise year after year…think about the image of the industry that the student now shoulders.
What could possibly have been a valuable close interaction between the consumer and the brand, is turned into a mere exercise. What is being done to stop this from happening at your workplace? Are enough opportunities provided for the intern to learn? What kind of industry knowledge is imparted? Has the company succeeded in sharing the essence of its values, beliefs and work culture? More importantly will you be hearing from the student again?