Ramana's Musings

Yesterday’s post from two retired officers of India’s armed forces set me thinking about the word ‘Service’. The armed forces are called the services and their people are called as being in the Services.

Quite how does this tie up with our subject of Customer Service? For these people, the customer is the country and the service that they render is the most expensive that is possible – their very lives.

In the Indian context, they have been absolutely professional and unlike out neighbors, have not interfered with the country’s governance. They have fought on behalf of our country on a number of occasions and have proved their mettle time and again. They have fought conventional wars, guerilla wars, against insurgents and terrorists and on extremely difficult terrains in the most hostile climatic conditions.

They have SERVED.

Are we, as their customers happy with the service that they have rendered to us? How can we express our appreciation to them for the service that they have extended and continue to extend?

Tags: The Services

The recent few days have been full of messages about the shabby send off to one of India’s genuine heroes, Field Marshall Sam Maneckshaw. There has also been considerable noise that has been raised consequent to the announcement of the fifth pay commission recommendations. In this scenario, some of my friends from the armed forces, retired now from active service, have been feeding me with a lot of inspiring information.

One such is from a friend who is a retired Officer of the Indian Army, which is reproduced below.

“THE FINAL INSPECTION

The Soldier stood and faced his God,
Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining,
Just as brightly as his brass.

‘Step forward now, you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?’

The Soldier squared his shoulders and said,
‘No, my Lord, I ain’t.
Because those of us who carry guns,
Can’t always be a saint.

I’ve had to work most Sundays,
And at times my talk was tough.
And sometimes I’ve been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.

But, I never took a dollar,
That wasn’t mine to keep…
Though I worked a lot of overtime,
When the bills got just too steep.

And I never passed a cry for help,
Though at times I shook with fear.
And sometimes, God, forgive me,
I’ve wept unmanly tears.

I know I don’t deserve a place,
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around,
Except to calm their fears.

If you’ve a place for me here, Lord,
It needn’t be so grand.
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don’t, I’ll understand.

There was a silence all around the throne,
Where the saints had often trod.
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.

‘Step forward now, you Soldier,
You’ve borne your burdens well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven’s streets,
You’ve done your time in Hell.’
- Author Unknown~

It’s the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.
It’s the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.
It’s the Soldier, not the politician, that ensures our right to Life, Freedom and the Pursuit of Happiness.
It’s the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag.

If you care to offer the smallest token of recognition and appreciation for our Armed Services Men & Women, please pass this on and pray for our men and women who have served and are currently serving our country and pray for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.”

I shared this message with a number of my friends and relatives, and one of the latter, a cousin, retired Officer of the Indian Air force sent me this message.

Can I add an anecdote from my brief stint in uniform ?
During the 1965 war with Pakistan, my squadron used to fly early morning bombing raids on enemy targets.When I say early morning, the aircraft will be over the enemy territory ‘at first light’ as the jargon goes.

Each sortie will be in a box of four. In one such sortie my Commanding Officer was the leader. The bombing and strafing raid was accomplished against stiff enemy fire and our aircraft were hit. They were limping back to Ambala Air Base with my C.O.’s aircraft given priority landing since his tail section was on fire.

When he was on approach, his wingman called out ‘ hydraulic failure’. He managed to lower the under carriage by manual action ( there was such a provision) but hardly had any oil pressure for braking.

My C.O. took off allowing his wingman priority to land. That aircraft landed with very little braking, but the aircraft was saved by the arresting net at the end of the runway. The ATC called out to my C.O. that his tail section fire was increasing and he should climb and eject. My C.O. refused to heed that well meant advice and instead came back on a wide circuit to land with the tail section blazing just to be able to save the aircraft and he did that.

And can you believe it? The whole tail section was cannibalized from another damaged aircraft and replaced within a few hours and who flew the next sortie ? It was the same brave pilot.

I was privileged to serve under him for more than two and a half years of my stay in Ambala.

Bravo our men in uniform.

Tags: Indian Armed forces, Tribute to the soldier

Having taken a detour into some case studies let us get back to some theory on internal customer service.

As we had seen earlier, Internal Customer Service is a concept that brings about a change in the attitude of all employees in an organization. The change that takes place is one of treating each other as a customer for all transactions and extending the service that a customer would expect. This attitudinal change is relatively simple to achieve with proper explanation of the concept and the reason why this needs to be achieved. People understand and appreciate the need for proper customer service, which can only be of benefit for everyone in the organization and so readily accept the need for it.

I have known the change to be so dramatic that strangers visiting the organization have been left puzzled by employees claiming service from colleagues claiming to be customers. Teamwork, cooperation and being proactive are all automatic by products of the change in attitudes.

In an organization where this has been achieved, what happens is that an external customer gets to interact with one person in the organization and goes away completely satisfied and as an ambassador to the company, its product/s and its people. Each employee takes ownership of the need to extend service as a matter of course.

An interesting side effect has been observed. Employees exposed to such a change and working in an environment that fosters this attitude, begin to notice that their relationships in personal lives also undergo change for the better.

Tags: Internal Customer Service, personal relationships, Side benefits

Back to posting on our theme of Customer Service, we begin where we left off – the delayed delivery of gas cylinder at my residence.

I investigated the whole transaction and found out that it was a system failure. AND, horror of horrors, an attitudinal failure as well!

The original commitment made to me was based on information available at that time with the customer service person manning the desk. Subsequent to that, after the delivery van was loaded with the day’s deliveries, it suffered a flat tire. Naturally, it had to be unloaded to enable the tire to be replaced and reloaded before it could go on its deliveries. This delay was not conveyed to the customer service desk. Shockingly however, I found that even had the information been passed on, there was no system in place nor was anybody expected to convey revised delivery times to customers in case any delays took place. If any thing, the employees were expected not to use the telephone to make out going calls!! The lady who had given me the commitment would have gladly called me to apologize and give me a revised time had she been empowered to do so. She was actually expected to economize rather than build relationships with customers by the Management!

This state of affairs unfortunately, is the rule rather than an exception in our scheme of things. When it comes to things like cylinders of cooking gas, it gets worse as, the dealers strongly believe that they are obliging the customers rather than serving the customer! Since it is a seller’s market, customers have to put up with such indignity. On the other hand, where there is competition, like in white goods, the situation is quite different but only till the sale is made. There are some notable exceptions to this, about which I shall post in the future, but by and large, culturally speaking, we seem to be totally averse to after sale service.

Let us take another example. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is a public sector behemoth. Actually it is a pathetic example of how, changed situations does not generate vigor and aggressive reaction from the public sector. The Indian telephone scenario has changed so dramatically now that BSNL’s customers have been surrendering telephone connections. BSNL is losing customers while all the other companies marketing mobile and static telephone connections are growing exponentially.

BSNL however has a great advantage in that they already have laid down cable coverage and so can indeed fight competition from a position of strength. Do you think they would? Try getting a broadband connection from them. They are aggressively advertising for it but just try and get a connection and you would know why people like me use other broadband service providers.

We shall continue on correcting attitudinal problems in our future posts but for the moment let me conclude with my personal experience with MSNL. I went to the exchange, which serves the area where my residence is located to get myself a broad band connection. There is a counter there specifically to handle customer service. I enquired there and was directed to an official who would first study whether BSNL will be able to provide the service to the area where I lived and then give a chit to issue an application form for a connection.

This official’s office is on the second floor of a unusually large building and with quite a bit of difficulty, I climbed the stair case only to find the official not present nor anyone capable of either attending to me or advising me as to whether I should wait for him. Finally, one employee of BSNL took some pity on me and took my business card and advised me that he would pass it on to the official concerned who will contact me when he came to the office. This was six months ago. I am still waiting. In the meanwhile, I have joined up with another broadband service provider who is giving me excellent service.

Am I being unusually harsh on BSNL, no, exactly the same happened to my neighbor with the exception that she was advised that they are unable to provide the connection due to some “technical” reason. My neighbor’s immediate neighbor, in the same building however has been given a connection! Mysterious indeed are the ways of the public sector!

What do you think will make such organizations change their ways? Can anything be done at all to impart training to change mindsets?

I am taking a break from posting on Customer Service to bring in a bit of humor and to host a guest post from a dear friend who is one of the few witnesses to my having gone to post graduate level of education!

This post is by Vashudev Dayalani who lives in Mumbai.  He has travelled the world extensively and has seen the driving habits of other nationalities, but has a particular soft corner for Indian drivers and conditions, as can readily be made out from his post. I have a great deal of admiration for his resilience and hope to post more of his articles on his personal life.

For the benefit of every Tom, Dick and Harry (not Potter) visiting India and daring to drive on Indian Roads, I am offering a few hints for survival. They are applicable to every place in India, except Bihar, where life outside a vehicle is only marginally safer.

On roads, rules broadly operate within the domain of karma where you do your best, and leave the results to God and your Insurance Company. The hints are as follows:

Do you drive to the left or right of the road? The answer is ‘both’. Basically you start on the left of the road unless it’s occupied. In that case go to the right unless that’s also occupied. Then proceed by occupying the next available gap, as in chess. Just trust your instincts, ascertain the direction and proceed.

Adherence to road rules leads to much misery and occasional fatality. Most drivers don’t drive, but aim their vehicle in the intended direction. Don’t you get discouraged or underestimate yourself. Except for a belief in re-incarnation, the other drivers are not in any better position.

Don’t stop at pedestrian crossings just because some fool wants to cross the road. You may do so only if you enjoy being bumped in the back. Pedestrians have been strictly instructed to cross when traffic is moving slowly or had come to a dead stop because some minister is in town. Still some idiot may try to wade across but then, lets not talk ill of the dead.

Sounding your horn is not a sign of protest as in some countries. Honk to express joy, resentment, frustration, and romance or just to mobilize a dozing cow or a dog in the middle of the road/bazaar.

Keep information books in glove compartment. You may read them in traffic while awaiting the Chief Minister/Prime Minister/President’s motorcade or waiting for the rainwater to recede when over ground traffic meets underground drainage.

Night driving on Indian roads can be an exhilarating experience with the mental make up of Genghis Khan. In a way, its like playing Russian roulette, because you do not know who amongst the drivers is loaded. What looks like premature dawn on the horizon, turns out to be a truck attempting a speed record. On countering it, pull partly into the field adjoining the road until the phenomenon passes. The roads do not have shoulders, but occasional boulders. Do not flash your lights expecting reciprocation. The only dim thing in truck is the driver, and with the peg of illicit arrack he has had at lost stop, his total cerebral functions add up to little more than naught.

Truck drivers are the James Bonds of India and are licensed to kill. Often you may encounter a single beam of light about five/six feet above the ground. This is not a super motorbike but a truck approaching you with a single light on, usually the left one. It could be the right one but never get too close to investigate. You may prove your point posthumously. Of course all this occurs at night on the trunk roads. During the day time trucks are more visible, except that the driver will never show any signal. And you must watch for the absent signal. They are a greater threat. Only you will observe that the cleaner/driver’s companion, who sits next to the driver, will project his hand and wave hysterically. This is definitely not to be construed as a signal for left or right. The waving is just an expression of physical relief on a hot day.

Occasionally, you might see what looks like an UFO with blinking colored lights and sounds emanating from within. This is an illuminated bus full of happy pilgrims singing ‘bhajans’. These pilgrims go at break neck speed, seeking contact with the Almighty and often meeting with success.

Mopeds – The moped looks like an oil tin on wheels and makes noise like an electric shaver. It runs 30 miles on teaspoon of petrol and travels at break-bottom speed. As the sides of the road are too rough for a ride, the moped riders tend to drive in the middle of the road – they would rather drive under the heavier vehicles instead of around them and are often ‘mopped’ off the tarmac.

Leaning Towers of Pisas:  Most bus passengers travel free and during rush hours there is absolute mayhem (hell, chaos). There are passengers hanging off other passengers who in turn hang off the railings and the overloaded buses lean dangerously, defying laws of gravity but obeying laws of surface tension. As drivers get paid to overload (so many rupees per kg. of passenger), no questions are asked. Steer clear of these buses by a width of three passengers.

One way- Street:  These boards are put up by the traffic police to bring some humor into their otherwise drab lives. Don’t stick to the literal meaning and proceed in any direction. In metaphysical terms, it means that you cannot proceed in two directions at one time. So drive, as you like, reverse whenever you feel like, if you are the fussy type.

Lest I sound hypercritical, I must add a positive point also. Providing ‘speed breakers’ – two for each house, has prevented fast driving in residential areas. These are in addition to water and drainage pipes for that residence, that is left untarred for easy identification by the Municipal Corporation authorities, should they want to recover the pipes for year-end accounting.

If after all this, you will want to drive in India, take your lessons between 8.00 p.m. and 11.00 a.m. when the police have gone home. The citizen is then free to enjoy the freedom of speed enshrined in the Constitution.

Tags: Driving in India, Indian drivers, Indian traffic, Traffic signs in India

I am taking a break from posting on Customer Service to bring in a bit of humor and to host a guest post from a dear friend who is one of the few witnesses to my having gone to post graduate level of education!

This post is by Vashudev Dayalani who lives in Mumbai.  He has travelled the world extensively and has seen the driving habits of other nationalities, but has a particular soft corner for Indian drivers and conditions, as can readily be made out from his post. I have a great deal of admiration for his resilience and hope to post more of his articles on his personal life.

For the benefit of every Tom, Dick and Harry (not Potter) visiting India and daring to drive on Indian Roads, I am offering a few hints for survival. They are applicable to every place in India, except Bihar, where life outside a vehicle is only marginally safer.

On roads, rules broadly operate within the domain of karma where you do your best, and leave the results to God and your Insurance Company. The hints are as follows:

Do you drive to the left or right of the road? The answer is ‘both’. Basically you start on the left of the road unless it’s occupied. In that case go to the right unless that’s also occupied. Then proceed by occupying the next available gap, as in chess. Just trust your instincts, ascertain the direction and proceed.

Adherence to road rules leads to much misery and occasional fatality. Most drivers don’t drive, but aim their vehicle in the intended direction. Don’t you get discouraged or underestimate yourself. Except for a belief in re-incarnation, the other drivers are not in any better position.

Don’t stop at pedestrian crossings just because some fool wants to cross the road. You may do so only if you enjoy being bumped in the back. Pedestrians have been strictly instructed to cross when traffic is moving slowly or had come to a dead stop because some minister is in town. Still some idiot may try to wade across but then, lets not talk ill of the dead.

Sounding your horn is not a sign of protest as in some countries. Honk to express joy, resentment, frustration, and romance or just to mobilize a dozing cow or a dog in the middle of the road/bazaar.

Keep information books in glove compartment. You may read them in traffic while awaiting the Chief Minister/Prime Minister/President’s motorcade or waiting for the rainwater to recede when over ground traffic meets underground drainage.

Night driving on Indian roads can be an exhilarating experience with the mental make up of Genghis Khan. In a way, its like playing Russian roulette, because you do not know who amongst the drivers is loaded. What looks like premature dawn on the horizon, turns out to be a truck attempting a speed record. On countering it, pull partly into the field adjoining the road until the phenomenon passes. The roads do not have shoulders, but occasional boulders. Do not flash your lights expecting reciprocation. The only dim thing in truck is the driver, and with the peg of illicit arrack he has had at lost stop, his total cerebral functions add up to little more than naught.

Truck drivers are the James Bonds of India and are licensed to kill. Often you may encounter a single beam of light about five/six feet above the ground. This is not a super motorbike but a truck approaching you with a single light on, usually the left one. It could be the right one but never get too close to investigate. You may prove your point posthumously. Of course all this occurs at night on the trunk roads. During the day time trucks are more visible, except that the driver will never show any signal. And you must watch for the absent signal. They are a greater threat. Only you will observe that the cleaner/driver’s companion, who sits next to the driver, will project his hand and wave hysterically. This is definitely not to be construed as a signal for left or right. The waving is just an expression of physical relief on a hot day.

Occasionally, you might see what looks like an UFO with blinking colored lights and sounds emanating from within. This is an illuminated bus full of happy pilgrims singing ‘bhajans’. These pilgrims go at break neck speed, seeking contact with the Almighty and often meeting with success.

Mopeds – The moped looks like an oil tin on wheels and makes noise like an electric shaver. It runs 30 miles on teaspoon of petrol and travels at break-bottom speed. As the sides of the road are too rough for a ride, the moped riders tend to drive in the middle of the road – they would rather drive under the heavier vehicles instead of around them and are often ‘mopped’ off the tarmac.

Leaning Towers of Pisas:  Most bus passengers travel free and during rush hours there is absolute mayhem (hell, chaos). There are passengers hanging off other passengers who in turn hang off the railings and the overloaded buses lean dangerously, defying laws of gravity but obeying laws of surface tension. As drivers get paid to overload (so many rupees per kg. of passenger), no questions are asked. Steer clear of these buses by a width of three passengers.

One way- Street:  These boards are put up by the traffic police to bring some humor into their otherwise drab lives. Don’t stick to the literal meaning and proceed in any direction. In metaphysical terms, it means that you cannot proceed in two directions at one time. So drive, as you like, reverse whenever you feel like, if you are the fussy type.

Lest I sound hypercritical, I must add a positive point also. Providing ‘speed breakers’ – two for each house, has prevented fast driving in residential areas. These are in addition to water and drainage pipes for that residence, that is left untarred for easy identification by the Municipal Corporation authorities, should they want to recover the pipes for year-end accounting.

If after all this, you will want to drive in India, take your lessons between 8.00 p.m. and 11.00 a.m. when the police have gone home. The citizen is then free to enjoy the freedom of speed enshrined in the Constitution.

Tags: Driving in India, Indian drivers, Indian traffic, Traffic signs in India

Of course, it is the second alternative approach that will work better. It does not need a great deal of thought to figure that one out. Unfortunately, most “Customers” lose out on excellent service by being the first type. Quarrelsome, rude and impatient. While the customer is always right, the customer need not be an obnoxious specimen.

I have repeatedly found that being polite and courteous to people who serve me, works wonders in terms of Customer Service. Quite why people do not practice this simple method when they want good customer service is beyond me. Having started off this topic in all its intricacies, as a customer more often than a service provider, I believe that this is a good place to start our adventure in improving the kind of customer service that we can hope to get from all suppliers of goods and services.

This brings me to a very important approach to Customer Service, which is what is known as internal customer service in many organizations. The principle is very simple. Each person or department in an organization treats each other person or department that he/she deals with as a customer and extends the kind of service that a customer would expect. The concept is simple but extremely difficult to apply in real life due to one simple factor. “That is not my job” attitude. In other words, staying focused on one’s own responsibilities without giving much thought to how one fits into the overall scheme of things, or the big picture. For instance, if the customer face of the organization, the sales person makes a commitment to deliver on a particular day, she will expect everyone else in the back up team to help her deliver on her promise. On the other hand, let us say the delivery section refuses to accept this as their own commitment, and go by their own formulae, it is inevitable that the promise will not be met and results in poor customer service.

Let me give you an example. Four days ago, I booked a replacement cooking gas cylinder, by telephoning the distributor. The lady who took the order promised delivery the next day and gave me to understand that the delivery will be around lunch time, or around 1.00 pm. The delivery did not take place till 3.30 pm when I had to go out for a meeting. I had to request a neighbor to keep an eye on matters and if the delivery came, to take it and keep it till my return. After I had left, the delivery took place at 4.00 pm, causing considerable inconvenience to my neighbor.

What do you think went wrong? Could the person attending the phone not have foreseen this, or did she not convey her commitment to the delivery persons, or was it a break down in some system somewhere?

Tags: Internal Customer Service

We left off the subject with the power of communication overriding all the other aspects of this particular transaction in making a customer totally satisfied.

I offer you two possible scenarios for the very first transaction.

1. “What sort of a publishing house do you run? A book that has been reviewed well by a leading newspaper of the country is not available in any bookshop here? Can you do something about it?”

2. “Good morning. I wonder if I can trouble you with a small problem. I have not been able to source a book, published by you, that has received a favourable review this morning in the newspapers. Will you be able to help?”

Which do you think will work better? Who is now extending service to whom? Is there something that we can learn from these two approaches vis-à-vis customer service?

Tags: Effective Communication

What really happened is that two persons from the sales department of a publishing house decided to be proactive with a customer.

Let us look at this a lit more in depth. The publisher’s Pune and Mumbai office is primarily set up to move their published books onto the shelves of booksellers in Maharashtra. Since they are very big in the field of educational books, they are very active in Pune where the Universities and other educational institutions have made it a very big market for their products.

In the normal course, these two gentlemen never come in contact with an actual end user. Their contacts are with libraries, educational institutions, and booksellers.

The normal reaction for someone in a similar position is to say “Sorry, this is not my job.” Now, why did these two gentlemen not take recourse to this route and went out of their way to help an ultimate customer for a book that would have cost about 165 rupees in retail?

Sitting far away from the scene of action and not ever having met either of the gentlemen, I can only guess the thought process of the first person – the Pune Representative. He must have thought to himself, “here is an opportunity to get to do something for an ultimate customer. We never get an opportunity to do so. Let me try and help him in some way.” Unusual, and exactly the kind of thinking, that any organization would expect from its employees. Mind you, this gentleman is an employee, not an owner. If I were the owner, I would expect to instill this kind of an ATTITUDE in all my employees. Quite whether this was done in this case, I do not know.

The next stage. The Pune Representative telephones his office in Mumbai after having found out that with his resources, he is unable to find out any bookseller with available stock in Pune. The Mumbai office has access to stock records and finds out that one shop, Landmark in Pune has stock. The Mumbai representative ensures that a copy is reserved, makes sure that the shop’s management will arrange for home delivery, and then calls me up.

What has happened? Here too it is a matter of ATTITUDE, tying up lose ends before making any kind of promise and then acting on solving the customer’s problem.

The third stage of the bookseller coming into the picture. Here again, it is a chain of bookshops and manned by employees. All the people involved here too, have taken steps to ensure that the publisher’s commitment and the customer’s requirement are met, without trying to pass the buck anywhere else. They could have easily said, that home delivery is not possible and that the buyer could come over and purchase from the stock. But, having agreed to oblige the publisher, they did not. Here, there is an ATTITUDE as well as, another very important ingredient, AUTHORITY. The management has given enough authority to the local staff to take unusual decisions in the interest of Customer Service. Such delegation of authority is rare and it has come as a surprise to me that this chain of bookstores has done so. My compliments to them.

There is yet another element, the third element of Customer Service in this case, and that is ACCESS TO INFORMATION. The smooth way in which the Pune office could access Mumbai Regional Office and they could locate stock, communicate with the stock point and persuade them to act in an unusual manner brings us to the last element of excellent COMMUNICATION. Me to Pune Office to Mumbai RO to Landmark Pune to Mumabi RO to me and finally Landmark Pune to me.

I doubt very much that all this could have happened if the communications between all the players had not been of excellent quality and purposeful.

We shall look at this aspect of Communication tomorrow.

Tags: Attitudes, Communication

Due to a viral infection I was laid low and was unable to blog the last few days. I am now back to normal and hope to get back to blogging regularly.

We now come to the bigger picture of achieving Total Customer Service (TCS). Having looked at the elements that go into all expectations of customers from suppliers of goods and services, let us look at the action part of the program.

There are two elements to running any endeavor, be it business, a non-profit, or even just a home. The basic elements do not change and the differences will be in the details. The two elements are the Hard Area of systems, procedures, processes and implementation; and the Soft Area of the human element involved.

The Hard Element:

There are a number of ready-made solutions available that put in the proper systems procedures etc, like Enterprise Resource Planning, Total Accounting Packages, International Standards Organization’s Certification process etc. All these follow the principle of documenting what is done and doing what is documented to bring about a system in the running of any endeavor. As one goes along gaining experience, fine tuning constantly keeps taking place to improve effectiveness and efficiency, which again are documented and implemented. This process enables efficient operations and all concerned are usually expected to study and be completely familiar with the processes and procedures as recorded in manuals of operations.

Such documented and scrupulously followed systems and processes can produce good results if somewhat mechanical ones. It is however to be appreciated that the implementation is by human beings and this is where we shall concentrate our focus on in our future posts. That aspect of Customer Service can be called The Soft Element.

The best way to go about doing this is to take some specific real life stories and study them.

I reproduce below an email that I sent to one book publisher’s Regional Office and the Bookseller through whom the service was extended to me.

“Dear Mr. Shinde,

I wish to place on record my sincere appreciation for the excellent service rendered by two of your employees.  I do hope that this message will reach them to convey my appreciation.

I recently wanted a book published by you, that was reviewed in a newspaper but was not available in any of the book shops that I normally buy from in Pune.  I went to your website, located your Pune office and spoke to one Mr. Santosh Joshi who assured me that he will do everything possible to see that I get the book.  I subsequently got a phone call from one Mr. Sachin Manjrekar of your Mumbai office who too assured me that a copy of the book will be delivered to me at Pune before too long.  The next thing I hear is from Landmark Pune that a copy of the book was being delivered to me at my residence and whether I would be at home to receive it.

The book was duly delivered in my absence after I had given instructions as to how it should be delivered.

I am truly amazed at this level of customer service.  I come across indifference to customer service everywhere and this experience has been truly impressive.

I am copying this message to Landmark Pune also to express my gratitude and appreciation for having taken so much trouble over a book the value of which is insignificant and the cost of delivering it to me would have perhaps even wiped out the margins on it.

Both your organizations and the people concerned have gained a loyal customer.  I hope that you will spread this message to everyone in your two organizations to highlight how a small gesture can create and keep a customer.  Not only that, I shall be an ambassador for you as a bonus!

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Xxxxxxxxxxxx”

We shall study this actual event and see what we can learn from it in the future blogs.