The story of the Valet – a true story

Ms. Kalpana is a busy Senior Manager in a large Bangalore based company.  One Saturday evening,  she drove her Swift car along with her mother, to a store in Jayanagar , Bangalore to buy some jewellery for herself .

She gave the car to the Valet for parking and went up to do her shopping.  After a few hours of jewellery shopping, ( who ever finishes jewellery shopping in a few minutes ?) she came back to collect the car at about 8.40 Pm in the night ! only to find that her car had a punctured tyre ! She was at her wits end, as to what to do ?  At this time, all puncture shops would be closed and she will have to take a taxi back home and come back the next day to get it fixed !

It was then, she was surprised to hear the Valet, that if she doesn’t mind, he would change the punctured tyre with the stepney in the boot !

She was extremely relieved and thanked the valet !

Moral :- It was the customer orientation of the team at the brand, which the valet too had heard about and made the effort to help out a customer in need of help !

Result :- She had become a loyal fan of the brand and the store, she has gone around the whole of her friend and colleagues circle sharing this incident and wows to go back to the store for all her future purchases !

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White Classroom Boards are now in showrooms !

A College Class Room!

For many of us, the last time we saw a black board was probably in our highschool or college !  Maths was probably one of the most difficult subjects and we often tried to learn maths by reading and hoping to remember how to solve problems ? Do you remember ?

Now, let us discuss how targets, incentives, schemes are being explained to us by our store managers, company managers ! We all seem to listen to them, think we understand, but when we are asked to explain what we have understood, we find it very difficult. Why is it so ? Then, at the end of the month, we dont understand why the incentives were not as per our own calculations ! Then we feel upset !

Hearing about maths and seeing and doing it are very different things.When we see the calculations on targets, incentives, discount calculations etc on a board, we understand the details better ! 

                                                                    

Morning Class at a Store

Hence, some smart retailers, have introduced the  “White Board” in a store for the meetings ! The notice board, typically shows the target for the store for the month, the names of the Salesmen, thei r individual targets ex. Kumar 5 lakhs, Krishna 4 lakhs etc their achievements so far (MTD ) and balance target to be achieved. This then makes each and every person in the store responsible for not only achieving his own target but also ensuring that the store achieves the full target as well.

PS: Some smart store managers, have made a modification to this model . Instead of showing the store target, the individual target etc, the language that is easily understood is the incentive. They have now displayed the amount of incentive a Salesman can achieve in that month vs the Amount Of Incentive AOI that has already been earned ! This motivates the staff, when they begin to compare their own incentives ! This will give an opportunity to the staff, to write down and understand the structure in our own way !

Call for action:- Try out this “white board” in your store and share us your experiences with us !

Remember to remove the board and keep it away from the public area after the meeting !

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Can you get Great Customer Service even at Rs. 7 ?

Just yesterday, I and a couple of entrepreneurs  from (http://www.startupleadershipprogram.com) wanted to have Coffee. The nearest one was a “Road side Chai Shop”, that typically sells Coffee and Chai from a Thermos Flask. We ordered two Teas and a Coffee . When the coffee was poured into a plastic cup, I saw some black “floating objects” and said, what is this ? The shop keeper  immediately took it back and poured another one and then told me it is undissolved instant coffee powder. I was quite impressed with his attitude to exchange what was after all coffee .

His  Customer Centricity did not end there and when we asked how much, he said 7 each , but I took out a Rs. 20 note and was searching for a Rupee coin when he said, if we didn’t have change, it is ok . That is even better customer service  ! Making you feel loyal for his shop !

What can be the reason for good service ? Education, Experience, or just a good human being ?

Compare this with many other retailing stories that we have either experienced or heard about. Just check out http://www.mouthshut.com or http://www.akosha.com where customers have complaints on National and International Brands who have spent Crores of Rupees in marketing their wares to customers. Yet, when they have had problems, they end up not getting satisfied and go to “Consumer forums” to get what they believe is their due ! You are often left wondering why the companies don’t seem to have trained their staff in handling the customers with more care ! Infact, it costs the companies, any where between Rs. 300 to Rs. 1000 in India, to just get a customer to walkin to the store . No, we are not talking about the profit after a customer makes a purchase ! Just walkin to the store to check out the merchandise !

What can you do next time ?

So, next time you see good service, take a few minutes to inform the staff what was your experience ! He would be very happy that his work got recognized ! Often it is said, Indians don’t really appreciate enough .

But if you had a bad experience, then “share a few good instances with them with  your Gandhigiri”. May be they will learn !

Remember to share it either way with us too :-   Retailgurukul@gmail.com

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A Street side Hawker's innovation

Streets in India, we get see and hear, hawkers, with all kinds of things for sale. They typically, keep “shouting “ about their wares and before long, some home maker or another will come out and buy one of those things, typically vegetables, fruits etc. Most of the hawkers even have a regular route and so are their customers as well. A bit of bargaining goes on, and every one is game for it. Some hawkers dont go out into the streets, but stay in a "market place" like a mandi !

But, recently, I was out on the streets on my morning jog,  when I was  surprised to hear  a hawker’s voice louder and clearer than what I normally hear and turned around to see where was it coming from?   There was only one hawker way down the road, and it was too far for the voice to be so loud and clear !

Curiosity got the better of me and I moved to wards the sound, and surprisingly the hawkers voice became louder and clearer and it was obvious that he was not even “shouting”. Imagine, what he had very smartly done ! Look at the picture ! He was selling raw mangoes..

Instead of having to shout all day long, he had invested in one of those Chinese loud speakers, that runs on batteries and recorded his whole “sales pitch “. Now all he had to do, was to put it “on”, and let it do the shouting, while he concentrated to pushing his cart around and selling.

I asked him how to got the idea and he said, he saw this in a “city market” and thought of it, that he would be able to reach out to more people  this way, as he could not constantly keep “shouting” his wares for every one in the hear !

So, quite a jugaad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad ) of an idea. What do  you think? Do you know of any such retailing solutions.? In a country like ours, there are a number of ways to reach out and impact your customers. 

Join us to become an author of a to be released book, For Retailers, By Retailers, Of Retailers - Top 100 Ideas. or forward to any one you know..

Reach us at RetailGurukul@gmail.com

Another popular book on Jugaad..http://jugaadinnovation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Jugaad-Innovation-excerpt-final.pdf

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