I walked into the cafeteria for breakfast at 9:50 am today and it was near closing time. The guy at the billing counter prints my coupons before I ask- he usually knows what everyone ate regularly, smart guy wearing the customer satisfaction hat. I noticed the last scoop of poha being dished out for me. As I was eating spoonfuls of my favourite onion poha and sipping tea, my mind went to Chipotle’s burritos…Chipotle was just few minutes walk from my earlier apartment and was the place for lunch, brunch or dinner- for some it was regular and for some a way out in emergency. The beauty was the humongous filling burritos filled with rice, beans, guacamole and veggies sometimes came as freebies. And those sometimes were usually closing times at about 9:50 pm at night. The burrito either came out free or in the form of a coupon for later use. And that concept delights me!! Hard Rock Café serves an amazing free sundae to the birthday guy/gal and Hertz gives out free rentals on random weekends. Not to sound like a maniac desperate to grab freebies :- )) but the point is, I see a delighted customer, coming back over and over again.
Not sure free last scoops of poha at closing time results in a loss for Palkhi. Do we often see the “give you more for less”- a “delight” scenario in the normal day to day service industry here…in the fast food place, or book store, or ice cream parlor, or grocery or apparel store?? To me there appears to be some hidden complex equation that rarely benefits the end user in the freebie. A leading beauty and fitness chain in India gave out free coupons worth thousands of rupees for registering in some skin treatment – but you go over it and realize 99% cannot be used- leaving behind a frustrated and irritated customer- maybe they were better off not giving and advertising those coupons. The “buy one, get one free” offer mostly leads you to picking one with excitement and leaves bad choices for the second one. Those extra 20%, 30% offers either have some built-in costs or take a toll on quality. In the beauty parlor, I need to accumulate 500 points for a free facial; each point attributed to 10 bucks- Am never going to get that free facial in my lifetime with a job that requires relocation, or by the time I accumulate 500 points the free facial won’t seem attractive- blame it on the time-value of money!!
At the workplace we are urged- to give “delight” to our clientele overseas- give additional documentation, fix those existing bugs, suggest performance improvements, complete before time and so on…!! Am I not able to see the “delight” I get from the services I pay for, or is it merely absent? Or are they hung on the “let me be safe”, “this growth is enough” territory and not taking those small subtle risks which could possibly result in more??!! Someone else has been there, done that and seen the results. Is it ok to inherit their idea, if not invent ours? Is moving to “Customer Delight” from “Customer Satisfaction” tough, or labeled unnecessary in my small world?
Not sure free last scoops of poha at closing time results in a loss for Palkhi. Do we often see the “give you more for less”- a “delight” scenario in the normal day to day service industry here…in the fast food place, or book store, or ice cream parlor, or grocery or apparel store?? To me there appears to be some hidden complex equation that rarely benefits the end user in the freebie. A leading beauty and fitness chain in India gave out free coupons worth thousands of rupees for registering in some skin treatment – but you go over it and realize 99% cannot be used- leaving behind a frustrated and irritated customer- maybe they were better off not giving and advertising those coupons. The “buy one, get one free” offer mostly leads you to picking one with excitement and leaves bad choices for the second one. Those extra 20%, 30% offers either have some built-in costs or take a toll on quality. In the beauty parlor, I need to accumulate 500 points for a free facial; each point attributed to 10 bucks- Am never going to get that free facial in my lifetime with a job that requires relocation, or by the time I accumulate 500 points the free facial won’t seem attractive- blame it on the time-value of money!!
At the workplace we are urged- to give “delight” to our clientele overseas- give additional documentation, fix those existing bugs, suggest performance improvements, complete before time and so on…!! Am I not able to see the “delight” I get from the services I pay for, or is it merely absent? Or are they hung on the “let me be safe”, “this growth is enough” territory and not taking those small subtle risks which could possibly result in more??!! Someone else has been there, done that and seen the results. Is it ok to inherit their idea, if not invent ours? Is moving to “Customer Delight” from “Customer Satisfaction” tough, or labeled unnecessary in my small world?
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