Who cares?

Most companies these days brag about their focus on ‘customer care’, not understanding what it really takes to do that. I recently visited two different banks and experienced two different types of customer ‘care’. Care?

I stepped into a swanky looking private bank and went to the cash counter. The person behind the counter was formally dressed. I presented a ‘self’ cheque to withdraw cash. He gestured and asked me to wait for two minutes. In not more than two minutes the transaction was over. From the time I parked my car at the gate till the time I came out, it took exactly 15 minutes.

After withdrawing cash I had to get a DD made from a very popular national bank. I went inside and saw a huge business floor, which looked as good as the private bank I visited 20 minutes ago. Each counter had a TFT screen and a telephone. The people behind the counters were also well dressed. But with the perception I had about the so-called gov’ment banks I found the people not so ‘caring’. I didn’t know which counter to go to since there were no easily noticeable labels. Not knowing what will be the response, I approached a lady behind one of the counters. This lady was quite ‘caring’ enough to tell me to go to the 6th floor and get a number generated for the DD.

The lift stopped at every floor irrespective of whether there was anyone getting-off or getting on. I reached the sixth floor and went to the first counter with a wild guess, ‘this must be it’. I was right and I patted myself for my unusual sixth sense. The woman (again a woman) asked me if I was carrying any address proof since I wanted a DD payable in a foreign country. When I told her I did not have any address proof but I have a voter’s ID, she directed me to the next counter to take the gentleman’s approval. This man first insisted that I need an address proof but later agreed to my voter’s ID. (I think he liked my jacket). I got the photocopy of the ID and handed it over to the ‘first’ counter along with a form. The woman entered some number in a huge ledger file and in about 10minutes she asked me to deposit the cash in the counter on the first floor. I took the staircase to get to the first floor because that seemed faster at that point of time. I hurried to the ‘first’ lady and deposited cash. She didn’t have a cash counting machine so she used her expert hands to do so. After completing the process of stamping and scribbling she asked me to ascend to the 6th floor to collect the draft.

I took the lift because I would rather spend more time in the lift than at the counter. The lady asked me to wait for 5 minutes. 10 minutes later, I started feeling impatient. I looked for the washroom, which was as good as the toilet in the train. There was a coffee machine kept at a noticeable place and I went there to take a cup of coffee but a boy insisted that he would serve. I thanked him and retired to the couch. The coffee cost me 4 rupees.

The total time I spent in the bank to get a DD made was 75 minutes. Whether it was customer care or customer focus I cannot tell the difference, but I had the experience of a lifetime.

Meter dekhlo!

You have probably heard this thousand times at a petrol pump. Have you ever wondered why do these attendants have to say this each time they fill petrol in your car? Well, I have. Yesterday evening while I was refilling my car, a question crossed my mind? Why do they have to say 'Meter dekhlo'(check the meter) every single time?

The answer is simple. These attendants want to tell us that they are not cheating on us. This is an easy conclusion, isn't it? Why is there a question of cheating if we are paying for it? It is a question of trust. If you want others to trust you, you must start trusting them as well. How about us trusting these attendants? We give such a small task to these attendants and we don’t trust them. Doesn't this happen to us elsewhere as well? - At workplace, at home, in the society? Think about it. I am sure all of us have assigned responsibilities to someone without trusting that he/she will do the job. Only if we had little faith in each other, our world would have been so much better.

Coming back to filling the fuel tank – how many times have you found these attendants cheating on you? I have never ever been cheated but I still check the meter when the guy fills petrol in my car. It has become a sort of a tradition now. Unless you see the meter, you don’t believe that the petrol is going into the fuel tank. How ridiculous!

Words of wisdom

The dictionary qualifies wisdom as the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting. Knowing what is true, right or lasting is knowledge. To apply that knowledge for good is wisdom. By this equation it is not wrong to say that people may have tremendous knowledge but very little wisdom.

Thinking about wisdom I realized that it is not up in the air, like it sounds. It is common sense. I have often heard people speak words of discouragement like, ‘you cannot do this or you cannot do what I have done’. What good is it to gain all the knowledge but fail to encourage an individual? What’s the harm in encouraging someone? What is the surety that the other person cannot be better? Why can’t a champion tell his successor that he can be better than him? This is where wisdom comes into play. Maradona, the greatest footballer ever, is a fan of a 21 year old footballer Lionel Messi. Maradona says that Messi can be better than him. Now, this is words of wisdom. By saying this he does not lose his greatness, does he? You cannot imagine how much you give to the other person by such simple ‘words of wisdom’.

When I was in 9th standard, I had good football skills but when the coach told me that I am too thin to play, I gave up playing. For two years I didn’t even touch football. After I passed out of high school, I was more mature and understood that I should have taken that as a challenge, but it was already late. I missed the opportunity of playing for my school. There are only few people who take it up as a challenge and prove the other person wrong, but what’s the point in making someone ambitious just to prove a point? The person can do much better with a positive feeling than with an ‘I-will-show-him’ attitude.

If you wish for someone to improve use ‘words of wisdom’.

“Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves.”
-Joseph Addison

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Today he will have food to eat!

While I was driving down for a function with my family, I heard a conversation between my daughter and my wife. My daughter, upon seeing the beggars on the road, asked her mom "Why do they ask for money", to which her mom replied "because they have to buy food to eat", in a manner that the child would understand. To this the little one asked another question,"why don't we give them some money then"?. Her mom told her that we cannot give them everyday.

Later, when we were returning home, my daughter insisted that we give some money to an old man on the road who walked up to us. She gave him few coins and said "Today he will have food to eat".

I think every child thinks in the same way. If everyone thought like children there would be no poverty. There are millions of people with so much money, who can spare a little for the needy.

Have a great day!

 

Technorati Tags: Child , poverty , beggar , street children , food