Sometimes being simple is the most challenging thing in the world - Customer Delight at Starbucks and at a restaurant

.Most people in marketing think that CRM and customer delight is very academic and involves technology and a lot of planning. Given below are two incidents where technology was not involved at all. The service providers provided customer delight because they believed that the job they were doing was not for money or recognition. They loved their job and wanted their customers to enjoy the moment.

The first incident happened when we visited USA in 2008. Padma and I were shopping at Walmart for our daily staples. The Walmart that we went to in Rosewood, Pleasanton was huge. It would be the size of two football fields. We had a pleasant but tiring shopping experience, and our shopping cart was full. We took a pit stop at the Starbucks in Walmart itself.

We ordered coffee and were waiting. The Barista was within our vicinity. Suddenly Padma piped in, "Did you get bread? We have no bread at home". Seeing my crestfallen face, Padma gave out an exasperated sigh. "I knew it. Why don't you go and get it?"

The bull (Taurean) in me reared up its head. "No," I said and dug in. The bull had found its resting place.

Padma had a hard glitter in her eyes (Afterall, she is a Capricorn and the goat too can be stubborn). "Your wish" she shrugged her shoulders "you are the one" she twisted the sword deep into the torso "You and the children are fond of bread. I can always eat rice and be contented".

Hearing all this was the pretty barista. She walked up to us and set down our coffee. She enquired "you missed buying bread?" I nodded my head, slightly irritated. She said, "Enjoy your coffee" and disappeared inside. Within seconds she was out, and she was wearing inline skates. She took two dollars from me and off she went like a silver bullet.

She was back within two minutes and in her hand was a fresh loaf of bread. Without a word, she gave us the bread and went back to her serving station. We were so stunned that we could not even thank her for the service. She took a little more pain so that her customers loved the Starbucks experience. Even though the incident happened over twelve years ago, it is etched in my memory as if it had just happened last week.

The second incident happened to my facebook friend, Rebecca Forster, the famous novelist. Rebecca was partying on 31st December night at Hay 19, Redondo Beach, a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California,

They were at a neighbourhood pub/restaurant. Rebecca and her friends ordered food and our their darling waitress says "it's four hours till we ring in the new year".

Rebecca's group has a hearty laugh and tell her that they are too old to stay up until midnight and the waitress goes away. Rebecca and party had a great meal promptly at nine o'clock the waitress comes charging out of the kitchen blowing her horn and yelling "Happy New Year". Since it was New Year in New York, she decided to bestow it upon Rebecca and friends and in California. Rebecca writes "It was hilarious. She was so cute and made our night. Good food, drink and a fabulous waitress. It's the little things in life, that matter, isn't it? HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE". Wow, Rebecca, she made your day, and you made our day. Happy new year!

World's best (worst) Goof ups - Will have you in splits - Part - I

 1. Postal Stamp released during the Asian Games 1982: The 1982 Asian games remains one of the most glorious moments for the former Prime minster of India, Indira Gandhi. Asian games 1982 also marked the advent of colour televisions in India. Commemorating the Asian Games the Postal department had released a stamp.

The released stamp created a furore. It had a scene from the Mahabharata – the swayamvar of Draupadi. The story goes like this – Drupad her father  wanted an extremely talented Archer as her husband. He designed a wooden fish that was suspended from the ceiling. And a bowl full of water was placed on the ground. The suitors have to see the eye of the fish in the reflection and nail it with an arrow. Arjuna nails the fish and walks away with Draupadi.

So far so good. The stamp released shows Lord Krishna (considered as a brother by Draupadi) shooting the arrow even as Rana Pratap the Rajput king (oh my god! what is Rana Pratap doing in Drupad's court?) watches on in total perplexity. How the stamp was passed and allowed to be printed in a country that prides itself on its history, mythology and  centuries old culture is still a mystery?????

2. France’s Train operator SNCF:  has landed itself in a mess. Its new trains delivered by Bombardier proved to be a major goof up. The trains that were delivered were too wide to be used in the existing network of platforms. SNCF has ordered 200 new trains at an astounding value of over twenty billion dollars (over 120,000 crore Indian rupees).

Now SNCF will have to spend over 68.4 million US dollars as it will have to redesigned the existing platforms. In all over 1000 platforms will have to redesigned.

This goof up happened as the rail operator RFF calculated the dimensions and gave it to SNCF who passed it on to Bombardier. RFF made all calculations based on platforms made 30 years ago where as  in reality France still has many platforms made over 50 years ago.

France is known for its advanced high speed trains like the TGV series and it must be smarting at a goof up that is so basic and could have been avoided with a liberal dose of commonsense. (May 2014).

3. SM Krishna reads Portuguese minister's speech at United Nations, Washington, Feb 2011: India’s external affairs minister SM Krishna, inadvertently read out the speech of the Portuguese foreign minister at a UN meeting. He realized his mistake a couple of minutes into his speech and went on to read the correct speech but the damage was done.

Krishna read, "On a more personal note, allow me to express my profound satisfaction regarding the happy coincidence of having two members of the Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), Brazil and Portugal, together here today."

US President Barack Obama in 2009, began reading the speech of the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen in 2009 after the teleprompter mixed up their speeches. Obama realized the blunder when he started to thank himself. (Feb 2011)

 

Here comes my first blog posting

Here comes my exciting entry into the world of blogging. So far I have limited myself to popular articles in newspapers, souvenirs, and journals both popular and academic. As a voracious reader, it was always tempting to put forward your own point of view but found it very cumbersome to write and then mail and wait patiently for the editors (gods) to relent and publish your piece.

Thanks to technology and blogging things have become easy. I picked up a field that is close to my heart - Marketing. Marketing has been my passion, my area of specialization. Marketing was the area where I cut my teeth. It was marketing that taught me all the things of life and made me what I am today.

It was my passion for marketing that drove me to teach. I felt that there were lots of things that could be shared. I find my journey into academics and teaching to be great fun and a very enriching learning experience.

The blog posting will have around 500 words and there will be a posting every day. I made a mental promise to myself to be prompt and post each and every day. The sequence of topics that would be posted is

Monday: Posting would be about 5 latest concepts of marketing that will be useful for students, and professionals attending interviews. Also great fun for people who want to know the latest concepts in marketing.

Tuesday: Posting would be on consumer behaviour. This would be all about why consumers behave the way they behave or do not behave the way they are supposed to

Wednesday:  posting would be about a topic that is very close to my heart - Common sense. Common sense is something everyone knows and understands but common sense is not very common. Posting would enlighten you about common sense marketing practices that could go a long way in creating a competitive advantage.

Thursday: Posting would be about the best marketing practices of companies from around the world. It would be about cutting-edge marketing practices that made a company iconic and made them symbolic of an entire country a la Coke (USA)

Friday: The posting would be about controversies. Marketing controversies that have rocked the world and made the headlines.

Saturday: Posting would be devoted to the best marketing reads, classic books, classic articles, classic videos, and movies that a marketing buff should not miss.

Sunday: posting would be about the best advertisements and the worst advertisements that have been hitting us. The selection of advertisements could be from print, television, radio, web-based or from OOH.

All in all, I would like to share what I have with others and I want your suggestions and feedback in making this a lively and happening blog. Please drop your feedback to me on my e-mail.

Keywords: Blogging, Marketing,  Passion, Teaching, Academics, Learning, Technology, Consumer Behavior, Common sense, Best practices, Controversies, Iconic companies, Advertisements, Feedback, Engagement