Customer centricity

For a business to do well one needs to have great products. But that isn't sufficient; success of business depends on retaining already existing customer and adding new ones too. If the service provided during & after sale is not good, then even a great product wont help the business or company in long run.M K Gandhi once said "A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so."  What prompted me to write a blog on the subject is recently I had a very bad experience while fixing by smart phone. I was in Nasik my phone stopped working as it got wet in the heavy rainfall there.


I approached a mobile repair shop and asked if he could fix it.The shop owner promised me that he would need Rs 300 to do it .I agreed for it as getting a new phone would cost me atleast 10000 Rs.I was travelling back to Bangalore next day so asked the shop owner if he could give back the repaired phone at night. He committed to me that the phone will be repaired and I can collect back phone at 8.30 pm.I went to the shop owner at 8.30 pm and realised that the phone was not repaired. Then on inspection found out the case of my phone was also broken. Typical example of failing on commitment to deliver result to customer on time. I collected back my phone and thought of repairing it in Bangalore.


In Bangalore I enquired with few of my friends where can I put my phone for repair. Then I found out a shop and discussed the problems with the shop owner. I was told that he would charge a me a service charge of Rs 200 and additional cost if some parts are to be replaced. I was told that I could collect the phone from the shop next day.Next day I tried up calling the shop owner and found out the phone no mentioned on the receipt was not connecting .Driving through the Bangalore traffic I reached the shop only to be told that the phone was not repaired. The next day I got a call and the shop owner told me that the power IC and the speaker of the phone would need replacement. On questioning the logic behind changing the speaker the shop owner agreed there was no need to change the speaker.I agreed to pay him the amount he was asking for even though I knew it was on higher side.

Next day again after a long battle with the traffic I reached the shop to collect the mobile phone. It was working and I was happy even though I paid slightly more amount. Then I found out the SD card from my mobile was missing. It contained all the pictures of my last three visit to Europe. On Enquiry the shop owner told me that there was no SD card in my phone and I was telling a lie. I left disappointed as those pictures were important for me and I had no back up.I went home and put the mobile for charging and to my horror found out the phone was not charging and switching on. Next day I again visited the shop keeper and showed him that the problem with the phone was not resolved. The shop owner said I had not reported to him that the phone had a problem in charging. But this was precisely the problem with the phone when I had taken it to him for repair.


Then I requested him to please repair the phone and not to charge me further. The he said he will do it and next day I could collect the phone from him. I went to the shop again next day and this time the problem with the phone was resolved. Also he returned to me my SD card,but all pictures were missing from the card.At the end of all this I just thought that why people don't succeed in business is because they don't know how to treat their customer properly.I have decided that I will never visit any of the two shops again.Also I will never recommend any one to go to these shops.In the end the shop owner has lost a potential customer .If the service would have been good I would have recommended the shop to others too. Typical example of how not to treat a customer
If you are not the intended addressee, please inform us immediately that you have received this e-mail in error, and delete it. We thank you for your cooperation.