Fire exit not for customer..!

When we are in business, each and everything, that a customer sees about us, makes a deep impact on his perception of ourselves. Recently I went to a restaurant with my team for lunch. There, the fire-exit door caught my eye. Below is the pic of same:



Now, is the message clear?

"Malls threaten local market". Really?

It was nearly one year ago. I had read a piece of news in one of the national newspaper. This piece of news mentioned a mob consisting of local traders attacking a newly-opened shopping mall. The so-called leadership of this mob had proclaimed that they want to protect the local market from this western culture. (Click here to read a related article. I am not able to find the one which I read.)

The news made me wonder as to how a mall can threaten the local market. If the mall sells the items cheaper than the market, then it can endanger the existence of near-by shops. But again, the quality of the items matters. If the local shops sell good quality products, then the customers will continue to go to trusted shops. And in the end, competition is good for everybody.

It was not until many months later that I learnt the exact reason for this outburst from my mother. She told me the way traders and shop-keepers continue to cheat the customer. One of the easy way is to have the good-quality items displayed, in small quantities, at the front of the shop. When the customer decides to buy one of them, the shop-keeper goes inside the shop, where the larger stock is kept, and give it to the customer. The quality, of course, will not be the same. Another way, which is very popular among the fruits and vegetable vendors, is worth mentioning. If a piece is rotten, it is kept in such a way that the customer cannot see its rotten face, but the vendor can see it. Later, when the customer is selecting the best pieces and putting them on the weighing scale, the shop-keeper 'assists' the customer, and puts the rotten ones too, and then hurries to pack the entire lot, and hands it over to the customer.

Compared to this, in a shopping mall, the customer is not hurried by anybody, and s/he has enough time to select the best pieces available to him/her. The only demerit of a mall is that the customer has to wait in queue to pay the bill.

I don't know whether there is a future for another mall in that area. In the news item, to which link has been given, the State Govt. has requested the mall to be closed due to the disturbances caused in the area.

Customer Delight

Today I went to a road-side shop with my friend to buy a tender coconut. The shop-keeper was a lady, around 45 years of age. The shop was nothing but a pile of coconuts kept on a plastic carpet, under a shade. My friend ordered a coconut. The lady picked the one chosen by my friend, then sliced it enough so that the water within can be sipped using a straw, and handed it over to him. My friend sipped the delicious water, and then handed over the coconut back to her. She again sliced it open so that my friend can eat the content within. For eating that my friend had to use his hands. Once he was done, the lady opened a water bottle, and helped him wash his hands too. That was all over, and we walked away.

It was after some time that I realized the extra effort that lady had put to delight her customers. I have visited a lot of similar shops to buy tender coconut, but never I saw any shop-keeper offer water to customers to wash their hands. Every time, I had to wipe my hands clean with my kerchief.

How much effort does it take for giving water? But it makes a lot of difference…