Who's the boss

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.We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to serve him.- Mahatma Gandhi

I found this on while I came across Zoho corp's About Us page. Strangely in his own land, how much do we practice?

There are teachers in unusual areas. And I am only lucky to find them. I found some very handy Customer Service gyaan while I stood to buy Sandwiches. 

Usually, I curb my street food appetite, but today I fell for one and I stood at my favorite Sandwich joint near my school. Sudhakar uncle has been there for as long as I know. 

So here are they

#1. Listen to your customers: The reason, why so many flock to this place is because he listens to the customers so closely(feedback, rants, liking, hates) and uses that as input for his sandwich( product, service).

eg 1. An aunty came along and asked Sudhakar uncle to prepare the regular one. She prefers sandwiches with lot of tomatoes and beetroots. He had piled normal stuffing and then realized her taste, so quickly apologized with a smile and then got back to her regular one.

eg 2. One guy came in for a Jain Sandwich. So he prepared a Jain sandwich , but here was the difference.

First he applied a special chutney(meant for jain), second he applied the chutney with the knife kept in the butter bowl. So he served the Jain Sandwich with the Jain ingredients, as well as maintained the procedure.

#2. Know your product completely: He knew everything about the sandwiches that he was offering. He knew their price, their ingredients, their flavors. One may wonder what is the big deal. Indeed, it may not be a big deal, but being able to serve up customers in evening rush hour and still be able to tell about the details of the sandwiches amazed me. He did that with a smile.

#3. Offer with a delight: He offered the sandwiches with something extra at no cost at all. So he added a lot of butter. For some he lined up neatly cut cucumber, salted boiled potatoes. He cared that his customers do not wait for long and showed disappointment when he was not able to serve his customers upfront. 

We could be small time retailer selling goods, startup building the next big thing, service company doing services or big MNC lapping up accounts after accounts.

So how many of us do really care for our customers? How many even give a thought to Customer Service?

In this frenzied jargon driven businesses, how many of us really put ourselves in our customer's shoes and do give a serious thought to their problems. 

How many of us 'Empathize'?