Sales

66 Things You Should Know About Your Customer & some more

I just came across the article “66 Things You Should Know About Your Customer” in the Inc.com website written by Harvey Mackay. He talks about the importance of knowing your customer in selling to them. He also stresses the fact that, even though you may be selling to a business or an organization, the real buyer is still an individual and it is important to know about the individual as much as you know about his company, if not more. He also has developed Mackay 66, a 66-question customer profile that includes absolutely no information about the envelopes a company […]

Customer Engagement

Why Airlines need to re-design their loyalty programs

Today, I was reading an article “Why Airlines Need to Reconsider What “Loyalty” Is Today…”. This brought back a few questions to my mind. I work for an MNC and my work involves a lot of travel within India. My company has a corporate deal with an airline (Jet Airways) in India to minimize the cost of travel. So, most of the times, I am required to take a Jet Air flight. I do not like flying Jet but do travel quite a bit in Jet due to the company policy. The company also allows me the freedom to choose […]

Customer Engagement

Delighting customers – Bollywood style

As I have always said, you can always delight your customers. I came across a video of a Finnair Flight which was on its way to Delhi, celebrating India’s Republic Day, Bollywood style – Song & dance routine. Have a look at the video below. The video has already garnered more than half a million views on Youtube. The reason why this works great are: Element of surprise: No one expects to see a song & dance routine on an aircraft. Effort: The effort the dancers had put in clearly showed. Emotional: There was an emotional connect for all the […]

Customer Engagement

How could Flipkart respond to the open letter to its founder by a dissatisfied customer

Today, I came across an open letter written to Sachin Bansal, CEO/Founder, Flipkart.com. In this letter, the writer (Sushrut Bidwai) talks about his experience of trying to get his laptop replaced by Flipkart. He also talks about the attitude of the service staff and how they left him feeling frustrated (repeatedly). This open letter has also induced responses from other customers of flipkart to come in the open and admit that they also had similar experiences when it came to refunds or replacements. Now, flipkart has the following options: Pretend that nothing happened and continue business as usual. Take notice […]

Customer Engagement

Changing the face of retail distribution of oil in India

I was in Mumbai today and was going back from the airport to my hotel in a cab. The cab driver stopped at a fuel outlet to fill-up his tank. It took us about 15-20 mins to get the tank filled up and start our journey back to the hotel. While waiting, I asked him if we could not fuel up at some other outlet rather than wait in the que at this outlet. He responded that the next petrol outlet was about 5-6 kms away and was not enroute to the hotel. He also said that wherever you go, […]