SAST Wingees

Movie Buzz: Cheran’s Maya Kannadi (translation Magic Mirror)

One of our friends had come from the US and wanted to buy some jewellery. To avoid the crowded Usman Road, we went to LKS Goldhouse on Cathedral Road yesterday.

As soon as we entered, I managed to notice Cheran, one of my favorite contemporary directors, standing in a corner. Went up to him and took his autograph which he gladly signed in Tamil. For our friend, he signed in Tamil and English and beamed “I have signed in English as well for your friend’s sake”.  He came across as very unassuming and down-to-earth.  You can learn some more about Cheran in this Deccan Herald interview.

After that one of the LKS staff mentioned that he was there for his next film “Maya Kannadi” and this shop is likely to be a location in the movie.   

BTW, the section of Cathedral Road between CSI building and Chola Sheraton is developing into a Jewellery Area with Tanishq, Kuber’s, LKS, Bapalal and a few other prominent jewellers.

Refreshingly blunt – the newest euphemism in the blogosphere

I am sure all of you followed the Scoble-Shel-Werner controversy on the issue of corporate blogging. If you missed it, here is the approx. timeline – Scoble1, Shel2, Werner3, Nick Carr jumped in with his refreshingly blunt concept4, Scoble5, Slashdot6. It got very entertaining with several comments logged on these posts and many other respected bloggers joining in including Rick Segal, Sadagopan and others.

Now I haven’t read the book Naked Conversations and I wasn’t there at the infamous Amazon meeting, but there are a few key points that I want to throw into the mix.

1. I had not expected to see the dreaded devil’s advocate gambit to be played out in public, only a week since I talked about it. To ask for the ROI is the classic nip-the-idea-in-the-bud strategy. Very few idea makers come to the table with ROI calculations done. Anyway, if the ROI has been calculated and its proven beyond doubt that there is money, what is the big deal in making the decision to start blogging. It takes a different mindset to adopt something that is yet to be proven beyond doubt and make something out of it.

2. I think the Amazon Connect program is brilliant and I have no doubt that it has been influenced by the idea of blogging which implies that Amazon does understand blogging. However, I think there are a few things about corporate blogging that Amazon has probably missed and  it did not get much air time from the commentators as well – the one that Hugh Macleod calls “punching holes in the porous membrane“.

3. Typically, when we think of communications to the outer world, it is strictly controlled by the Corporate Communications department or PR department and of course everything has to be reviewed by legal. Other than this only the sales and customer service people tak to the clients and is usually around a specific thing. Now blogging blows a hole right through this and lets the employees talk directly to the world. Yes, there are risks (see link to Nick Carr and Vinnie below). But the benefits far outweigh the risks, if done well.  

4. What about the coverage of Amazon’s CRM strategy? How often does an ordinary Amazon customer like me get a call from an Amazon employee. But is there a way for Amazon to build a relationship with me and influence me cost effectively- Blogging could be a way.  Although it is useful, I don’t count the book recommendations churned out by the computer as a personal touch or as a relationship.  Now one may ask, can’t a group email do that (which Amazon does do from time to time)? The problem is, as Scoble/Shel would say its not humanizing, because it does not allow the personality of your employees to come through as blogging may help them do. Now given enough types of personalities coming through to cover the myriad customer/prospect personalities out there, you may get something going here – expanding the coverage of your customer relationship management strategy.  I, for one, would be very curious to understand more about Amazon’s Category Managers – which books do they read, how do they decide which books to promote,  which authors do they like. Amazon Connect or Plogs or Blog Snooping or whatever else Amazon has got going, none of it is designed to connect employees of Amazon with the community.

5.  Another important aspect of blogging is that its a marathon not a sprint. For instance, take the case of Macromedia (now part of Adobe), which entered the blogosphere in 2002 amidst a lot of hoopla per Wired.  Out of the 5 bloggers that were referred to (John Dowdell, Mike Chambers, Matt Brown, Vernon Viehe and Bob Tartar), only 2 of them are still active – John Dowdell and Mike Chambers. What impact would it have on customers when they come to your corporate blog site and find dead blogs?

References:

1. Cluetrain Manifesto. Its an excellent document. At a minimum read the 95 themes mentioned on this page.

2. Links subvert hierachy – Interesting discussion between Doc Searls, Dave Rogers and Mark Bernstein.

3. Nick Carr’s 7 Rules for Corporate Blogging. This is a must read for anyone contemplating business blogging. Also read his follow-on post on this topic.

4. Vinnie adds another good link on legal matters. Must read.  

The handwritten letter is making a comeback

Vinnie had written a post a few days back about people’s communication modes. I pointed Vinnie to the post that I had written on the 4 communication modes  – email, phone, in-person and letter.  Once Vinnie linked to it, Zoli, Vinnie and I had a good discussion (see comments on Vinnie’s blog) on whether the letter matters anymore. Zoli argued that the letter is too old-fashioned.

Recently, I received a trend newsletter from Ledbury Research and they are pointing to a new trend of using nostalgia for marketing purposes. And here is their first entry in that section:

The hand-written letter has acquired a new status that it didn’t have before the advent of emails; it has always represented something special, but technology has unwittingly accentuated this.  Not only is there a sense of excitement and enjoyment in receiving a letter, but also there is a certain cachet for the sender.

Zoli, go figure.

17-year Mango Embargo on India Lifted by the US

As a result of George W. Bush’s recent visit, USDA and India signed an agreement that expects to allow import of mangoes within 18 months from India,  the world’s largest mango producer.  Whether the nuclear deal goes through or not, Dubya can add Indian mangoes to his legacy! (Via Food Museum Blog-Nice Post Tom and Meredith).

On a side note – we all know that Pakistan never misses an opportunity to compete with India. Why should mangoes be an exception?  

Here is Khalid Hasan writing in the Daily Times:  (Via Acorn Blog)

 “Pakistani mangoes, which by all accounts and all measures are far superior to any varieties that India can produce, will remain denied to American connoisseurs of the fruit, since Pakistan has made no discernable attempt to export to the US its mangoes and even its juicy and luscious kinoos (oranges), which India does not have.”

Notice how Khalid sneaks in a victory in oranges as well even before the race could begin! Maybe Pakistani superiority in mangoes and oranges did not make it to the White House briefing.  

Bureaucracy = Naked Workflows?

Its almost 12 weeks since I got here and after checking with many trusted friends, I decided to order the broadband internet connection from BSNL, the government-run telephone company.

My friends also told me that I could now place the order over the internet. I said wow! and placed the order over the internet – I did notice that the online form did not ask for any payment details like credit cards etc.

A few days later I got a call from BSNL saying that I should now pay the security deposit and only after that the connection can be given. When I asked whether I can send the cheque over to them by post, they said okay, to my surprise. But I did not do that because I was worried that the cheque may get misplaced. So I decided to go to BSNL’s office in G.R Complex on Mount Road (Anna Salai) today and make the payment in person.

What happened next gave me this insight that bureaucracy is nothing but a naked customer-orchestrated workflow. Let us come back to this after I describe what happened.

1. I went first to a set of counters in the ground floor, where there were a few people standing, which I assumed were customer service staff.  By the way, this area looked like any typical customer service office. When my turn came, the staff politely directed me to the 3rd floor commercial section.

2. After entering the 3rd floor, I was now amidst a sea of desks as far as my eye could see and most desks had stacks of paper. A few desks had computers and lots of people were there busy working on something. Another thing I noticed was that the office was not air-conditioned but had plenty of fans. So even though it was not cool, it was not hot either.

3. I now noticed an office with a board bearing the sign “Commercial Officer – 1”. I knocked on the door, entered the office and the gentleman inside asked me politely for the area code of my phone number and looked up a directory on his desk and told me to go to the “Commercial Officer – 3” which happened to lie all the way across the office floor on the other side.

4. I went to the other side as directed and I was happy to see the sign “Commercial Officer – 3”, knocked on the door, entered the office and the lady inside asked me to go see a Mr. XYZ sitting outside her office in the cubicle with some 6 or 7 desks in it. When I pointed to her that there were several people sitting outside her office, she politely pointed to Mr.XYZ.

5. Mr.XYZ now took down my details, walked up to a desk containing a computer, waited for his turn since the computer was in use by some other employee. After about 5 minutes, he got his turn at the computer, punched in some details into a black and white screen and printed out a form in triplicate (complete with carbon paper) on a dot-matrix printer. He handed the form to me and asked me to get a signature from the same “Commercial Officer – 3”. I took the form and went to the office again, but this time, I could not find the lady. I guess she had stepped out. As I was wondering what to do, another supervisor-looking lady appeared and signed the form for me.

6. Now Mr.XYZ asked me to go pay the fee at the payment counter which was in a different part of the same building. I left this building walked down the stairs, asked around and went to the payment counter and paid the fee. Now I got a neat computer-printed receipt which I took back to Mr. XYZ.

7. Mr. XYZ now went to another employee sitting in front of another computer (not the one he used to print the payment form initially). Mr. XYZ gave some instructions to that employee and came back with another printed form that mentioned that payment has been received and within 3 days someone will come and install the connection. The form also mentioned a number I should call if there is a delay.

This whole thing took around 30-40 minutes and contrary to popular belief,  I never got the sense that I was dealing with not-so-intelligent people or that people were slackers or that people were rude/impolite. Also, it did not appear as if BSNL is under-staffed. So what’s the rational explanation for this ?

I also had another experience today at Rathna Stores, Pondy Bazaar and putting two and two together, it occurred to me that – as a customer we are actually expected to orchestrate BSNL’s workflow or Rathna Stores’s Workflow (which I will cover later here) and all the while the entire workflow is completely naked, in the sense that you can observe the workflow in front of your eyes. Additionally, even though you provide no input to most of the workflow, you actually are running the entire workflow!

Why doesn’t BSNL have a process, where in the ground floor counter where I first started, collect my payment, tell me an expected turn around time, run the workflow in the back ground and give me the receipt. Come to think of it, a regular restaurant in any part of the world does this well. Why not at BSNL? I am sure this is the story in most government run organizations, but what about the private companies?

Again popular opinion would indicate that private companies are better. Let me recount the 2nd incident that happened today at Rathna Stores. BTW, Rathna Stores is a store that I and Priya Raju greatly admire for their customer service, superb assortment of goods and above all a reasonable price.

At this store, like many large stores in India, you pick out the goods you want and a receipt is generated at that location within the store which mentions the item(s) and the price(s). You take this receipt and if you have picked out stuff from multiple points in the store, you take all the receipts you have collected and take it to a payment counter. 

At  the counter, you will be asked cash or credit and based on that they will point you to a credit counter or a cash counter. In this case, I paid by credit card and so I went to the credit counter and here a form was printed in triplicate (god, how much we love the triplicate copies).

I was asked to take the form to the next counter. The person at this counter checked something in the computer in front of him, put a rubber stamp on the form and asked me to take it to the next person. This person again checked something on the form and put another rubber stamp. Now I was asked to take the form to the delivery counter. Here one of the clerks standing there inspected the form, picked out the stuff I had bought from the pile behind the counter, put it into a plastic bag, put one more rubber stamp on my form marking it delivered and handed the goods to me.

Here again, other than presenting my credit card when asked, I provided no input, but I ended up running their payment process for them. Couldn’t there be a better process which is managed by the Rathna Stores’s employees and how much better their image would become?

References:

1. A very interesting account of customer service at an Indian restaurant in the Chennai Journal. Its a blog maintained by an expatriate American working in Chennai (Blog spotted via Desipundit).

2. Another interesting write-up on the sheer number of staff in the Lifestyle super store in Chennai by Prince Roy. You have to scroll down the page to get to the post on the Lifestyle store complete with a picture. He used to be an employee of the American Embassy in Chennai (Via Chennai Journal).