Not knowing a job is not a sin, not learning is...

Not knowing is not a sin, but not learning is
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I went to the Students Xerox shop near my house to take a print-out.

The person was busy and a new-comer was asked to do my job. Downloading,
formatting and taking print outs.

Unfortunately she did not know anything about formatting but was just pressing
a few keys here and there. The other person had to come to her rescue.

The shop manager scolded her saying that she, instead of learning the job
when no customers were around was listening to music and watching movies.

I advised her that it is no magic and that with some dedication and application she too would become an expert very soon.

One must have the itch to learn things.

Apt advertising.

When we advertise for something, we should think over what our target is and plan our advertising
accordingly.

A relative of mine recently purchased a flat and wanted to rent it out.

Usually I suggest to insert an advertisement in a prominent daily (not minding the expense). This would
result in a few people contacting and atleast one who would turn out to be our prospective tenant.

In this case I observed that the apartment itself was in a prominent place and lot of passers-by were
often looking at it eagerly.

So I told them to make a nice banner stating that an apartment is available for rent and the contact
phone number. The banner costed just Rs.300 as against a paper ad which would have costed atleast
Rs.1000 if not more.

Yes a few people did contact and a tenant was fixed within a couple of days.

Some people make out a small computer print out and stick it. I am not saying that this will not
be effective, but then, why not be bold and beautiful?

In business advertising one should be careful to chose the apt media depending upon the budget
and target audience.

Oh! What an engineer!!

Two days back there was a call from an upcoming mall. They wanted a visicooler within about 4 hours.

I told them "No, issues. Just send me a copy of the cheque you are going to give us and I will have
the item sent to you within 2 to 3 hours."

Then they said "Our engineer wants to talk to you. We want to see the item to take measurement of
size so that we can determine whether it will fit in a particular place".

I told them that the item was not with me in my showroom and that I will have to send it from elsewhere.
Please visit our website and the dimensions are given in mm and you can quickly check out".

While on the phone I directed them to the website and the engineer confirmed the dimensions. I said: Yes.

After two hours there was a call from my showroom stating that the engineer and two others were in my
showroom wanting to see the item and measure it.

Oh, What an engineer? Maybe he is an engineer from one of the scores of engineering colleges.
Tailor-made engineer?

Bottom-line: I lost a sale!!

Good service, just short of excellent....

There is this grand sweet shop near my house. Earlier they were in one place in the city, but now they have opened shop in many places within Chennai. All the shops are imposing. Neat and clean. They are famous for their sweets and savories.

The other day, I was in a hurry and I went inside this shop and ordered for 1/2 kg. of Kaju Kathli. The customer executive asked the supervisor whether they have received in the stocks just arrived. The supervisor asked him to give from the shelf. I knew something was amiss but my brain didn't work that fast. 1/2 kg. of KK costs around Rs.400.

When I reached home I found to my dismay that the sweets were nearing shelf life and not that good. Sweets are among the items having the shortest shelf life.

The next day I went to this shop for lunch (this is their add-on) and pointed out to them that they had palmed off not so good sweets to me the earlier evening.

"Do you have the bill? Have you brought the sweets?" the supervisor questioned. We will replace. I told her "No, not right here. But I can bring and show you".

I had to go back to this shop the same evening for some other purchase and I gave them part of the KK and the bill. While going back, after paying my bill, I casually pointed out to them the returned item.

The supervisor after some hesitation asked her service executive to give me 1/4 kg. of KK.

They just missed out the "Wow" factor in customer service.

Bottomline: SMALL THINGS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.

What is in it for me??

Some days back I received an SMS as follows:

Big opportunity in 6900 crore Beauty & Salon business.  ABC company (XYZ Group) is looking
for franchisee in  Chennai & rest of TN. call: xxxxxxxxxx

That is great. You have found out that Beauty & Salon business is a 6900 crore industry. Where?
Whole of India. But if I want to become a franchisee, I should first find out the right answer for
this one question: WHAT IS THERE IN IT FOR ME?

My daughter visited a franchisee of the above said (I have deliberately not mentioned the name)
near my house. She is pleased with the place. She says it is comparable to such places in the US.
The charges are reasonable (when compared to charges in dollars!!). She spends a thousand and more
and even gladly gives a tip of 10 to 15%.

Probably she has got the habit of getting to know about businesses (in my footsteps?) and the person
in charge opens up with her sad story.

The business is running in loss. Few walk-ins and mostly they come for eye-brow trimming and the like
where the billing is not more than Rs.100. The franchisee is stuck with a point of no-return having invested
couple of lakhs.

I go to my neighbourhood saloon (Not Salon!!). It is a small dilapidated 70 sq.ft. shop with a broken
chair and a dull mirror. I get a nice haircut for Rs.70. This guy must be making around Rs.1,000 per day
as his take-home.

Who is clever?

A DOCTOR'S LAMENT

I moved to Madipakkam two years back and have selected a nearby Doctor
as my family physician.

A few days back I had my annual health check-up and showed my family
physician the results. As he was going through my records he came to
know that I had my gall bladder removed by operation a few years back.

He asked me: "How much did you spend for your operation?"

I said that it cost me around 40K.

He says: I took my wife for a similar operation a few weeks back to a
hospital in a hospital in Saligramam and despite showing my ID card
(he is a Government Doctor) they charged my around 125K.

If this is the plight of a Doctor, what about the common man?

Don't keep thinking without acting!

A friend of mine put up a quote in his wall which in part says that
life's problems arise due to our keep thinking without acting.

Yes, true indeed. Yesterday evening I told my dealer friend that
we should stop thinking and start acting.

We were told that a dealer friend of ours needed a certain model
of air-conditioner which was available with us. So I suggested to
him: Let us act.   We took our vehicle, went to his place and asked
him if he needed that ac. But he replied: "Oh, I never knew you had
it. I took it from such-and-such a place."

We immediately rang up the person who had suggested the source
and told him: "You could have asked him to take the ac from us!!".

But then he at once said that right now Dealer X is wanting one such
unit and I shall ring him up asking him to take that machine from you.

We contacted our friend and sold him that unit!

Well, a sale happened because we acted (and didn't just keep thinking
that we should sell).

Friends, for sales to happen there must be conscious effort from our side.
Efforts will never fail.

HAPPY SELLING!