Smartphone?

Well some smartphones are not really smart!

I recently got myself a smartphone (Made in India mind you).

To add a contact Balasubramanian as I type Balasu it stops accepting further alphabets with a message 'NAME IS TOO LONG'

Maybe it will accept only Tom, Dick and Harry!!

What is your take?

Guduvanchery

25.7.26

 How to solve a problem

Many years back my mentor had taught me that to solve a problem one has to attack it from various angles.

Yesterday I paid my power bill but the receipt was not generated.

1. I raised a complaint on-line.

2. I phoned my friend and asked him to visit my bank and enquire.

3. I sent a message to A.E. through WhatsApp.

The A.E. acted and job was done.

One should think and exhaust all the means of solving any given problem.

Something or the other will work!

 FREE LUNCH

There is no such thing as a FREE LUNCH.

A Salesman from a NBFC speaks to a prospective customer and says he could

avail an interest free loan of Rs.1,00,000. Interest free for the first 50 days.

The customer says no one can give an interest free loan and keeps asking

about the hidden charges.

After much pushing the salesman says that there is a joining fee of Rs.499

and processing charges equivalent to 2.5% of the loan amount.

The customer points out that it works out to about 18% p.a. for the 50 days period.

The customer asks about the interest rate after 50 days to which pat comes the reply:

3.99%.  And that is per month!!

So you see that there is no such thing as a free lunch!

One needs to be wary.

Bhargav

25.10.2023

 THE ROAD AHEAD

 It is difficult to predict what life has in store for us in the years ahead.

Sudden changes may occur (for good or for bad) owing to unexpected events.

A bank employee with a passion for film making takes part in a corporate short film making competition. The judge being a film director, impressed with his work, tells him that he could pursue his career in films.

Getting into films he rakes in the moolah! Many among you may know whom I am talking about.

It is important to get to know what we are passionate about. One would do well to read a book on IKIGAI.

Bhargav

24.10.2023

Service, Service, Service

Service, Service, Service

Bank is a service organisation. Or so I thought. I had not walked into a bank for a long long time.

Two days back I walked into a Nationalised Bank branch with my friend a retiree and the Treasurer of our Residents' Welfare Association.

First we wanted to deposit some money into our Association account. The Cashier said Sorry - you have to wait because there is no connectivity!!

I pointed out to the Cashier that our account with the branch and we were in home branch. We were only depositing money. All she had to do was accept the money, affix the bank seal sign and return the counterfoil to us. She could enter the amount as and when she gets the connectivity. She looked hither and thither. Maybe she wanted to ask the Manager. After some blinking she finally accepted and gave the counterfoil.

Now comes the impossible. My friend had a self cheque against which he wanted to withdraw some money. The cashier said Impossible. I can't view your account. I can't do anything....

My friend said we should wait. I told him: Why should we?

Let us meet the Manager and ask him to allow us to withdraw.

As we walked into the Manager's cabin I shook his hand and introduced myself. He gave me a blank look as though I was from the ED. He didn't give out his name. My friend is a retiree and he is having his account in the branch for more than five years. As the Treasurer of our Association he visits the branch atleast twice a week if not more. But the manager didn't seem to recognize him!! Neither did he greet him!

I made the request and he said there is no connectivity. He said wait for five minutes. Then he disappeared. Maybe he went for prayers that nothing should happen to him if he permitted to withdraw the money.

After a while he came back and said why don't you give a missed call from your Mobile and get the balance? My friend said that he had already done that and gave his mobile with the message to the Manager.

The Manager stared at the screen. The balance was twice the amount of the money to be withdrawn.

Now he made a very bold decision. He asked the cashier to part with the money!! The cashier was delighted. Probably she thought that her name would appear in a Book of Records or something to that effect.

We have become slaves to the computer and sadly lost all of our thinking capacity!!

Now how is this Manager going to disburse loans??

God save this country!!

On-line woes!

I have been saying and I will continue to say that an air-conditioner is not a product to be bought on-line. It is more or less like a boy and a girl or a man and a woman meeting (!) on Facebook maybe after seeing the profile picture of a bright sunny actor or actress!! Most of the time or almost all the time it is not going to work out. Let me explain...

Yesterday a smart IT guy rang me up and said he wanted some doubts cleared. I told him that I would help him. First he said that he had purchased a model 155 ??? model of split air-conditioner from an on-line portal and he wanted to know the capacity of the unit. The technician who came and installed the unit was not able to explain that. I told him that the 15 in the 155 stood for 15,000 BTU and he had bought for himself a 1.2 ton capacity air-conditioner. Then he went on to say that his room size was 72 sft but there was no cooling at all even after suing the ceiling fan(!!). He wanted to know if his unit will be replaced. I assured him that his unit will not be replaced but the defect (may not be a major one) will be rectified and all he had to do was register a call in the toll free number of the concerned company.

In the afternoon another tech guy rang me up and wanted to buy an air-conditioner from me. He said that his friend had purchased an air-conditioner from an on=line portal and the unit was installed nine daya after delivery. The unit was defective and did not work and the return policy was that the unit should be returned within seven days from the date of delivery!! Ha, ha.

On-line is a web. Amazing flip!! You enter into it and a maze will be on!!

But let me tell you one thing. You want to buy a particular title of Chetan? Please buy it on-line and get it at your doorstep!!

On-line onslaught!

We are living in times when people wish to buy things at the click of a button.
That is fine. Convenient. And that is the outcome of advancement of technology.
At the same time there are certain goods which are at best bought after discussion
with an expert.
When a customer approaches me asking for an air-conditioner, I invariably ask
them two things: Which locality do you live and is it your own place?
Most people get irritated with these questions but see the logic once I explain
them the reason behind them.
Certain localities have poor to very poor voltage and I know which kind of
stabilizer will suit them. There are various stabilizers which boost from 10 to
50 volts. So if the customer takes a stabilizer which boosts 10 volts to an area
which requires upto 40 volts boosting then he will have to come back and get a
proper stabilizer (which could cost upto Rs.2000 more!).
Similarly a person buying a 1 ton unit may soon move to a place with a larger
room which requires 1.5 ton unit. He would do well to straight away buy a bigger
capacity unit.
But on the flip side I find that most sellers forget that they are in the service
business and say: Let them take what they want. If there is an issue they will
come back to us!!
That is not my cup of tea....

Digital India - Digital Sales!!

Whats up?  Digital India – Digital Sales!!

Around 4 p.m. yesterday as I was watching TV, I received a message from an unknown number.

A person had messaged me asking me if we sell water dispensers.

Yes, of course, we do.

He asked me the price (he was buying for his company) and negotiated the price.

He then asked me to send an image of the item referred to.

Once done, he gave his address and said payment will be COD.

I asked him how soon he wanted the item and he asked me if it is possible to send the

Unit at once since the morrow is election day and a holiday.

I said it is possible and the unit was delivered by 6 p.m.

You might ask what is great in this. Well all of the above happened in Whatsapp messaging

and we never spoke to each other!!! (Of course before sending the unit I phoned him and

after having some goody=goody talk told him that the unit will reach him within half-an-hour.)

Zeroing in!

Before you begin your sales talk you need to zero in.

Yesterday a customer rang me up:

Customer: Ji, muje ek ac chchahiye tha..

Me: Milagana... window ya split?

C: Split

M: Inverter ya non-inverter?

C: Ji Inverter....

M: 1 ton ya 1.5 ton?

C: Muje 1 ton ka ac chchahiye tha...

M: 3 star ya 5 star?

C: 3 star

Ha, ha. Now I have a fair idea of what is his requirement. I need to talk further to
find out if 1 ton would suffice for him....

Give me "College" air-conditioners.

A lady spoke from an Engineering college near Chennai the other day.

She said: Sir we want college air-conditioners. We are looking for ten college air-conditioners.
Give us the best price because we are buying ten units.....

I told her that there is no such thing as a college air-conditioner. What exactly is your requirement?

We want ten air-conditioners for our lab. Split units....

I told her that ten units of 1.5 ton split units will cost them approximately Rs.xxx and that
only if they are willing to pay upfront will we send our quotation. I asked her to send their
mail id by SMS.

She never came back!!

Truth - but not the whole truth!!

Yes. At times people tell you the truth. But not the whole truth.

A famous brand of appliance manufacturer had released advertisement in the print media that their appliances conform to the latest 2019 star norms. So people should not get fooled!

Ha ha. Yes Sir that is true.

But if one looks carefully at the star rating label displayed prominently in the very same ad. he will notice that the label period is from 1.1.2018 to 31.12.2019.

So much so an appliance made in early 2018 by another manufacturer also has a product which conforms to the 2019 norms!!

Having said that we see Kwality Walls ads. proclaiming "more CREAMIER". Agreed but theirs is not an ICE CREAM!!

Want good service? Choose your technician!!

I was talking to my neighbor yesterday.
He said that he called a technician to clean his split air-conditioner.
The technician came and asked for a whole lot of things, Ladder, soap powder, etc.
He just removed the filters and cleaned them with a tooth brush. He cleaned the front panel
of indoor unit with soap solution and demanded Rs.450. He left in about ten minutes.
My neighbor then called another technician who owns his shop nearby. He came and
for the same Rs.450 did a thorough job and left.
I told my friend: For all jobs you have to identify the right person. Hold on to him!

Test certificate....

A company in the power sector wanted to purchase a few air-conditioners.

This company has been asking me for quotes every now and then but till date they have
not purchased even one single unit.

While so, they again asked for two units and were in the verge of buying them. But then they
wanted to know if "Test certificates" can be furnished for the units!!

Test certificate? I know about these. As per BSS there are two types of tests: Type tests and routine
tests. Routine tests are fairly easy to conduct but type tests are cumbersome and expensive. In the past I have personally submitted motors (after rewinding) for routine tests in IIT Madras and Guindy Engineering College (Now Anna University).

Till now I have not seen a test certificate for a window or split air-conditioner.

Have you seen one?

Sorry, you lost your credibility!

Sorry, you lost your credibility!
Yesterday we went to a famous jewellery shop in Mylapore with whom we have been doing business (though small ticket) for over three and a half decades.
The business has grown but the owner and his kith and kin are no longer taking a personal interest in their business as they used to.
After exchanging old silver for some new silver items I swiped my card three times upon their insistence. Soon three times the amount to be paid by me was debited in my account and I showed them the balance confirmation on my mobile.
But they said that they had not received any credit and that my account would soon be re-credited with the amounts. I agreed and told them I would come back after an hour to collect the items.
Within a short time my account was credited twice leaving the balance one time amount.
After some time I went back to the shop but still they said they had not got the money. They said I could pay cash and in case the amount is credited they would refund the money to me!!
I pointed out that no ATM is working and money does not fall from the sky!! Can't they believe a regular customer who has proved the payment and also they are holding three times the amount in their chit scheme? I had to raise hue and cry before they parted with the items for which they took unduly long time to assess the old value, calculate the new value and so on.
The said business had just lost its credibility!!
I would hesitate, rather desist from doing business with them.Would you?

Giving a quotation

One might say: Giving a quotation is such a simple thing. We do it so many times in a day!
Even in my sleep I can give a quotation for an air-conditioner...

But it is not true!!

One has to think deeply before giving a quotation:
(1) To whom are we giving the quotation.
(2) At what rate did we supply to the same party recently?
(3) What are our competitors likely to charge?
(4) Are they regular buyers?
(5) How was their payments done:   Very good / good / poor
(6) Distance of supply and installation locations (if known)

These are some of the things one has to give a thought and then only a
proper quotation can be given.

After giving the quotation frequent follow-up is necessary to know the
status...

Never talk about service - render it !

In the service business one should never talk about service. Rather he should try to render the
best possible service at all times.

A few days back a customer rang up about 7 pm in the night on an emergency. The cooler
had stopped working and they had Rs.10,000 plus food materials in it. The next day was a
Sunday.

A call was registered and help would reach within 24 hours. But that was not enough!

None of my technicians were available. I rang up a friend of mine having similar business.
His technician was 20 kms. away on a job.

I didn't give up. I rang up yet another friend. He readily obliged and asked me to send the
address by SMS and he would ask his technician to attend on the way back home.

Yes, within half-an hour a minor issue was set right and the machine started working again.

The friend gave a timely FEEDBACK. He rang me up and informed me that the issue was
sorted out.

You see, he has a PASSION for SERVICE.

Communication tips

Communication is very important in any Business.

Recently a gentleman spoke to me and wanted an air-conditioner. He spoke late in the evening
and said "My company...".  He wanted a quotation to be sent and gave his (his personal) mail-id.

Subsequently he wanted me to send a Technician to inspect the site and suggest a suitable
air-conditioner. Though I rarely do this, I did send my Technician, feeling that I stood a fair
chance of bagging an order.

Later, I did get an order from him. He asked me to send the pro-forma Invoice which I did.

A day passed and nothing happened. Later he rang me up and said that the pro-forma Invoice
was not received!!

I then found out that he is an Executive in a Chinese company.  He had not seen his mail.

If only he had told me about his company in the beginning itself and given his official mail-id
the delay could have been avoided.

Information is lifeline in business. When we talk to customers we should try to get as much
relevant information as possible which is relevant to the transaction.

Go to Italy!!

Generally I do not believe in on-line leads from these lead generating companies.

Still I wanted to try it out and registered my company.

They will give a lead. And within seconds you will get a message that 49??? was trying to contact you.
Get in touch with them immediately to beat competition and so on.

I rang up a lead sent by them.

Customer: Do you deal in Electrolux products?

Me: What is the item you are looking for?

Customer: I am looking for an Electrolux potato peeler.

Me: Sorry. We are an air-conditioning company. We don't deal in peelers.

Customer: Please help me.

Me: (As I am always in the habit of helping customers). Why don't you look up the net. We don't deal
in peelers and have no knowledge about them. But so many peelers are available. Why don't you just
buy one.

Customer: I am speaking from XYZ company and our company has chosen the Electrolux one. I checked up the net but the call is going to Italy.

Me: Then why don't you ask your company to send you to Italy so that you can get one?

WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY !!

Tell me the price! Tell me the price!

A lady visited our showroom today.

Since the sales person had gone out for lunch, the Administrative Assistant telephoned me and
requested the customer to talk to me.

The customer said that she wanted an air-conditioner and wanted to know the price.

I asked her whether she wanted a window or split air-conditioner. She said "Window"

I told her that it is necessary to know what capacity of air-conditioner is required by her.

She said: I want a low budget model. Tell me the price.

After a minute or two talking to her she said that she is using a 1.5 ton window air-conditioner
which is out-of-order.

Tell me the price.

Again I told her that there are 2,3 and 5 star models and so on.

My husband is waiting outside. Can't you understand? Tell me the price.

I blurted out the prices of various 1.5 ton window air-conditioners. She said: Thanks.

( I told my office assistant to take down her name and number and that I would talk to her later
in the day)

A pro is a pro is a pro....

Yesterday our jet pump motor got burnt and we were in no mood to get it repaired.

We were one among the leading motor repairers in Chennai and on several occasions we have
rewound pump motors and delivered back to customers within 24 hours. But then those were the days
when people lived in independent houses and if the motor was not working water could always be drawn
from the open well. People could afford to wait a few days even to get a motor repaired...who cares? Water was available at any time!

Also if a new motor was to be purchased one would invariably refer to the Yellow Pages. Or one could go along with the electrician/plumber to the market in an auto and buy a new motor. Life moved in a fairly leisurely pace.

The city having grown beyond imagination going to the market to source a motor will be time consuming, tiring effort with a substantial amount spent in transportation.

Now to buy a motor one should know the exact specification of the motor. The name plate in our motor was obliterated. Think, think, think.  I knew that adjoining apartments built by the same builder had similar motors. I walked to the next apartment complex and took a photo of the name plate. I now knew what I wanted. Suguna jet pump, 1 HP, 2850 rpm pump size: 32x25x25 and Model No.SMSJ/LV-1(OT).

Armed with this information I went online in search of sellers of Suguna motors. I sent whatsapp image to one guy in Aminjikarai. But even after seeing the name plate, he says, come with the motor to our place.
Similarly another guy in T.Nagar had a similar request: Come with the motor.

Next I contacted the manufacturer in George Town. The moment I give the details, he says, the pump is available. He sends an image of a new pump. He says that though the model number is slightly different from the one which we have, it will suit to a T. Before you could say "Jack Robinson", he tells me that the cost is Rs.8,500. Give me your address and I shall send the motor to your house.

I had earlier checked the price on-line. The price quoted by him was a throw-away price. (Thanks to business competition and on-line onslaught). I gave him the delivery address and he said the motor would arrive around 2.30 pm. I never followed them. The driver rang me up around 1 pm and asked me for the directions. He promptly came around that time thanking me for giving precise directions and landmarks en-route which brought him straight to my home.

The local electrician, an experienced guy again, fixed the pump without any hitch within an hour.

So now we know who a PRO is and how he can be of immense help to anyone.

Meanwhile, I patted myself on the back, on proving myself to be a professional buyer, having passed
the two-year Materials Management diploma from Indian Institute of Materials Management in 1985!!!