‘Customer Service’ – a learning experience

It was a regular medical checkup for my 5 year old daughter when eye-test revealed the problem with her eye-sight. The doctor prescribed her a fairly big power glass and asked us to revisit him after 2 months.

Soon we were at the optician’s shop to get spectacles for her. The first few minutes of wait (without any attention from already occupied opticians) was scribbling something negative about my experience in getting glasses from here. That’s when we were approached by a friendly and English speaking optician.

We sat across a table discussed the purpose of our visit to their shop. She explained patiently the procedure and cost involved in getting the glasses for her. On our request she also tried another round of brief ‘eye-test’ but was not happy with the result. There were few basic frames (not so great in look but still comfortable) and thick glasses which were for free (covered under my daughter’s health insurance). Other option was to go for a frame of our choice and thinner lenses paid from our pocket.

Since it’s the first time my kid is going to wear glasses, we opted for cost-free frame and thicker lenses so that we can get it tested on her. Once she feels comfortable with the glasses and power, we shall come back for frame of her choice – something little fancy, flexible and with thinner-light lenses.

I was amazed at the patience and friendliness of the lady – she showed my daughter frames of all the possible colors and shapes, allowed her trying them and asked for her feedback, finally took the measurements to customize the frame for her. I could not believe, all these for free (I mean no money from us, the customers, but from insurance).

Perhaps time for us to learn the policy – “Customer service is an organizational virtue, independent of what customer buys or if customer buys your product at all! “

Trust the design !!

It was summer in Germany when we had to travel back to India to attend my sister’s wedding. We had the flight from Frankfurt to Bombay. Since it was summer in Germany – a perfect weather to enjoy train ride, we decided to travel from Erlangen, where we stay, to Frankfurt airport/train terminal by ICE Train. These ICE or intercity express trains run at maximum speed of 250+ kms/hr and that too without letting you feel the speed from inside.

We reached Frankfurt airport/railway terminal on time. We had 3 big luggages, piled up on a trolley, to be carried down the escalator or steps. I first thought of taking the complete trolley down on the escalator, but a sight of escalator shook my mind.

While I was thinking of alternative ways of taking down each bag one-by-one on escalator, an old German lady came to me and said – “Trust the system we built! Trust the design! Take the trolley full of 3 luggages on escalator, nothing will happen. The feeling of holding a tilted trolley will be weird for sure, but you can take the trolley down safely.”

I tried it, though scared, and to my utter surprise – it was perfect and safe trip to downstairs with my entire luggage in one shot!

You see, unlike most regular carts, these ones have been designed to grip onto the edge of the step, locking the wheels in place. The base where luggage rests is at angle with respect to the horizon so on escalator the frame appears to be tilted but the luggage base is almost parallel to the horizon. Thus, you can use them both on up and down escalators. What a design!!

I heard that German design teams are now working on trolleys that are piled quite high – another act of bypassing the laws of gravity.

Now I do… TRUST THE DESIGN!

Expectation fulfilled !

If you think finding a job is difficult then try finding a 'right' job ... and that too when the entire globe is still infected with 'recession' !!

Well, I am not going to give tips on how to hunt for your dream job but the discussion here is about how you or your job application is being treated after you applied for a position.

What do you expect when you apply for a job? A call right away asking for your availability to attend the rounds of interview or a confirmation mail stating they have your application for the position and if it doesn't match it will go to their pool/database (or recycle bin)? But the cruel reality is that we hear nothing from the prospective employer.

I understand that with hundreds of application being sent for one position, it is difficult for recruiter or employer to send 'confirmation' receipt to all of them. But when I am called for interview and I have done fairly good in the interview, I expect a better treatment than a never ending silence after diplomatic phrase - "we will get back to you". If they have got a candidate better than me why shouldn't I be informed about it?

Recently I applied at two places - one was for a job (Sr. Developer) and other was for a PhD position. The response from them were like two ends of ocean. In case of my application for job, I was interviewed for more than an hour and was told that the interviewer is happy with my skills and soon he will get back to me with offer/HR round. .. and that was the last time I heard from him. I tried contacting him over emails and phone but could never get him or his reply.

In contrast to that was the response to my application from a university. Nearly 10 days after my application submission, there comes a post confirming the receipt of my application and stating other facts about the post - How many application they have received by the end of deadline, application assessment guidelines, procedure and timeline including by when (latest) I am expected to hear the result of my application. Amazing and quite satisfying, isn't it?

Perhaps its time for corporates to learn professionalism from academics !!

'FALL'ing Beauty...

Knock-Knock !!

Who's this?

--silence with momentary whistle of the wind.

Hello !! Who is thiiiissss? I walk up to the door reluctantly, open the door but found no body outside. I close the door and turn back to cozy (and which makes me lazy) couch.

"How do ya doin?" asks little Mr. FALL relaxing on my couch.

"I brought colors for you" - says little Mr. FALL

My daughter's summer vacation = stress test for me ;)

1st 3 weeks of August is the summer vacation for school (and kindergarden) kids in Germany. Most of the parents align their office-leaves with this period to have a nice family outing. For them its real fun but for the parents decide to be at home most of the time, I tell you folks, its 'stress-test' ;)

Never mind, I have a very talented and creative daughter who likes to spend her time in drawing or making artwork. She is obsessed with 'designer-purses' she makes using paper. Here is a little video of one of her creations:

If you really liked her artwork, don't forget to mention in the comment :)

To think of working in foreign land is crime...

Imagine you are a qualified and experienced professional accompanying your spouse in a foreign land. Soon after you enjoyed the 'completely-free-time' and prolonged one-on-one with yourself, you think of working. You head to the local government / labor office to find out the avenues. But the fate has planned something else for you - you are not allowed to work because there are local citizens who are the victims of recession and you are in queue after them :)

Few lines that came in my mind, are expressed in the form of Hindi poetry :

| तथ्य |

मेरे इर्द - गिर्द

फैले तथ्य

निर्दयता से

मेरी बर्बादी का

जाल बुन रहें हैं

मूक दर्शक

बना बैठा है मेरे

अन्दर का सच , अपने

मृत्यु के इंतजार में !

मुकेश सोनी

२३ जुलाई २००९

एर्लान्गेन , जर्मनी

Cost cutting at corporates...

This is a real incidence that happened to one of my friends, Mitesh. He narrated me this story of cost-cutting in corporates that truly reflects the saying - "penny wise pound foolish".

According to Mitesh: 

In one of my previous companies, I had to make a visit to USA. Initially I was planned to travel along with another colleague of mine, Misha, but later on my travel was delayed. Finally, my travel was scheduled when she (Misha) was coming back to India. 

There was a kitty (financial assitance) for first time travellers from the company to ensure the traveller has adequate preparation for the travel (like warm clothes, formal dresses, jackets etc.). I asked for the kitty money from my manager to buy a jacket. The manager, fully prepared to show his loyality for the company by saving some money on my travel, rejected my plea. I explained that Misha has informed that it's quite cold in USA and I would require a thick jacket to survive for next 21 days. The manager then recollected that Misha has already purchased a jacket for her and, like our codes/programmes, this jacket could be shared between two of us. He made me mail to Misha asking her to leave the jacket with secretory in USA so that I could collect it from the secretory for my use. The reply from Misha was so embarrassing that I could not dare to reply her immediately. She wrote - "atleast the manager should have known the difference between a lady jacket and that for a man; has he forgotten the difference in our phyical size? Thanks God that he didn't go beyond jacket for sharing of clothes !". Being embarassed, I just went to my manager's desk and told - " if you can let me avail that kitty, its fine otherwise I don't mind spending from my pocket for my jacket. Just few days back there was a half-day training organized for managers that costed some 20,000INR per person. If you are keen on saving some money for the company, please look at such wastage of money."

I was least bothered about whether Mitesh got cost of his jacket reimbursed from the company, what mattered more for me was the discrimination - Can such thing happen to an US employee?.

If this was the situation well before this global recession, I wonder what would the managers have asked to share in this situation !!