Customer Delight: Bringing smile on your customers face

Have you ever been to Nirulas? People staying in Delhi would know what Nirulas is. Nirulas is a home-grown fast food chain of North India which gave Delhiite’s their first Big Boy Burger, Onion Cheese Capsicum Pizza, and Hot Chocolate Fudge. It came at a time when there were no McDonald, KFC or Taco Bell in India. Having a Hot Chocolate Fudge at Nirulas was the ultimate treat! And getting that extra portion of nuts over your chocolate fudge ice cream was what brought that smile on your face. This extra helping of nuts which the guy standing behind the counter used to top up your ice cream is what is called “Customer Delight”.

Customer delight is defined as exceeding customer’s expectations to create a positive experience with a product or brand. Any benefit to a customer, whether small in big nature which brings a smile on a customer’s face can be termed as Customer Delight.

Flying an Airline scores low on customer delight

There was a time when most Indian companies used to believe in Customer Delight. People flying any airline in India, some 10 years back, would be welcomed with a bottle of water. If flying with families, the kids were welcomed with drawing kits. You got a royal feeling while flying Airlines then. But these days, all passengers are herded like sheep in an Aircraft. And instead of welcoming you on-board, Air Hostess would be on the prowl, looking for her latest victim.

Making you feel comfortable would be her last priority. She is more concerned about executing her job as a professional sniper. Sir, please make your seat upright, open the window shutter, shut the mobile, close the laptop. You ask for water and you will be served water in a paper cup as you have come in the langar. You ask for a Bottle and you will be charged Rs 60 for a 500 ml bottled water. The same bottle you can buy for Rs 20 outside and get double the quantity.

Watching a movie is no more a customer delight 

Go and watch a movie in any PVR Cinema or INOX or Cinepolis and you end up paying an exorbitant ticket price. After all, the movie has to earn Rs 100 crore in 3 days of its release only from you. Book My Show will charge you internet handling fees. I thought that with automation i.e. booking a ticket on the internet, these Cinema chains will be saving on manpower cost at the ticket counter and passing the same to you. But then Book My Show is an internet commerce chain which has to earn profits to please its Venture Capitalists. Watching a movie with a family of 4 people will lighten your purse by Rs 2000 – Rs 2500. And after blowing so much money, if the movie had a bad script, you start wondering where the Customer Delight is?

Popcorn more expensive than Cashews

The pleasure of watching a movie and munching popcorn has been killed by a devil called “Screw the customer pricing”. Imagine buying a popcorn tub of 180 gm for Rs 400. Well, at the same price, you can get cashews and that also 250 gm. You can’t avoid getting cheated by these Cinema chains as the kids are hell-bent on having popcorn with cold drinks. Standing in front of the counter, you look at a combo which will minimise your damages. Why can’t the Movie Hall chains bring down these absurd food prices? What better way of Customer Delight, if Cinema Chains can offer a complimentary water bottle or a small pack of popcorn with every Rs 300 ticket.

Can Companies adopt Indian Culture?

Indian culture is a culture of hospitality. It is in our blood to welcome guests at home and water is the first thing we offer. Even labour working in the neighbourhood or the security guard of your apartment can ring the doorbell and ask for a glass of water. My question to the hospitality industry is that why have you sacrificed this culture? Every hotel used to welcome their guests with 2 complimentary water bottles of 1 liter each. Gradually, the bottle sizes have shrunk to half – Two 500 ml bottled water. In some Hotels, you are offered only RO water and bottled water is for a charge. If you believe in Customer Delight than bring the Indian culture back. After all, you are in the Hospitality Industry.

Shop for 1000 or 5000 bucks but you have to buy the paper bag for Rs 5.

It’s good that our Retail chains have become more environment-friendly and replaced plastic bags with paper bags. But where is your contribution to protecting the environment? You charge your customers Rs 5 or Rs 10 for each bag. So actually it’s your customers who are paying for reducing the carbon footprint. As per a recent court ruling, you can’t charge your customer for a paper bag that carries your advertising message. To earn that extra nickel, these chains have even done away with the branding. Clearly, it shows you only care for money and Customer Delight is just missing from your dictionary.

The Counter Argument of Improving Bottom-line

The only argument the companies can give is that in these days of cut-throat competition every penny counts. But surely, if you get 200 customers daily and each pays Rs 5 for that bag, you only earn Rs 1000 or the US $ 14 per day. Can you spend that US $ 14 per day to delight your customers? Keeping two water bottles of 1 liter in each room daily instead of 500 ml bottles will increase your cost by Rs 20 (Assuming the market price of Rs 20 per 1-liter bottle). But it will be a big Customer Delight for someone who is paying Rs 4000 for a room per night.

Remember even the neighbourhood Golgappa wala bhai understands Customer Delight! You can always get an extra helping of panipuri water or the last Golgappa with saunth without any charges. The Vegetable vendor offers that free Dhaniya (Coriander leaves) only to keep his customers happy.

It’s time to sacrifice some profit to bring back that smile. It’s time to bring back Customer Delight.

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