Customer Delight Experience

As I entered the shop, I was nervous. I had spent one entire day for planning and making the surprises for the occasion of friendship day. It was the last and most important step, and I prayed it go right. I was in a printout shop, Lepakshi, Hyderabad. And the surprise was posters and photographs. Well on an ordinary day it might not sound a great deal. But when your eyes & heart have wandered and imagined the reaction on receiving the surprise from loved ones, you want it to go flawless.

One amongst the staff came over and enquired the requirements. I started off with simple color printout. As he took my pendrive and starting seeing the folders, my requirements became more specific. First I made him resize photographs to different sizes. He did so very patiently. Then I enquired about the different type of papers used for color prints and posters. Before I could direct him regarding non wastage of color prints, he himself gave black n white prints and asked me to check if this meets my requirements. I smiled, verified and gave a nod. One part was done.

Then I enquired for posters. A4, A3, biggest one, smallest one. Will the poster lose its quality on a bigger size? Should I opt for A4 or A3? I was confused. He asked me to show the posters. After seeing them he assured me that I should opt for A3 as they will look perfect and not lose the quality at all.  Still, I wasn’t sure. He understood and gave one black and white and color print for one of the poster. I was aware only of the b&w print. He got and waited for my “okay signal”. Immediately he went and got the color one. I took few seconds after looking at the lovely poster to react. I took off smile from my face and told him, “bhaiyya why did you give color print w/o me telling to do so. If I wouldn’t have liked this, still you would have charged me for this waste print also”. He smiled and said, “No ma’am. That’s why I only showed first the bnw one. If you would not have approved, I wouldn’t show you the color poster nor charge for it. Also I will not be charging you for the black and white verification prints”.  One after another all the posters were in my hand and I was happy at the execution.

Still my work was not over. I asked him to single out all photographs from the main sheet, so that I wouldn’t have any work left after I reach home. All this while, the other staffs were talking to him in local language which I do not understand. But from the gestures I could make out they were being annoyed with my polite demands and their staff’s smiling adherence. But the guy did not pay any heed to them and continued what he thought was his duty. Once the small photographs were ready, I asked him punch machine and scale for posters. He asked me the purpose and I explained him. He fetched me those from the adjacent shop [this is called walking extra mile. It was not obligatory on his part and a simple “not there ma’am” would have done]. As I did my work, I started rolling the posters neatly, taking care not to spoil them while I fit them in my bag. As soon as I rolled he got me a rubber band and a “fit to size” plastic cover.

At this point the guy enquired if I had made those friendship day posters myself. When I replied with a yes he said “they are really very nice ma’am”. And it was one more step into my happiness. Then I kept everything in my bag and with a sigh of relief finally asked him “Haan bhaiyya kitna hua in sabka [who much for all this?]. I haven’t enquired any rates because all I wanted was work well done. As the guy worked out the details, I took out the money and handed him over.  As he brought me the change I tipped him decently and said a biggg thanku. He was all into smiles now. He turned back to the other staff members and started talking in local language. All I could understand walking out of the shop was that he was happy to giveback answer to the other staff in their face :) And I was happy seeing my work in hand.

The happiness of the receivers :)

My Kaidi number 347 :) Dishluuu

And the precious smiles :)

P.S:  This might sound as an over exaggerated post. But I have had deadly experiences of reprinting an entire project, suffering the cost of a color print for 100 pages when I had asked for black n white and lot many. I truly regard this as a customer delight experience.