A short story on Customer Centricity

There was a famous training centre in Delhi that produced leading gymnasts for India. Coach Wise had run this training centre for decades and had a reputation of producing talent for the Olympics. 

A journalist from Mumbai called Ms. Exploratory from the popular publication, Chimes of Bindiya decided to visit Coach Wise to investigate and write about why his camp was so successful.

On a cool Friday morning, Ms. Exploratory arrived at the training centre.  Coach Wise took all morning to walk her through the physical training facilities, the six-day disciplined regiment (Sundays were off), the selection process and several sophisticated computer programmes that tracked the progress of his students. 

When Ms. Exploratory and Coach Wise were having lunch, a young student called Girl A walked to them and asked, “Coach Wise, I need to attend a family wedding on Saturday.  May I please train at our centre on Sunday instead?”

Coach Wise was polite but firm and short.  “No Girl A!  I am sorry, but the centre is closed on Sundays.”

Girl A walked away a little disappointed.

Ms. Exploratory wanted to ask about this interaction but bit her tongue.

Over tea in the evening, another young student called Girl B walked to them and asked, “Coach Wise, I have a family puja at my home on Saturday.  May I please train at our centre on Sunday instead?”

Coach Wise was polite, warm and generous.  He replied, “Of course Girl B.  I will keep the centre open on Sunday and personally come by with Ms. Hema and Ms. Rohini to help you through your 3-hour routine!”

Now Ms. Exploratory was aghast.  “How could this famous coach be so discriminatory?” she wondered.  She wanted to blurt a remark and ask about this contrasting interaction but bit her tongue. She was after all an investigative journalist and decided to do a little finding-out first.

That night, when everybody was asleep, Ms. Exploratory used her hair pin to break the lock into the room with the computers and all the student records.  With her vast experience in investigative journalism, she was quickly able to hack into the performance of all students.  She quickly pulled up records for Girl A and Girl B on the screen.  She discovered that both were top performers – regular in their practice Frequency, no Recent gaps or holidays and disciplined in their Values.  In other words, both had great RFV scores on the student tracking system. 

This discovery irked her even more.  In rage, Ms. Exploratory spent the balance night writing a stinging article about the discrimination she had seen at the centre by Coach Wise.

Over breakfast the next morning Coach Wise noticed Ms. Exploratory was unusually quiet and asked, “Is everything okay?”

“No! Nothing’s okay!” snapped Ms. Exploratory.  “I saw how you discriminated against Girl A when she asked for a Sunday favour for a wedding but went out of your way for Girl B just because it was for a puja.”

Coach Wise was silent for a while.  Then reflecting upon her comments, he asked, “Are you a frequent flyer with the airlines you took to get here to Delhi from Mumbai?”

“Yes!  Platinum on Jindigo Airways. Why?” asked Ms. Exploratory.

“Did you get to board before the other passengers then?  And get a free meal in the lounge?  Would you agree that the airline discriminated against other passengers when giving you that special treatment?”

“No!” snapped Ms. Exploratory. “They did it because I have high RFV scores – I fly Frequently, I have given Jindigo Airlines a lot of monetary Value and I’ve done this all pretty Recently.  Anybody knows higher RFV scores warrant better treatment.”

Coach Wise started laughing, “So why complain when I treat one of my students better than the other?  Surely you appreciate not all customers, or students are alike.” 

“You don’t fool me Coach,” shouted Ms. Exploratory.   “I’ve check their RFV scores on your CRM system.  They are the same!”  Ms. Exploratory went a little red – she realized she had just admitted to hacking into Coach Wise’s computer.  He would now be angry. So, she continued, “I think you made the exception for Girl B because she wanted to take off for a puja and did not for Girl A because it was a wedding.  I think you’re moral policing!”

Coach Wise nodded understandingly.  Then replied, “Come with me.”

He led Ms. Exploratory to his computer lab.  He saw from the records that Ms. Exploratory had already gone through the folders of CRM.  He explained, “Sorry you had to hack into my computer. You could have just asked me, and I would have shown you.”  He then brought up a folder which she had not seen.  It was called Future Potential.

In this folder among other things, she learned two startling facts. 

Girl A had recently applied to Cornell University in America for a sports scholarship.  Coach Wise had also given her a recommendation for this application.  Girl A was likely to depart for the USA in another six months and would possibly never represent India. 

Girl B on the other hand was deeply in debt and had borrowed against her home for fees for the camp. Girl B’s family had taken this risky debt with the hope and commitment that Girl B would make it to the nationals and hopefully represent India at the next Olympics. Losing was not an option for her. 

Coach Wise spoke slowly and in a grave tone, “Ms. Exploratory, my job here is to produce winners for India.  My job is NOT to fall in love with my own services nor my processes.  Being nice to all my students is NOT an option for me.  While Jindigo Airlines rewards past performance, I look at past performance and future potential to fulfil my mission!  And in that, I serve my country.”

“In producing winners, I cannot accommodate all – I cannot be fair in the sense you understand it,” continued Coach Wise.  “I need to be loyal to my mission.  And in that, I need to be loyal the highest potential.”  Ms. Exploratory stood by and listened speechless.  Her mind was having this raging battle between morality and effectiveness.

The Sunday morning edition of Chimes of Bindiya carried an article explaining the secret of Coach Wise’s success.  The article was titled, “It takes Courage to Discriminate”

Key Takeaways of the Story

1.      Many organizations have products and services just like Coach Wise had his training camp.  However, many forget why their products, services and processes exist in the first place.  Just like Coach Wise had a mission of producing “Olympic competitors for India,” organizations have goals that they need to be honest to.  In meeting those goals, one emotionally challenging realization is that an “average customer” doesn't exist.  Customer valuation and future potential across multiple segments must be computed and understood. Only then can a business decide if it can afford to extend special treatment or accommodate exclusive requests from members across various customer segments. 

2.     Any organization will find it impossible to give outstanding experiences to all customers always. Coach Wise would never allow for rest for himself or his colleagues if he was willing to be open every Sunday.  But if his highest potential athlete needed accommodation, he was willing to be flexible.  Customer-centric organizations identify customer segments with high potential and disproportionately focus their energies on these segments.  This potential can be in terms of either their own future cash-flows to the business or value of their potential referrals.

3.     Many organizations launch loyalty programmes to be able to track and score customers based on behaviour.  RFV is a common scoring framework.  These CRM systems are a useful front-line tool.  For customer centricity however, one needs to go beyond CRM with forward-looking optimization of customer interactions across all touch-points.  This helps safeguard and possibly enhance value of high-potential segments. Coach Wise was not only willing to be open on Sunday for his star student but also called in two other instructors to ensure her experience was outstanding.

4.     Optimization of touch-points requires synthesis of insights from customer analytics, market research and knowledge of the competitive offerings. Coach Wise knew of his star-student’s routine, her potential and her personal challenges.  He had combined all these to take an informed bet on her and his training centre in the interest of the country.

While this is a simple story, may I request your observations on two questions about your organization and journeys in customer-centricity:

1.       Do your platinum customers experience platinum treatment across all touch-points?

2.       Does your synthesis of research, analytics and market conditions empower you to recognize your platinum customers before they achieve platinum tier?

Social Entrepreneurship

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction to the Village of Darsanapur

A long time ago, there was a tiny village in India called Darsanapur. 

Darsanapur had a very sad socio-economic make-up. 

There was one very rich landlord who owned all the fields in and around the village.  And the village had about one hundred-odd families of landless labourers who toiled hard in these fields from sunrise to sundown to make a pittance wage from the landlord.

Every day, the labourers toiled hard in the fields to make a minimum wage.  This wage just about allowed them to make ends meet, with no savings.  Many of them could not even eat a daily meal, since the wages they earned were so little, that any other unplanned expense such as sickness or travel left them with no alternative but to skip their mid-day meal.

Now in this village was a small temple in that was managed by a very good-hearted pujari (priest).  Every day, after completing his daily puja (prayers), the pujari walked for several hours to neighbouring villages to beg for alms and food.  Most of what he collected, he brought back and took to the fields to share with some poor farmer who was going hungry.

This routine had been going on for a few years.

CHAPTER TWO: A Visitor

One day, a rich trading merchant moved into the village of Darsanapur.  This merchant was a shrewd businessman who had earned his wealth through hard work and entrepreneurship. He built a big house close to the temple.

The pujari thought he should try his luck and went to beg for alms at the merchant’s house. 

The merchant was a good man and gave the pujari some food in alms. 

The pujari promptly took the food to some hungry farmers in the field.  Within a short while, he was back at the merchant’s house to beg for more.  The merchant was puzzled at first but did not want to offend the pujari so he gave the pujari some more food.  Sure enough, the pujari distributed this additional food to some other hungry farmers and was back at the merchant’s house in no time to ask for more.  The puzzled merchant then asked the pujari why it was that he kept asking for food.  Did he just have a large appetite?

The disheartened pujari then told the merchant all about how there was this one rich landlord in Darsanapur and how he paid only pittance as wage to the landless farmers.  The pujari also described how he walked for several hours every day to get food for them from neighbouring villages. 

The merchant carefully heard all about the pujari’s hard work to collect enough food for the helpless landless farmers of Darsanapur.

Then the merchant gave the pujari ten coins and said, “Go buy a big tiffin box.  So that when you come the next time, you can carry enough food for your friends and you don’t have to walk back and forth from the fields in this scorching sun.”  The pujari gratefully took the ten coins from the merchant. 

The next day, the pujari was back at the merchant’s house begging for alms and food for himself and for the landless farmers.  The merchant asked him for the tiffin box so that he could give him enough food for all.

However, the pujari said, “Dear merchant, forgive me but I did not buy the tiffin box.”  “The pain of seeing hungry farmers was too great for me.  So instead I spent the ten coins on buying fruit and distributed the fruit among farmers for their families.  My heart yearns for them and I could not bring myself to spend money on anything other than on fruit for the poor families.”

The merchant was quiet.  He was thinking hard but did not share his thoughts with the pujari.

He quietly gave the pujari as much food as the pujari could carry and then sent him off on his way.  In a short while, the pujari came back for more food to the merchant’s house.  But found the house locked.  The pujari was shocked and angry! How could the merchant go away?  Didn’t he know that there were so many hungry farmers who could benefit from alms?  In his heart of heart, he could not help but curse the merchant for having deserted the poor farmers.

CHAPTER THREE: The Tour

The merchant had actually not gone away.  He had locked his house in rage that the pujari had violated his trust and not bought the tiffin box with the money.  The merchant was in a shed in his backyard.  He was packing clothes, some supplies and some material for trade for a long tour. 

Early the next morning, the merchant took off in his horse-cart and began a tour that would take him several months to complete.  This tour involved a visit to 30 towns that were close to the village of Darsanapur.

At each town that the merchant went to, he first contacted some of the wealthiest traders and either sold them some goods or purchased some merchandize from them.  This allowed him to make friends with them.  He then would describe to them the plight of the villagers of Darsanapur and asked for their help. Over the months of his travel, within each of the 30 towns the merchant visited, he established trading partners who:

1. Agreed to trade with him regularly
2. Agreed to put aside a share of the profits to fund one cartload of food once a month for the poor farmers of Darsanapur.

After about 3 months of this exhausting but profitable tour, the merchant returned back to Darsanapur.  By now, he had a donor committed to supplying food for each day of the month in addition some profitable trade deals.  It was late in the evening when the merchant returned back to Darsanapur.

CHAPTER FOUR: The Return

The next morning, the merchant went to the fields. The landless farmers were quite surprised to see this well-dressed man in the scorching sun. 

The merchant told them of his plans.  “I will ensure that all of you have enough food for lunch every day.  However, I need to have 3 men every-day who will ride to the town I tell you in my horse-cart.  They will then ride back with 2 carts of goods for me and one cart full of food for the village.”

The farmers readily agreed.  Giving up one day of labour was a small price to pay for 3 men to get lunch for all hundred farmers.  The merchant was happy too that he was getting free help to transport his goods – which meant more profit. 

And so it came to pass.  Every day, 3 labourers would ride the merchant’s horse-cart to one of the towns and carry back two carts of goods and one cart of food to Darsanapur.  And the farmers feasted on a hearty lunch every day in the fields.

Everybody was happy!  The farmers for the food, the traders from the neighbouring villages for the business and profits, the merchant for being able to get free labour and a profitable business.  In fact, the landlord was happy too!  The merchant had started buying the produce from the farm and using his newly created transport organization was able to sell farm produce from Darsanapur to the 30 neighbouring towns for higher profits.  This allowed the landlord to make a little more money than he used to in the past. Well, almost everybody was happy – not the pujari.

The pujari was very angry at the merchant.  In the pujari’s view, the merchant was exploiting the poor farmers for personal profit. 

“How dare the merchant ask the farmers to transport his goods for free despite being so wealthy?” thought the pujari to himself.  “And how dare the merchant exploit the charity of his trading partners for personal benefit.  This was so immoral!  Surely the merchant would rot in hell,” he thought to himself.

The pujari remembered the long hard days where he slept on an empty stomach just to make sure that at least some farmers did not go hungry.  However, now the pujari realized that he needed to beg for alms for only himself.  The farmers did not really need any lunch because now they had a cartful of food every day.  They could also save a little money from their wages and use it for emergencies.  So while he was happy that the farmers were not in trouble, he was very angry that the immoral merchant who had denied him food for the farmers on the second day of his visit and who was personally benefiting from all the charity being done by his trading partners, was so popular – not only with the farmers, but also with the wicked landlord. 

But the nice man that he was, the pujari prayed for the merchant every day in the temple, requesting God to forgive the merchant for his immoral and selfish behaviour.

CHAPTER FIVE: Moral of the Story

The Sanskrit word for philosophy or direct vision is Darsana.  This short story is seeking to provoke thoughts around the vision or philosophy of social entrepreneurship. 

5 Key inferences that could be drawn from this story are:

1. Innovation and Entrepreneurship is crucial to impact change in Social Sector

While the pujari had a good heart and worked very hard to help his fellow farmers, he could but make only limited impact on their lives.  It was only the innovation and entrepreneurship demonstrated by the merchant that actually created a sustainable change in the socio-economic landscape of Darsanapur.

2. Critical to engage stake-holders as part of the change management process

Many leading change leaders agree that sustainable change needs the involvement of the stakeholders for whose benefit you are attempting the change.  The merchant ensured that the farmers were in some ways contributing to the process that would help make their lives better.  Pure welfare assistance or hand-outs rarely leads to sustainable change.  It may be wiser to invest resources in teaching people to fish and then motivating them to fish for themselves as opposed to giving out fish as alms!

 

3. Unity is Strength

 

An important extension of the engagement of stakeholders is the notion of community assets.  When you have a community own an asset or process of improvement, each individual looks out for the other and can divide the risks and responsibilities so that no one person is overwhelmed.  This principle is used widely by the Government of India when extending subsidies to self-governed self-help-groups (SHG) as opposed to individuals.

4. Sustainability

Sustainability is an important principle of social entrepreneurship.  The pujari although well-meaning deflected resources away from a tiffin box (that could have been a sustainable solution enabler) to food (that was a short term gain).  Planning for sustainability is cardinal in social enterprise.

5. Generating Surplus is Crucial for Stability

 

Many individuals view the notion of generating a surplus or a profit as being in contradiction with trying to help people.  Somehow, making profits while trying to impact quality of life is viewed as immoral.  The fact is, that profits or surplus allow you to attract strong talent and build organizational strength that brings growth and sustainability to a social enterprise.  As Dan Pallota warns us, “Don’t confuse morality with frugality!”

Sales Channel Engagement & Loyalty Principles

Chapter 1:

Once upon a time in a small village in India, lived a potter who had 4 daughters called,

1. East Devi,
2. West Devi,
3. North Devi, and
4. South Devi.

Every day, the potter made 20 pots. And each daughter carried 5 pots on her head and walked to the four corners of the village. They sold each pot for one rupee and every evening, each daughter carried 5 rupees back home collecting a total of 20 rupees a day for the potter.

The potter only made twenty pots each day, because each of his daughters could carry no more than five pots on her head.

Chapter 2:

One day, East Devi was approached by a stranger who made her an interesting proposition. She described this over dinner to their father, the potter.

East Devi: I was approached by a man who said that he could buy all of my five pots for 2 rupees each instead of 1 rupee. This is because he can sell them for a much higher price in the neighbouring village, Ram Gaon.

However, he has a broken arm and cannot carry loads. So he needs me to carry the 5 pots for him to Ram Gaon.

I can make 10 rupees a day instead of 5 rupees. But I will have to spend the day carrying pots for him to the Ram Gaon instead of selling them in our own village. Besides, my chappals are torn so I need new chappals to walk so much every day!

Potter: That sounds good. We can make 5 rupees more every day, and I can make you chappals from the leather than I had bought from the fair last Diwali.

So it came to pass that the Potter made East Devi chappals and she helped deliver pots to Ram Gaon. The family’s income went up by 5 rupees a day and they were all very happy.

Chapter 3:

About a month later, West Devi was approached by a stranger who made her an interesting, albeit very different proposition. She described this over dinner to their father, the potter.

West Devi: I was approached by a man from Lakhan Gaon. While he offered me our current price of 1 rupee per pot, he offered to buy 10 pots every day, instead of the five I sell, because people from Lakhan Gaon love our pots. He is also very strong, and he can carry all ten pots to Lakhan Gaon himself! So I don’t have to carry them like my sister.

However, since he will spend the whole day carrying and selling pots, his condition is that I should cook food for him. So every day, while he is in the market selling pots, I will have cook food for him and take a lunch box to him so that he can eat when his work is done.

So I too can make 10 rupees a day instead of 5 rupees but will need a lunch box to carry his food. Can you make me a lunch box, father?

Potter: That sounds good. We can now make five more rupees. And I can make you a lunch box from clay and wood that I can get from the forest.

So it came to pass that the potter made West Devi a nice lunch box and she helped deliver lunch to Lakhan Gaon every day. The family’s income went up by an additional 5 rupees a day and they were all very happy.

Chapter 4:

A month later, North Devi was approached by the temple priest. She described her conversations with the priest, over dinner with her father, the potter.

North Devi: Dear father, the temple priest met me today. He uses one pot every day to plant a tulsi sapling. And he then gifts the pot with the tulsi sapling, as a special blessing to one person every day.

He is aging and finds it difficult to keep up. So he told me that we would be willing to pay 10 rupees for just one pot. However, I would have to spend the morning with him to fill the pot with good soil from the field. Then select a good tulsi sapling, plant the sapling in the pot, recite the holy mantras (prayers) and then deliver the pot with the sapling to the home of the person he chooses that day.

I would love to do this. But, father, you will need to teach me holy mantras and how to plant tulsi saplings.

Potter: That sounds very good. We can now make five more rupees. And I can teach you all about planting tulsi saplings and mantras. My mother taught me and I still have her book of all prayers that I can give you. You will also earn some blessings for our family.

So it came to pass that the potter taught North Devi mantras and the art of nurturing tulsi saplings and she devotedly helped the temple priest. The family’s income went up by an additional 5 rupees a day and they were all very happy.

Chapter 5:

By now some villagers started missing the lovely pots that they were so used to buying from the potter’s daughters. With three corners of the village now not being served, things were getting complicated.

Among those who missed the pots, was a very sharp kirana shop owner called, Mr. New Channel. Mr. New Channel had four sons who had completed their schooling and were now looking for work.

Mr. New Channel was very sharp and quickly learned about why the villagers were getting an irregular supply of pots. He called his youngest son, Liaise Singh who was good friends with South Devi and whispered something into his ears.

That evening South Devi shared her experiences with her father over dinner.

South Devi: Dear father, I spoke to my friend Liaise Singh today. He presented me with a proposition from his father. Liaise Singh and his three brothers would like to start earning a living. And they can help us make us all more money too!

Our fellow villagers are missing our regular supply of pots. Mr. New Channel is willing to buy 20 pots from us every day at fifty paise each. His four sons will carry them to the four corners of the village and sell them for us, just like my sisters and I were doing a few months ago.

And instead of me earning 5 rupees, we can now earn ten rupees by selling 20 pots to Mr. New Channel.

Also dear father, you’re growing old and also spending so much time helping my sisters with chappals, or making food boxes or teaching them mantra’s. I’ll spend my time making the pots and you can rest all day.

But you’ll have to bring me clay from the forest every day to make all the pots.

So it came to pass that the potter brought clay every morning for North Devi who made beautiful pots. And while Mr. New Channel’s son’s sold 20 pots in the village, her sisters sold pots in their own unique ways with support from their father.

The family’s income had now doubled from twenty rupees to forty rupees and they were all very happy.

Over dinner one night, the potter remarked, thinking back on the events of the last six months.

Potter: Hmm! I spoke to my brother in the city who has an MBA about what has happened with our pot-making business. And in his own style he described how the core driver of our success has been, “Relevant Engagement.” He said,

East Devi got us double the price but needed transport support

West Devi got us double the volume but needed meal vouchers

North Devi got us into a pottery solution but needed training

South Devi helped us scale operations but needed price discounts

Each of you has doubled your income but so very differently!

Moral of the Story:

One-size-fits-all approach to Channel Loyalty Initiatives rarely succeeds.

Channel Engagement programmes are not about rebates and discounts only. Nor are they about doling out gifts and freebies.

A strong engagement initiative begins with a candid situation analysis and empowers your channel partners to succeed with respect to needs of their customers in turn.

Designing this may be difficult and time-consuming and requires effort to gain insight.

But the result is Strong Relevance and alignment of resources towards mutual Win: Win.

Channel loyalty manifests itself as an outcome.