July 2008 – Ramana's Musings

People of the Services. What service do they render?

Yesterday’s post from two retired officers of India’s armed forces set me thinking about the word ‘Service’. The armed forces are called the services and their people are called as being in the Services.

Quite how does this tie up with our subject of Customer Service? For these people, the customer is the country and the service that they render is the most expensive that is possible – their very lives.

In the Indian context, they have been absolutely professional and unlike out neighbors, have not interfered with the country’s governance. They have fought on behalf of our country on a number of occasions and have proved their mettle time and again. They have fought conventional wars, guerilla wars, against insurgents and terrorists and on extremely difficult terrains in the most hostile climatic conditions.

They have SERVED.

Are we, as their customers happy with the service that they have rendered to us? How can we express our appreciation to them for the service that they have extended and continue to extend?

Salute to the men in uniform.

The recent few days have been full of messages about the shabby send off to one of India’s genuine heroes, Field Marshall Sam Maneckshaw. There has also been considerable noise that has been raised consequent to the announcement of the fifth pay commission recommendations. In this scenario, some of my friends from the armed forces, retired now from active service, have been feeding me with a lot of inspiring information.

One such is from a friend who is a retired Officer of the Indian Army, which is reproduced below.

“THE FINAL INSPECTION

The Soldier stood and faced his God,
Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining,
Just as brightly as his brass.

‘Step forward now, you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?’

The Soldier squared his shoulders and said,
‘No, my Lord, I ain’t.
Because those of us who carry guns,
Can’t always be a saint.

I’ve had to work most Sundays,
And at times my talk was tough.
And sometimes I’ve been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.

But, I never took a dollar,
That wasn’t mine to keep…
Though I worked a lot of overtime,
When the bills got just too steep.

And I never passed a cry for help,
Though at times I shook with fear.
And sometimes, God, forgive me,
I’ve wept unmanly tears.

I know I don’t deserve a place,
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around,
Except to calm their fears.

If you’ve a place for me here, Lord,
It needn’t be so grand.
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don’t, I’ll understand.

There was a silence all around the throne,
Where the saints had often trod.
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.

‘Step forward now, you Soldier,
You’ve borne your burdens well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven’s streets,
You’ve done your time in Hell.’
– Author Unknown~

It’s the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.
It’s the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.
It’s the Soldier, not the politician, that ensures our right to Life, Freedom and the Pursuit of Happiness.
It’s the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag.

If you care to offer the smallest token of recognition and appreciation for our Armed Services Men & Women, please pass this on and pray for our men and women who have served and are currently serving our country and pray for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.”

I shared this message with a number of my friends and relatives, and one of the latter, a cousin, retired Officer of the Indian Air force sent me this message.

Can I add an anecdote from my brief stint in uniform ?
During the 1965 war with Pakistan, my squadron used to fly early morning bombing raids on enemy targets.When I say early morning, the aircraft will be over the enemy territory ‘at first light’ as the jargon goes.

Each sortie will be in a box of four. In one such sortie my Commanding Officer was the leader. The bombing and strafing raid was accomplished against stiff enemy fire and our aircraft were hit. They were limping back to Ambala Air Base with my C.O.’s aircraft given priority landing since his tail section was on fire.

When he was on approach, his wingman called out ‘ hydraulic failure’. He managed to lower the under carriage by manual action ( there was such a provision) but hardly had any oil pressure for braking.

My C.O. took off allowing his wingman priority to land. That aircraft landed with very little braking, but the aircraft was saved by the arresting net at the end of the runway. The ATC called out to my C.O. that his tail section fire was increasing and he should climb and eject. My C.O. refused to heed that well meant advice and instead came back on a wide circuit to land with the tail section blazing just to be able to save the aircraft and he did that.

And can you believe it? The whole tail section was cannibalized from another damaged aircraft and replaced within a few hours and who flew the next sortie ? It was the same brave pilot.

I was privileged to serve under him for more than two and a half years of my stay in Ambala.

Bravo our men in uniform.

Customer Service – Internal and its benefits -1

Having taken a detour into some case studies let us get back to some theory on internal customer service.

As we had seen earlier, Internal Customer Service is a concept that brings about a change in the attitude of all employees in an organization. The change that takes place is one of treating each other as a customer for all transactions and extending the service that a customer would expect. This attitudinal change is relatively simple to achieve with proper explanation of the concept and the reason why this needs to be achieved. People understand and appreciate the need for proper customer service, which can only be of benefit for everyone in the organization and so readily accept the need for it.

I have known the change to be so dramatic that strangers visiting the organization have been left puzzled by employees claiming service from colleagues claiming to be customers. Teamwork, cooperation and being proactive are all automatic by products of the change in attitudes.

In an organization where this has been achieved, what happens is that an external customer gets to interact with one person in the organization and goes away completely satisfied and as an ambassador to the company, its product/s and its people. Each employee takes ownership of the need to extend service as a matter of course.

An interesting side effect has been observed. Employees exposed to such a change and working in an environment that fosters this attitude, begin to notice that their relationships in personal lives also undergo change for the better.

Customer Service; Two mini case studies.

Back to posting on our theme of Customer Service, we begin where we left off – the delayed delivery of gas cylinder at my residence.

I investigated the whole transaction and found out that it was a system failure. AND, horror of horrors, an attitudinal failure as well!

The original commitment made to me was based on information available at that time with the customer service person manning the desk. Subsequent to that, after the delivery van was loaded with the day’s deliveries, it suffered a flat tire. Naturally, it had to be unloaded to enable the tire to be replaced and reloaded before it could go on its deliveries. This delay was not conveyed to the customer service desk. Shockingly however, I found that even had the information been passed on, there was no system in place nor was anybody expected to convey revised delivery times to customers in case any delays took place. If any thing, the employees were expected not to use the telephone to make out going calls!! The lady who had given me the commitment would have gladly called me to apologize and give me a revised time had she been empowered to do so. She was actually expected to economize rather than build relationships with customers by the Management!

This state of affairs unfortunately, is the rule rather than an exception in our scheme of things. When it comes to things like cylinders of cooking gas, it gets worse as, the dealers strongly believe that they are obliging the customers rather than serving the customer! Since it is a seller’s market, customers have to put up with such indignity. On the other hand, where there is competition, like in white goods, the situation is quite different but only till the sale is made. There are some notable exceptions to this, about which I shall post in the future, but by and large, culturally speaking, we seem to be totally averse to after sale service.

Let us take another example. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is a public sector behemoth. Actually it is a pathetic example of how, changed situations does not generate vigor and aggressive reaction from the public sector. The Indian telephone scenario has changed so dramatically now that BSNL’s customers have been surrendering telephone connections. BSNL is losing customers while all the other companies marketing mobile and static telephone connections are growing exponentially.

BSNL however has a great advantage in that they already have laid down cable coverage and so can indeed fight competition from a position of strength. Do you think they would? Try getting a broadband connection from them. They are aggressively advertising for it but just try and get a connection and you would know why people like me use other broadband service providers.

We shall continue on correcting attitudinal problems in our future posts but for the moment let me conclude with my personal experience with MSNL. I went to the exchange, which serves the area where my residence is located to get myself a broad band connection. There is a counter there specifically to handle customer service. I enquired there and was directed to an official who would first study whether BSNL will be able to provide the service to the area where I lived and then give a chit to issue an application form for a connection.

This official’s office is on the second floor of a unusually large building and with quite a bit of difficulty, I climbed the stair case only to find the official not present nor anyone capable of either attending to me or advising me as to whether I should wait for him. Finally, one employee of BSNL took some pity on me and took my business card and advised me that he would pass it on to the official concerned who will contact me when he came to the office. This was six months ago. I am still waiting. In the meanwhile, I have joined up with another broadband service provider who is giving me excellent service.

Am I being unusually harsh on BSNL, no, exactly the same happened to my neighbor with the exception that she was advised that they are unable to provide the connection due to some “technical” reason. My neighbor’s immediate neighbor, in the same building however has been given a connection! Mysterious indeed are the ways of the public sector!

What do you think will make such organizations change their ways? Can anything be done at all to impart training to change mindsets?

Driving on Indian Roads. An expert’s advise.

I am taking a break from posting on Customer Service to bring in a bit of humor and to host a guest post from a dear friend who is one of the few witnesses to my having gone to post graduate level of education!

This post is by Vashudev Dayalani who lives in Mumbai. He has travelled the world extensively and has seen the driving habits of other nationalities, but has a particular soft corner for Indian drivers and conditions, as can readily be made out from his post. I have a great deal of admiration for his resilience and hope to post more of his articles on his personal life.

For the benefit of every Tom, Dick and Harry (not Potter) visiting India and daring to drive on Indian Roads, I am offering a few hints for survival. They are applicable to every place in India, except Bihar, where life outside a vehicle is only marginally safer.

On roads, rules broadly operate within the domain of karma where you do your best, and leave the results to God and your Insurance Company. The hints are as follows:

Do you drive to the left or right of the road? The answer is ‘both’. Basically you start on the left of the road unless it’s occupied. In that case go to the right unless that’s also occupied. Then proceed by occupying the next available gap, as in chess. Just trust your instincts, ascertain the direction and proceed.

Adherence to road rules leads to much misery and occasional fatality. Most drivers don’t drive, but aim their vehicle in the intended direction. Don’t you get discouraged or underestimate yourself. Except for a belief in re-incarnation, the other drivers are not in any better position.

Don’t stop at pedestrian crossings just because some fool wants to cross the road. You may do so only if you enjoy being bumped in the back. Pedestrians have been strictly instructed to cross when traffic is moving slowly or had come to a dead stop because some minister is in town. Still some idiot may try to wade across but then, lets not talk ill of the dead.

Sounding your horn is not a sign of protest as in some countries. Honk to express joy, resentment, frustration, and romance or just to mobilize a dozing cow or a dog in the middle of the road/bazaar.

Keep information books in glove compartment. You may read them in traffic while awaiting the Chief Minister/Prime Minister/President’s motorcade or waiting for the rainwater to recede when over ground traffic meets underground drainage.

Night driving on Indian roads can be an exhilarating experience with the mental make up of Genghis Khan. In a way, its like playing Russian roulette, because you do not know who amongst the drivers is loaded. What looks like premature dawn on the horizon, turns out to be a truck attempting a speed record. On countering it, pull partly into the field adjoining the road until the phenomenon passes. The roads do not have shoulders, but occasional boulders. Do not flash your lights expecting reciprocation. The only dim thing in truck is the driver, and with the peg of illicit arrack he has had at lost stop, his total cerebral functions add up to little more than naught.

Truck drivers are the James Bonds of India and are licensed to kill. Often you may encounter a single beam of light about five/six feet above the ground. This is not a super motorbike but a truck approaching you with a single light on, usually the left one. It could be the right one but never get too close to investigate. You may prove your point posthumously. Of course all this occurs at night on the trunk roads. During the day time trucks are more visible, except that the driver will never show any signal. And you must watch for the absent signal. They are a greater threat. Only you will observe that the cleaner/driver’s companion, who sits next to the driver, will project his hand and wave hysterically. This is definitely not to be construed as a signal for left or right. The waving is just an expression of physical relief on a hot day.

Occasionally, you might see what looks like an UFO with blinking colored lights and sounds emanating from within. This is an illuminated bus full of happy pilgrims singing ‘bhajans’. These pilgrims go at break neck speed, seeking contact with the Almighty and often meeting with success.

Mopeds – The moped looks like an oil tin on wheels and makes noise like an electric shaver. It runs 30 miles on teaspoon of petrol and travels at break-bottom speed. As the sides of the road are too rough for a ride, the moped riders tend to drive in the middle of the road – they would rather drive under the heavier vehicles instead of around them and are often ‘mopped’ off the tarmac.

Leaning Towers of Pisas: Most bus passengers travel free and during rush hours there is absolute mayhem (hell, chaos). There are passengers hanging off other passengers who in turn hang off the railings and the overloaded buses lean dangerously, defying laws of gravity but obeying laws of surface tension. As drivers get paid to overload (so many rupees per kg. of passenger), no questions are asked. Steer clear of these buses by a width of three passengers.

One way- Street: These boards are put up by the traffic police to bring some humor into their otherwise drab lives. Don’t stick to the literal meaning and proceed in any direction. In metaphysical terms, it means that you cannot proceed in two directions at one time. So drive, as you like, reverse whenever you feel like, if you are the fussy type.

Lest I sound hypercritical, I must add a positive point also. Providing ‘speed breakers’ – two for each house, has prevented fast driving in residential areas. These are in addition to water and drainage pipes for that residence, that is left untarred for easy identification by the Municipal Corporation authorities, should they want to recover the pipes for year-end accounting.

If after all this, you will want to drive in India, take your lessons between 8.00 p.m. and 11.00 a.m. when the police have gone home. The citizen is then free to enjoy the freedom of speed enshrined in the Constitution.

Driving on Indian Roads. An expert’s advise.

On roads, rules broadly operate within the domain of karma where you do your best, and leave the results to God and your Insurance Company. The hints are as follows: