Customer is King – II

Earlier today, I volunteered to perform an errand for my wife – get the batteries of her watch replaced. I drove 4 kilometres to a watch store we had visited several years ago, near our old house. When my wife called me, I told her that I was on my way to the said shop. “But there are shops right near where we live. You needn’t have traveled this far”, she said. Truthfully, it didn’t really occur to me to go to any other shop – my mind told me to go to this shop, and I complied. I asked myself why and found the answer soon enough. 

A few years ago, my wife and I went to a watch store together (to replace the batteries for the same watch). Deepiga Watch Sales and Service was close to our house. The place was run by a married couple, who appeared skilful in the mechanics of repairing a watch. We sat down and waited while they took the watch apart. A tea vendor came in and gave them two cups of tea. My wife and I asked the vendor for two cups of tea as well – why not enjoy a hot beverage while we wait. Before I could reach out for my wallet, the husband and the wife together told us, “You are guests to our shop. You don’t have to pay for the tea.” I protested repeatedly, but they would have none of it. They simply said that we were guests, and tea was on them. I was touched by their gesture.

I had written about a couple of memorable customer service experiences in a previous article. The two incidents I wrote about in this article took place in the US. When I thought about pleasant customer service experiences in India, I couldn’t remember much at all; the terrible customer experiences came more readily to my mind. Remembering this warm experience at Deepiga Watch Sales and Service brought a smile to my face. Robin Sharma wrote in The Greatness Guide about how it is smart to treat customers well. He would go out of his way to drive a long distance to patronize a shop where the owner was friendly to him on every occasion. As it turns out, the same thing happened to me – I went out of the way, subconsciously, to patronize a shop that had treated me well. Treating customers well does pay, after all.  

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