At last ...

At last there is a realisation in industry that BRAND is about ROMANCING the Customer and not just LOGO and Advertising. The origin of this blog was for this purpose. 

For many years BRAND builders have always ignored Customer Experience while for CUSTOMERs it was always like that. & this was a mismatch. 

Common sense says : how customers are concerned with the brand if they are not experienced? 

But still all creativity is expended in advertising and so called superficial brand building exercise.

Theme of upcoming brand summit by Paul Writer is Lovable Brands; Romancing the Customer. 

Unless brands are touching and making customer experience memorable , its not branding exercise at all. Earlier companies realise this better resources can be allocated. 

It would be apt to mention what Seth Godin has blogged earlier this week: 

" Most important marketing decision the CMO makes...

Is the goal to get people to notice what we make?

or

Are we setting out to make something people choose to talk about?

If you don't know your boss's answer to this, find out. If you do, act accordingly.

Hint: getting people to talk (or care) about your average stuff for average people is a lot more difficult than it ever was before "

My entire blogbook WOW ! & Weird is devoted on this very theme. 

Happy to see our BRAND Builder community is going to discuss on this in this summit. Happy days for CUSTOMERs , AT LAST.

Social Media & Big Data will make us CX crazy !!

Social Media is two way communication. Every experience will be shared - good or bad. therefore Customer Experience (CX) is critical.

Big Data is too many data trying to make sense out of too much information. Its about more customized solution.

Data is available in plenty all around us but making sense out of the data is the real challenge.

I don't know in times to come how much intrusion these companies are going to make in our lives but its certain we are living in interesting time.

More dependent we are becoming on Gadgets more data we are generating , more pattern we are creating about our behaviour and more precise trends enterprise will be able to forecast.

The above data from Gartner is clear that top priority of Big Data is to better CX. This short film A Day in Big Data tells us where are we moving as a business enterprise and as recipient experienced (pampered) customer.

However it would be apt to conclude quote from CK Prahalad " Future will not be an extrapolation of the past. "

We the CAs

We,  THE CAs.

We CAs are a unique tribe. We are pampered during our article ship, before we actually deserve; statutory authorities have given us immense social respect by bestowing some great responsibilities , before we have earned that (degree is minimum qualifier not earned respect), we wear this hat of CA in our day to day social life and act as an auditor of everything including life. Finding fault with everything has become our birth right or we assume it is our life mission.

There are some great CAs, doing fabulous social work and contributing their might positively by becoming part of the solution, baring those , most of CAs can be classified in two categories;

They are either inactive/indifferent in social contribution or fault finders, part of the problem wherever they go and whatever they see.   Audit & tax are not only their bread and butter but their water and air too. They do not have third angle to anything.

CAs are often compared to MBAs and earlier with lawyers. Well, both these tribes are not comparable to us. Compared to number of lawyers seen in politics, CAs is not a match. We don’t take active interest in world around us. Politics is about taking charge & doing something - proactively. It’s about communication, communication at its best.  We lack adequate skills here.

MBAs are obvious different – they are trained in classroom, their trainers come from different walks of life, they have campus culture of networking and team work, they have holistic view of the business, they have great public communication skills in public. – We lose here on competitive skills.

Lest we forget both - lawyers and MBAs have subject knowledge too.  It’s not only about communication skills but its depth of subject plus communication skills and most important their interest in things around them, eagerness to contribute positively sets them distinctly apart from CAs.

It takes all the three attributes shown above for a CAs to become all round socially relevant human being. Hat of CA is a proud hat to wear but forgetting to remove while living life will keep us CAs only and not a complete living human being.  

I live in a housing complex where there are 400+ flats and around 2500 population. It comprises of 4 housing societies and as many as 40 CAs in the complex. Most of them are not willing to join managing committees. If forced to join seldom attend the meeting. Even if they attend the meeting many of them play a destructive role of just opposing everything. Instead of becoming a facilitator of good work and helping those who are working with their help either time or money or contacts, these people play negative role , become road blocks and frustrate those who are working and willing to work.

Out of the total 40 managing committee members from 4 societies & 40 odd CAs, there are hardly any CAs are the part of managing committees. I being in touch with all the 4 societies as a chairman of the common association I get feedback from other managing committee members that these CAs are just playing a role of a compliance officer. They are extremely focused on compliance, minutes, methods and legality & other petty issues irrespective whether it’s stalling the work and killing the spirit of cooperation.

They do not see life beyond that. As a managing committee following the law is important but it’s insignificant area as compared to larger role it has to play in the overall development and maintenance of the society.

This brings to my moot question. Are we just a CA in our personal life? Why CA even though a powerful degree can’t stand competition with MBAs? Why for CEO engineers and MBAs are preferred than CAs?  We all are individual plus CA. However once we get the CA degree we just remain CA and shed our individuality.

I recollect what CA YM Kale after joining Hinduja Group said in one of the conferences “ We CAs think we are most important & indispensable part of the businesses however once you join industry and assume larger role one can realize how insignificant is the role of a CA in the larger overall perspective of the business landscape.”

When the world is sleeping we have to remain awake is our slogan, agreed. However that should not become a barrier for us to assume larger role in life. CAs must assume role of problem solver , facilitator of good work in society around them and get out of the audit hat unless actually auditing. Life is much more than mere auditing and tax!!

The BIGGEST confusion !!

1st chapter of Anupam Kher's book The best thing about you is YOU is titled as - We all are Unhappy.  He concludes the chapter as - Happiness can not come solely come from external sources. First of all we have to discover the concept of Knowing Yourself and being Yourself. 

Being yourself means who?  As a body or as a soul? As long as we consider self as a body his chapter title will remain true. The moment we consider self as a soul we will be on a path to achieve his last line.

Our unhappiness starts with our confusion of self as body or soul !!Our wrong belief about the self is the cause of our unhappiness. 

Know your self is not about knowing your nature and habits or anything about the body but its about knowing your true form as a soul. 

'I' should go with soul and not with body. Who is 'I' is the biggest confusion we live our life with.

Everyone else but Customer

Objective of Banks is to serve customers & for that matter objective of any enterprise. 

Look at the composition of PSU banks boards ;

• 1 Govt Nominee
• 2/3 Share holder Nominee
• 1 RBI Nominee
• 1 Workmen Nominee
• 1 Officer Employee Nominee

Where are the advocate of CUSTOMERS in the board? 

Mostly Bank's customer services are pathetic perhaps this is the reason. Competition is forcing banks to become customer centric  but unless customer service/experience is given core focus and customer champions are given board and CXO level position it wont be sustainable.   

We seriously need customer champions not only in the boards of banks but every company.

When customer experience creation capability is the sustainable competitive advantage business cant become customer centric unless voice of customer reaches the highest decision making forums. 

I am Amazed by ...

Nomenclature of this blog has changed from today. In line with the new name AMAZEMENT I list down my top 10 Amaze-rs. 

People whom I follow to get Amazed: (Order is Alphabetical,  intensity and area are different)

1) Guy Kawasaki 

For his book Enchantment & APE

2) Hillary Clinton 

For what she is and her mission to become US president.    

3) MK Gandhi

For his conviction and determination. 

4) Narendra Modi 

For his passion , vision & action for India's development.

5) Richard Branson 

For his passion for his customers. 

6) Seth Godin 

For his book Linchpin & daily blog posts  making sense of world around us (May be his initials matches with mine !!!)

7) Shrimad Rajchandra

For his clarity of thought about soul and its journey , his religious writings and powerful spiritual treatise in verse Atma Siddhi & Apporva Avasar showing clear road map to Moksha.

8) Steve Jobs 

For his passion for customers , scintillating products , public speaking style. 

9) Swami Vivekanand

For his powerful messages for human beings.

10) Tom Peters 

For his books - Circle of Innovation , Re imagine and  The little big things & various presentations.

11) Tony Hsieh 

For his culture of doing business at Zappos and his present mission of delivering happiness across the globe.

Who are the people amazing you? 

What we do to live = What we do while living ?? NO

There is a big difference between the two statements given in the heading of this post. 

Unfortunately all of us has assumed that what we do to live is the only thing we have to do while living or we can do while living.

Imagine in a lifetime time we spent in earning and time we spent in things we like and love to do.   We spent time in earning or what we do to live is to really live life we want. But somewhere we have forgotten the very purpose of our life or our earnings and we just live as if we are here to work and earn whole life 24 X 7 X 365 X our active years.

Our needs have grown so big that it takes our lifetime to earn for that and then when we become old to treat ourselves. Period. Most of us do not think life beyond job or business ie earning activities. So much so that keep working till death is considered good. Even our most celebrated star Amitabh Bachchan could not escape this race.   

When you have enough for survival (subject to our own thinking how much do we really need, because greed is endless) it it not our obligation to give back our time , energy for the society or even do things we really love which has no economic benefit.

All of us must pause and think about the difference between what we do to live and what we do while living. We need to earn so that we live the life we want to live. But the moment earning becomes endless activities , life becomes worthless. Retiring age of 60 was set by Govt so people retire at 60 but is it necessary to retire only at 60 ?

Entrepreneurs never retire from economic life and die while doing business. We as a society must awaken to realise the difference and should work to promote ,create platforms for non economic activities. Our education institutions should inculcate importance of hobbies and pursuing hobbies. We have assumed purpose of life as keep working for earning forever. Most people have no clue what to do when they are not working for earning.  

Life is not about living after retirement , it is about living daily. Therefore more we reduce our need , less we keep working for money and more time we will have for things we like/love to do. It is here in this space life lived is worth living. 

Knowing about Three Idiot is fine but it is a real challenge to become one in the rat race society all we live in.

Pause NOW. At-least  think.

EASE - Competitive Advantage

They want us to punch various numbers before their very busy cell center executive talk to us. I fail to understand without knowing what customer wants they want their ATM PIN after account number. & then last 4 digit of card number. 

Ask customer layers of authentication only if customer wants to do some secured transactions. Just to speak for common issues , reporting fraudulent transaction on credit card , retorting phishing or bug on their site.  Irrespective of what customer wants to talk to its a long and difficult proposition. 

They have 4 pages of credit card bill but no place for customer care number or emergency action points in case of loss or fraudulent transactions.  Three pages are filled with advertisements which they want to act upon for more usage of card.

Companies these days become too technology and sales driven that they have forgotten very purpose of everything the do - serving customers with ease.

This is the case with most consumer companies. Customers are finding it difficult to deal with them. 

Reaching them after sales , resolving problem with ease and with peace of mind has become extremely difficult. Companies that can achieve this  is going to be a winner.   

India is 134 in ease of doing business in world ranking. We need to rank companies in ease of doing business with. Ease is very critical in offering delightful customer experience. 

Name the company ____________ who qualifies for this status :

We are very easy to deal with.

We just don't know ANYTHING (Off Topic)

1) We learn HISTORY in school in quite detail but CIVIC sense which is critical for our life and society is given step motherly treatment in education. What is more important to know - where and when Panipat battle was fought or how to follow traffic rules and how to keep and maintain hygienic surrounding?

2) We learn biology and sex education in schools but have no clue on preventive heath-care. Our hospitals are over flowing and Gyms are struggling to survive. 

3) We learn how to earn but no clue or teaching in school or college on how to manage what we are taught to earn.  

4) We produce engineers and CAs but they miserably lack communication & social skills. Should technical skills kill or flourish human skills? 

5) We have the highest religions & religious places but very low morale and ethical standards as we are 94th ranking (out of 177) in a list of most corrupt couturiers. 

6) We are still developing country & needs economic development desperately but we rank 134 out of 189 countries in ease of doing business. Even below Bangladesh & Pakistan.  

7) We are known for our cuisine and food but do not know what to eat and how much to eat. Most Indian youth are suffering from cardiovascular diseases due to bad food habit and lifestyle.  

8) We introduced Yoga to the world for stress free and healthy living but we have earned dubious distinction of coronary and diabetes capital of the world. Both stress related diseases. 

9)  "India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only." Mark Twain and yet ignoring this our present generation look & copy Western culture to look and feel modern. 

10) We have great teachings of Mahavira and Krishna (Gita) about Law of Karma but we are one of the the most superstitious countries in the world. 

There is something fundamentally wrong the way we Indians live , choose our priorities, design our education syllabus. There is a clear cut case of re-imaginaton at every level.  

PS: Welcome to ebook based on select post of this blog at www.bloodygoodbook.com/wow-and-weird

Howrah Bridge & Customer Experience

Role of a bridge is to connect between the two ends.  Role of the business enterprise is to fulfill the customers need. 

Yet Howrah Bridge built by the Britishers is beautiful. Its a monument.Its a viewers delight. However it need not be as long as it connects the two ends. Right??

Theme of my new websites www.sunilgandhi.com is Howrah Bridge which symbolizes delight of an experience while fulfilling the basic need.  

There are many bridges in India fulfilling  the basic need but Howrah bridge is considered as one of the finest bridges in the country. Likewise there are many basic need fulfilling business enterprises in every segments for every customer. But if entrepreneurs want become a legend and monumental in what they are doing adding delight flavour in the  basic element is a must. 

Its easy in case of product design but very difficult and hence competitive advantage for service providers. Welcome to my latest website.