Couple of days back when Siva pitched this idea of going to a Dosa place for dinner that KD mentioned a while back, I wasn’t quite sure if I will like their food or not. Well, whats the big deal, we decided to go there finally, anyway. It is this crammed up, greasy looking dungy place where they toss some mean dosas for a mean price, I don't even remember the name of it. I didn’t feel like having anything after I had that White-thing-on-a-Green-thing-on-a-Brown-thing Dosa so I washed my hands and got out for some fresh air. Still feeling hungry, I was standing outside waiting for my roommates to finish savoring the second or third dosas they ordered. They were on a roll and I couldn’t stand there doing nothing. All of a sudden I remembered I saw some Jodhpur sweet shop on my way so I thought, well.. nothing could make my night any worse so why not take another chance? So I went up to this small shop with a big yellow name board that read “Jodhpur sweets & corner shop” ( there is something strange in that name- for some reason I think there is some mistake or a typo somewhere , but I just couldn’t figure out what it is and where it is. This is one of those things that I leave for my readers and language pundits :) )
Anyway, I am standing there looking at a pile of sweet Kachoris lying on a big plate with sugar syrup still dripping down from it and at that moment I knew that is THE only thing that can make me happy and nothing else can. There is this lady, may be 28, lean, tall, clumsy hair, with a rimless specs serving the customers busily. I was about to order a kachori but I just realized that I had only one single 500 rupee note. You know, carrying a 500 rupee note in Bangalore today is as good as carrying no money at all. You can’t get anything that costs less than 500 with a 500 rupee note because every place you go, they ask for THE EXACT CHANGE. If you don’t have any change and you badly need something, don’t be surprised when you are handed back some 200 mentos or 150 cloro-mints or a piece of paper with some amount written on it or some shit like that – the street currencies, so to speak. I don’t like them all. I don’t exchange money for goods I don’t like and I don’t need. So I wanted to tell her upfront that all I got was one 500 rupee note and I will buy something only if she has change to return. From the looks of her, she seemed to know English, at least a little bit, so I said, pointing my fingers to that pile of Kachoris, “One from this. And you have change for 500 right?”. She took a Kachori and put it on a paper plate and gave it to me and said “Yeah. No problem. You first eat”. I was thinking, Man.. these small shops are making some good money these days.. moreover it is already night and she must have had a good business today and she must be having a lot of change for sure.. So I stood there and enjoyed every bite of that Kachori and gave her the 500 rupees I had. She looked at me and said, “ It is 12 rupees sir.”. I said, still holding that 500 rupee note in my hand, “ yeah, but I told you I don’t have any change”. Well, at this moment I am furious – I really don’t want to carry a bag full of jilebis or pakodas just because I do not have the exact change. To my surprise, she quietly turned backed, picked up some money from a box and gave it to me. I looked at it and there were 5 hundred rupees notes. I looked at her baffled and she smiled at me and said, “Come back next time sir”.
I never felt really happy and satisfied after doing any business of any scale in any place in India, until that point... I ran back to the restaurant where my folks were still munching on those dosas, got 12 bucks from them, came back running and gave it to her. She took the money, looked at me while I was about to walk away and said, “Thank you so much sir”.
I am not an MBA and I do not know anything about 'customer satisfaction' so much as I hear that term, but at that moment when I stepped out of that shop, I felt, “WOW!”.
Anyway, I am standing there looking at a pile of sweet Kachoris lying on a big plate with sugar syrup still dripping down from it and at that moment I knew that is THE only thing that can make me happy and nothing else can. There is this lady, may be 28, lean, tall, clumsy hair, with a rimless specs serving the customers busily. I was about to order a kachori but I just realized that I had only one single 500 rupee note. You know, carrying a 500 rupee note in Bangalore today is as good as carrying no money at all. You can’t get anything that costs less than 500 with a 500 rupee note because every place you go, they ask for THE EXACT CHANGE. If you don’t have any change and you badly need something, don’t be surprised when you are handed back some 200 mentos or 150 cloro-mints or a piece of paper with some amount written on it or some shit like that – the street currencies, so to speak. I don’t like them all. I don’t exchange money for goods I don’t like and I don’t need. So I wanted to tell her upfront that all I got was one 500 rupee note and I will buy something only if she has change to return. From the looks of her, she seemed to know English, at least a little bit, so I said, pointing my fingers to that pile of Kachoris, “One from this. And you have change for 500 right?”. She took a Kachori and put it on a paper plate and gave it to me and said “Yeah. No problem. You first eat”. I was thinking, Man.. these small shops are making some good money these days.. moreover it is already night and she must have had a good business today and she must be having a lot of change for sure.. So I stood there and enjoyed every bite of that Kachori and gave her the 500 rupees I had. She looked at me and said, “ It is 12 rupees sir.”. I said, still holding that 500 rupee note in my hand, “ yeah, but I told you I don’t have any change”. Well, at this moment I am furious – I really don’t want to carry a bag full of jilebis or pakodas just because I do not have the exact change. To my surprise, she quietly turned backed, picked up some money from a box and gave it to me. I looked at it and there were 5 hundred rupees notes. I looked at her baffled and she smiled at me and said, “Come back next time sir”.
I never felt really happy and satisfied after doing any business of any scale in any place in India, until that point... I ran back to the restaurant where my folks were still munching on those dosas, got 12 bucks from them, came back running and gave it to her. She took the money, looked at me while I was about to walk away and said, “Thank you so much sir”.
I am not an MBA and I do not know anything about 'customer satisfaction' so much as I hear that term, but at that moment when I stepped out of that shop, I felt, “WOW!”.
