It just ain't the decision, its how you carry it!

I couldn't agree with T N Ninan more when he says, 'You can—indeed, should—criticise both Naresh Goyal and Vijay Mallya for their ego-driven decisions to expand beyond all logic, and to launch international operations when neither had a profitable domestic base. So, even if it is rather late in the day for them to be coming to their senses, it is entirely to be welcomed that they are canceling flights, scrapping aircraft orders, and (yes) retrenching staff. If they didn’t do that, and both companies folded up, it is not 1,900 but 19,000 people who will be out of work.'

Again, I am all agreement when he states, 'Yes, Jet did the retrenchment without grace, and with no thought to common courtesies. So it has on its hands a public relations disaster and, worse, a rollback of the decision after tough talk and threats from Raj Thackeray. Where does that leave the cash-strapped airline, or Kingfisher which too had been preparing lists of people who would be asked to go?'

Tough decisions are part and parcel of running businesses. But then, as much as its about making those tough decisions its also about how they are carried out. The 'graceless' retrenchment had a PR disaster as the fallout. And then the drama of reinstatement.

As service providers, retailers at times have to deny consumers what they want. But then how they put across that 'denial' will decide what the fallout is. Top notch retailers even go the extent of 'recovery' as and when they get that opportunity. Its like what happened to us when we visited the Landmark Store at the Forum Mall sometime back. Looking for the movie, 'Amazing Grace' we were told that copies were not available at the store. But what the store personnel did was take down our contact information and tell us that they would source the movie from their Chennai store (copies were available, according to their database information), and once the copies arrived at Bangalore they would call us and let us know.

They did call us, and we did pick the movie and thoroughly enjoy it at home.

Just so you know, 'Amazing Grace' is a poignant tale about the man, William Wilberforce, who was instrumental in the steering anti-slave trade legislation through the British parliament that eventually led to its abolishment.

Comments

Matz said…
Hi Ray.
Yes..Come to think of it , Landmark did a brilliant job with regard to customer service. It has definately left a good image in the minds of the customer.
Considering the fact that the attendant could have simply told "No, they dont have the movie" and could have left it at that .
Instead the attendant took the extra effort in searching the database , locating the movie , taking down your ph no. and calling you once the movie came (taking in to account that there may be the risk that you may have brought the movie from somewhere else and you would not end up buying the movie from there)
Such type of Customer Service should be lauded !!

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