Here is a
trade secret. Writers like me, claiming to be non-mainstream, non-literary
festival type, ‘I do it for the love of writing’ sorts - Google themselves when
things are not going well or when they are going well.
So, the other
evening, after a long day designed in hell and hand crafted here on earth, I
typed in my name and hit the magic button.
Google spat
out reviews from three years ago when my first novel was a bit of a ‘thing’ in
the national media for about thirty days. These are dark days, and I can do
with good news. So I went through each review, whispering ‘You Da Man’ ‘Who
does the Hindu like’ ‘You Da Man’ ‘Who does the Statesman love’ ‘You Da Man’
‘What does the Times of India say?’ ‘You da man’ and so on till I came across a
positive feature the Vistara Inflight magazine
had run on my book.
Back then a
friend who had come across that review on board Vistara, a full service Indian
Airilne, and had excitedly messaged saying how proud it made him feel. It took
an empty bank account then to stop me from hopping on to the next Vistara
flight to any place to ‘flick’ a copy of the magazine.
When that
result was thrown up I opened the file containing newspaper clippings from that
time and realized I never got hold of that in-flight Magazine. Knowing
the chances of any airline, let alone one as sorted as Vistara, reviewing any
of my books again are slim - I took a slow long breath and tweeted to the CSCO
of Vistara ( @TheSanjivKapoor ) telling
him how great the airline was and checked if he would mind sending a once famous for
30 days writer a copy of the one in-flight
magazine he should have snuck into the carry on bag but never did.
While I had
zero expectations, it was not entirely on a whim. I had been following Sanjiv
(accidentally first thinking he was that chef) on twitter and
seen him do a fantastic job engaging with customers. The guy sounds earnest
enough and it does seem like no desi hipster
with a beard who got ‘how the young speak’ is tweeting on his behalf.
Almost
immediately Mr. Kapoor did his thing and asked who the cynic in me originally
thought were bots to get back to me. Holy Yashwant Kanetkar Let Us C. A
certain Harshita got in touch and asked me for my address and promised she
would check and get back. Now I have had many Harshitas in the past
promise that they would get back so expectations were still low.
That very
evening, another individual messaged saying they were working on my request.
Now, the second message from an organization’s twitter handle is where the
‘fake concern’ stands exposed for they typically ask about the whole
thing once again and you get into episode recap mode ‘ ‘The story so far…I am a
surprisingly good looking writer who was featured in your…’
None of that
from the Vistara team (@airvistara). Just a simple message when I did not ask
for an update. ‘We are trying to find that edition internally as well as at the
publisher and it might take time’
The next day
I got another message from Harshita who now I have come to learn gets back when
she says she will get back. It was a simple, ‘Gaurav. Please allow
us some time to check and get back to you.’ So I allowed them some time.
A couple of
days later, a Bhavna messaged saying neither the publisher nor their office has
a copy of that particular edition and so I asked her to share my gratitude to
everyone who took out time to service this unique request from a non-customer.
And I went along with my life, googling myself every evening – looking back at
the good times.
You know this
does not end, do you. You have seen the picture.
A week later
I returned home to a courier from Maxposure (@MaxposureMedia) media
(who I believe manage the content for Vistara. They had tracked down one copy
and sent it over.
What
brilliance. There is underpromise and overdeliver and then there is no promise
but still deliver. Customer delight is a much abused phrase that should be
shredded, burned and then buried for it is rarely achieved yet causes so much
heartburn to employees who sometimes seek to achieve the unreasonable and
impossible.
Customer
respect is more important and realistic and a far more balanced approach for
both internal and external stakeholders. But Vistara managed to do both.
Next time, I
am definitely flying Vistara with a copy of the June 2015 magazine in my hand.
So when I get the attention of my co-passenger I point at a younger me on that
page and then the real me on the seat next to him /her. That’s me.
Yeah. No big deal. Today is your lucky day. Flying next to a celebrity from
June 2015. Do google me when you land.
---
Have a great
year ahead everyone.
PS- Ignore
the typos.
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