Customer is King!

I have this uncanny habit of almost always filling up the feedback form which is handed over at restaurants or coffee shops or fuel stations or even online shopping websites. As an extension to this habit I also make sure to give a feedback to the service providers whose services I use whenever I face any problem with their services and also whenever I exceptionally like something about their services. Given my experience, most often a feedback ensures that any deficiency in the service is abated. In fact, after hearing the many stories of how effective my feedback has been, a buddy of mine has suggested me start a professional service of reviewing and providing feedback on various services to service providers for a fee. On the other side, there is another friend who is still adamant that "feedbacks are just for the sake of a formality".

Anyway, this recent experience of mine at the R-City Mall (Ghatkopar) is yet another saga of how important a feedback is and how organisations are actually striving to keep their customers happy.

I've been regularly visiting R-City Mall for the last few months but this Sunday's experience was an unfortunate one. While entering the Mall I learnt that the parking has been made a paid parking and I had to park my car on level 'H' (8th floor) given the rush of cars due to the recently opened Big Cinemas. However, while I was exiting, it took me over 35 minutes to reach the parking payment kiosk. It was a real pain to move so slow in a downhill ramp. Further, given the tariff structure of parking I had to pay the parking fee for an additional hour just because I took so much time to exit the parking bay because of improper management of Metro Parking. I was completely dissatisfied with the experience. I have been to other malls across the city and they surely have better parking management and charge cheaper parking rates.

The same day, after returning home I sent a mail narrating the above experience to Mr. Siddharth Sahgal (Centre Director, R City) and urged him to take appropriate and prompt actions to resolve the situation. To my surprise, early next morning I received a mail from Mr. Sahgal assuring that the bottlenecks would be resolved. Subsequently, I received a call from Ms. Jyoti from R-City apologising for the inconvenience caused and stating that they've taken up the matter with Metro parking (the vendor who manages the parking system of the mall). Further, I was sent a bouquet of flowers from the management of R-City.

Surely, I am overwhelmed by the pro-activeness of the mall's management team and they have indeed made me feel like a King!

Wake me up when September ends!

The last few weeks have been a potpourri of an experience and the hectic schedule and the pace at which things have moved have precisely been the reasons why I haven't been able to blog for long. To sum up, my experiences over the last one month have varied:

(i) from numerous visits to hospitals, clinics and chemists to an almost equivalent number of visits to ice-cream parlours in the city;

(ii) from surviving a stampede at Lal Baugcha Raja to visiting the Siddhi Vinayak temple in almost complete isolation;

(iii) from struggling with the office lunch to get my minimum calorific requirements to hoarding loads of calories by having pizzas for lunch as much as thrice a week;

(iv) from working late at office for almost the entire month to sneaking out for a four hour lunch session during office hours;

(v) from attending to a galore of guests at home and craving for my personal space to being in complete isolation and craving for people around me;

(vi) from being in the clouds at Malsej Ghat to sweating around in the streets of Ghatkopar;

(vii) from a failed attempt to watch Abhishek and Ash shooting for Ravana to sharing the elevator with Bobby Deol and his family adn not even greeting him with a 'Hello';

(viii) from making up an altercation with a friend over lunch to having an altercation with another friend after a lunch;

(ix) from attending a training on structured investment products at BSE to struggling with taxation matters of the family;

(x) from quarelling with the car mechanic and crying foul over their customer care services to being sent flowers by the management of a Shopping Mall for giving them a feedback on their services;

(xi) from eating street food in the by-lanes of suburban Mumbai to being at Leopold's and Theobroma in the heart of the town;

(xii) from enjoying the loud and heavy downpour of a retreating monsoon to suffering the heat and humidity of this peculiar season;

(xiii) from struggling with the gears and pedals for hours in the traffic to driving at over 100 kmph in the city.

But for now I want to enjoy this extended Dussera weekend by sleeping over and wish to be woken up only when September ends!