Personal touch with your customers builds your business.

This happened over the last couple of weeks.

I needed a prototype of a design that I was working on. Searched online and hit up on this supposedly industry leader ALPHA in prototype making. Uploaded a file onto their website to get a ball park quote. Looked at their prices and searched around for better deals. Later uploaded the same file to a dozen more websites to get quotes. Some of them were less than the ALPHA quote.

Couple of hours later this sales guy from ALPHA called up to follow up on what else he could offer to win our business. Talked to him for a while about some industry standards, material options available, etc and he answered all my questions politely.

He informed me that the price of 1 part would be $200.00 whereas the price of 16 parts would be just $264.00. Liked the proposal and sent the purchase order. Specially informed him that I needed the parts yesterday.(Yeah, not a typo, that is the word used when you want something ASAP)

Got it shipped overnight and received the package 2 days after and the parts exactly served my purpose. Liked the quick response and delivery and sent a feedback mail thanking them for the good experience I had doing business with them. Immediately got a personal reply from their CEO thanking me from my feedback.

This flattered me as a customer to know that this was a company where the CEO was in the grind of building personal relationships with customers. Decided that this is the company that I would do all my business with. What did the CEO do different to gain me as a trusted customer and invaluable goodwill?

Nothing much, just a personal thank you mail. How much did it cost him. Just 2 minutes of his time and no extra cost.

OK, and now what do they need to do to win me as a customer forever, bowl out their competitors and develop a personal relationship with me?

The last nail in the coffin was just nailed 10 mins ago.

Just got a gift package from ALPHA thanking me for doing business with them and giving them valuable feedback.

What was inside it? FudgeyNut and cookies.

How much did it cost them? Maybe 10 bucks.

What did they do? They surprised the customer with something he did not expect. They could have offered a discount. But chose a more touchy option of a gift to build the personal relationship instead of a monetary reward. More about this later.

What did they gain? They’ve won unwavering trust from their customer in a very competitive environment.

Finer nuances: The action of giving a personal gift rather than a monetary reward in the form of a discount has more to it than what meets the eye. A discount would benefit the customer company but would not give any incentive to the guy who actually makes the purchase. But with the personal gift, they build a relationship with the key person who actually decides which company should win his business. It could be the purchasing manager, the project engineer or even the maintenance guy.

Certainly an important lesson to remember when you are working in a competitive environment and all your competitors can provide more or less the same. That is when, you go above and beyond the line to build a relationship with your customer.

Ideas for startups - How to get the next big one

This is an essay about how to get an idea for a startup.

Read through the entire thing and its really worth your time if you are looking for some startup idea guidelines.

The essay is comprehensive in the sense it is logical and encompasses all the bits and pieces of startup advice that you've been hearing everywhere.

Some excerpts:

"To generate such questions you need two things: to be familiar with promising new technologies, and to have the right kind of friends. New technologies are the ingredients startup ideas are made of, and conversations with friends are the kitchen they're cooked in. "

"What these groups of co-founders do together is more complicated than just sitting down and trying to think of ideas. I suspect the most productive setup is a kind of together-alone-together sandwich. Together you talk about some hard problem, probably getting nowhere. Then, the next morning, one of you has an idea in the shower about how to solve it. He runs eagerly to to tell the others, and together they work out the kinks."

"Another classic way to make something people want is to take a luxury and make it into a commmodity. People must want something if they pay a lot for it. And it is a very rare product that can't be made dramatically cheaper if you try.
This was Henry Ford's plan. He made cars, which had been a luxury item, into a commodity. But the idea is much older than Henry Ford. "

If these tidbits interest you, go ahead and read the article here.

10 Tips to find Domain names

Ever faced the dilemma of a domain name for your startup ?

James Siminoff, a serial entrepreneur has 10 tips on how to search for domain names like a Pro.

The advice is pretty valuable for someone new to the field like me.
After reading the article, I've realized that my blogs must be anywhere close to the bottom 10% in terms of searchability. (Yeah, I coined this word.)

Beginners guide to Twitter

I did not know why Twitter was talked about so much in the blogging circle and startups, although I signed up for it. Guy Kawasaki used to talk about it a lot in his blog.

Jus found this Beginners guide to Twittering written by none other than the CEO of Zappos.

Finished reading it and it now makes a lot of sense to get hooked onto it and get all ur frens into it too.


Happy Twittering

Soap box: A Japanese case study

An interesting case study…

One of the most memorable case studies in Japanese management was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies.

The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty.

Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, did not get into complications of X-rays, etc but instead came out with another solution.

He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.
**********************************************************************************
Moral of the story: ALWAYS look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problem

Networking website for school goers

Recently my cousin, who is studying his 6th class, came over to my house for his vacation. He immediately ran over to the computer.
I was curious about his enthusiasm and followed him to find out what it was, that has evoked such a strong feeling of attraction. He opened the site: http://classteacher.com/horlicks/ He was very strongly influenced by the advertisement in TV which is aimed at school going kids. It just has a couple of games and a little relevant info, but it certainly caught my attention as a wonderful business model.

I see this is as a good opportunity in a relatively blue ocean market with massive potential.

We will build a portal aimed at specifically at school goers.

What do we provide:

• Add online games which can be played along with their classmates. This is such a thrill, if u've ever played online pool with your classmates or other friends. (Directly buy the games from developers)
• Add ideas for science projects, link things to www.howstuffworks.com. So they have abundance of ideas, whenever they need to work on something. (This is a huge plus, my little sisters keep wandering all over the place and net for ideas.)
  
• Target the students from 4th standard to 10th standard. Pore through their books. Provide detailed info on every topic. Provide ideas for essays, school debates, etc. (Hire some teachers to provide this info on a pay-by-work basis.)
• Keep interacting with schools to assess the needs of the students.
• Post math tips in an animated way.
• Provide a platform, where the kids can post personal experiences and award them with their day of glory by posting it on the homepage.
• Provide tools to unleash their creativity and help them develop their distinct personal page, which they will be proud of and flaunt it to their friends.
  
• Provide an online interaction-social networking platform similar to facebook, targeted at school-goers.
• In short-make the site such an attraction that kids want to spend all their online time with the site because it provides both educational stuff and fun stuff. Cater to all the needs of the school goer.

Revenue making model: The primary advantage of this site is that you have a large saturated group of target audience withing the same age group and with almost similar tastes. So any advertising just hits the core group unlike an advertisement on a hoarding. I can see this primarily as a advertising based model. If you boast of a high number of registered users or everyday clicks, kid product companies would not want to miss this opportunity to advertise. Better still, approach leading kid based product companies like Boost, Maggi, chocolates, etc to sponsor the whole thing. It helps them build a strong bond with their target consumers.

I am still not convinced by this revenue model and open to ideas on how we could milk this cash cow. This is a largely untouched market segment.

Waiting on your valuable input

Stapler-Hole puncher

If every student needs a stapler and a hole puncher on on their desk, why don't we save space and combine both of them ??

Employee fat buster

If we can design any portable equipment that will allow us to exercise in our office itself, it would be a huge market.

Some of the present ideas are:

• Squeezing the stress release ball in your hand
• Lifting a bundle of books with your legs, while sitting.
  

But all these ideas are not revolutionary. You need to have the next revolutionary design so that the employee can burn some instant fat sitting at his desk, like stretching a rubber cord or compressing something with your feet to build your calf muscles.

If possible need to work with a kinesiologist to come up with the design.

The market is huge considering all the people working in front of computers all day. And if the product is designed so good that the doctors recommend it, dude you are on to big things.

And if the product is credible and certified, corporates are going to buy them for their employees.

DARE - Because entrepreneurs do

Found this new website this morning. http://www.dare.co.in/

Its actually a portal with all kinds of resources and news for indian entrepreneurs.

************************************************************************
Update:
This site is more than just another portal. I am impressed with the wide range of topics that it covers from IT to Air filter manufacturing to rural irrigation pumps.
Also has a host of new FEASIBLE ideas.

Tata Nen's hottest startups

Lots of entrepreneurial activity going on in India.
The most encouraging fact is that the entrepreneurial activity is not in the old tried and tested waters but in the innovative value waters.

Tata-NEN have announced the hottest startup awards for 2008.
The TATA NEN Hottest Startup Awards are a result of the combined efforts of TATA, a rapidly growing business group in India with significant international operations, and the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), a non-profit organization, and India's leader in entrepreneurship education.I am not here to explain what it is, just tune into their homepage.Click here

Businessgyan has come up with an article on the 30 shortlisted startups here

While I was researching each business, these ideas struck me as innovative.

Ecomove solutions: Its like the bicycle rental service available in France.
Ecomove Solutions Pvt Ltd (EMS) is intending to launch rental station network that allows you to hire and return a bicycle.
"It is proposed to provide eco friendly and economical alternative travel solutions to the members of EMS. To start with, we are looking at providing high-end bicycle rental services to all the members at various locations in Mumbai. We intend to have about 40 locations to start with around Mumbai and nearby areas."
(Wonderful idea, but I am afraid if the market is ready for a change like this. I may rent a bicycle in US, but would not do the same in India. My reasons would be sweaty, personal safety and pollution.)

Dailydump: Helps you compost most of your home waste at home. It sells related products and helps in after sales service.
(Can see a niche market in upper class and few sections of the upper class society. If the investment is not huge, breakeven would be pretty easy. Great idea though.)

Deskaway: Online project management tool.
DeskAway gives you an accurate view of your project progress and eliminates common problems when working in teams. DeskAway is an online software, so, there is nothing to download or install on any computer. All you need is an Internet connection and a web browser.

Elements Akademia: Elements Akademia - conceptualized, funded and run by a group of IIM Alumni - is envisaged as an innovative national chain of vocational schools.

Lakshya: The background looks very impressive. Built hobby into a business. Figured in the entrepreneurial case study in Darden Business School and ISB, Hyderabad. Lakshya is a dream child of four young IIT graduates, conceptualized with an aim to revolutionize the way learning is perceived and teaching is delivered. "We believe that with a proper thought process given to teaching pedagogy, "Learning can be made Interesting" and hence effective."

The Loot: "The LOOT" is a multi-brand discount store, offering customers a wide range of products with discounts ranging between 25% -60% - throughout the year.

Evam Entertainment: Evam is a 'theatre entrepreneurship' fuelled by youngsters for the youth. A 5 year young 'happy factory' with one mission - use theatre to make people's life happier and to fill their lives with lightness and a sense of purpose.Primary Revenue streams include live stage theatre shows, corporate theatre performances, theatreLIVE methodology based corporate training modules, 'd sound n d light' - Evam's audio media productions and student interaction modules.
(This looks promising, esp for the Gen-N group who wanna do diverse activities while working on their full time job. Suprisingly met an old friend after 16 years and she mentioned that she was part of this theatre chapter in hyderabad.)


Sanmaan Org: Sammaan's idea is to systematize the working of all Rickshaw pullers by bringing them under one roof and to modernize the cycle rickshaw pulling sector (which contributes 30% in urban transport) with small but innovative changes. This not only makes it easier for the rickshaw pullers to drive and increase their income through Outdoor Advertising, but Value Added service such as sale of Mineral water, Juices, Mobile recharge, courier collection, Bills collections also makes it more comfortable and enjoyable ride for the commuter.
( I like this idea a lot. Was just reading "The Blue Ocean Strategy" which mentioned of entering unchartered market spaces by adding value with innovation. This is exactly what they are doing.)

Librarywala: Librarywala provides a wide selection of books to readers at a low cost and at their convenience.
(An idea that everyone has but no one has the guts to go about it. Success depends a lot on the marketing, operation and serving customer values)


These were the most striking and innovative ideas among the shortlisted 30.
The common positive point observed among all these firms is the website design. The website designs of all these companies are really strikingly innovative. Lots of young minds working creatively...

Important lessons in personnel management

Learned few very important lessons today in the first 4 hours at office.

Get their monkeys off your back. If your people have a problem and they need a solution don’t just jump into the ring and provide a magic solution that fixes everything. That is the worst thing you can do. Sit back, frame the problem statement and give it to your people asking them to solve it and come back with the solution. Then discuss the merits and demerits of the solution and make them select the solution you want to implement.

Reason: If you provide the solution, they won’t implement the solution whole-heartedly. Even if you give the whole perfect solution, they are going to find faults in it. But if it’s their own solution, they will make it work.



I asked the supervisor if he would like to use a visual training board. He said yes. But if I do the whole work and give the finished product, he will not use it as much as if he creates the board himself. Now I must ask him to create a list of all the operations and make him do the rough draft.



On the assembly table, I did the biggest mistake in trying to help them. I did all the homework, identified problems, worked through every problem, and designed the end table. I may have done all the engineering stuff right, but I did the biggest blunder in personnel management. “ I designed the whole table, which they should use.” Their ideas are different. What I should have done is ask them to come up with what their problems are and their potential solutions, help them out and make it their design. That is Lesson 101 in a manufacturing plant.



You don’t need to show how smart an engineer you are by reeling out perfect solutions, instead focus on a solution that is going to be implemented. It is going to be implemented only if it’s their solution. Just give them the problem and ask them to come up with a solution.

The way a customer centric business should be run

This morning, as I was going through my daily list of must read blogs, I stopped upon this wonderful article of how an ideal customer service oriented company should run.

Saishunkan is a Japanese cosmetic company. You’ve got to read this article and open your minds to what true customer service is?

The hierarchy looks like something right out of a fairy tale book… so fictitious and dreamy…

One question that pipes me is that how can one transform an existing company into such an ideal place? Is it even feasible.

Some of the decisions that they have taken is straight out of the gut feeling, you feel it should be done like this and you do it. Your other half of the brain may reason that it has never been done like this and it may be foolish but you got to refer back to you gut feeling again and follow it.

The old adage supports, “If you want something that you never have, you should do something that you never did.”

Read the post on Saishunkan here… http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2008/10/jke-day-2-saishunken-cosmetics---customer-care-trumps-a-factory.html

Design - Common sense is not common

This is one of the designs that strike you as, " Shucks.!!! why did it not occur to me."

The Revolutionized Wrench provides exceptional user ergonomics, comfort, control and torque through an innovative design that offers a 500 percent larger surface area over traditional wrenches.

In addition to seven patents, the Revolutionized Wrench has received numerous industry awards and much media attention, including a commendation from the National Arthritis Foundation.

Check out the other cool award winning product designs here in Businessweek.

Everything about consultants

An interesting story about consultants:

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd, "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers, "Sure. Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his AT&T cell phone, surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the shepherd and says,

"You have exactly 1586 sheep."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep." Says the shepherd. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young! man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

"Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?" T

he young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a consultant." says the shepherd.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the shepherd. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew; to a question I never asked; and you don't know crap about my business."

"…Now give me back my dog."

Tacts of Persuasion

This is an interesting piece that I read today morning. It’s about the art of persuasion in sales. It’s a real time experience in Turkey.

One of they key points that I have deducted from the anecdote is: Make your customer like you first. Then he will be more willing to like your product on your price. Don’t focus on the product and the pricing initially. Make friends with him and give him an impression that you are going to remain friends even if they don’t buy anything from you.


This reminds me of my friend Praveen’s dad’s line. It just got etched in my memory.
During our Engineering days, Praveen wanted to buy a 1955 four wheel drive open top JEEP.
Negotiations were going on between Praveen and the seller for over a week and they were haggling on the price range of around Rs.80,000. Praveen’s dad entered the negotiation to close it.
His approach was totally different. His key points were:
• We are good friends.
• I am going to walk away from the deal, if the price doesn’t suit me.
• We are going to be good friends, even if we don’t make the deal.

He stressed the last point repeatedly. “Sir, the jeep is not as important as our friendship. If we don’t buy this JEEP, we may buy another one. But we should not let this deal spoil our friendship.”
Once the relationship of friendship was raised so high, the seller felt obliged to be consistent with the relationship that was supposedly growing and came down to Rs.55,000.

That was the first time I saw a practical application of Persuasion.

Read the article here.