PRE BLOGGING ERA...Post 2

Glimpses of life from the eyes of a marketer...

Dated: June 20, 2006

Disclaimer: It may appear that this mail might interest only those who are into marketing, but for people who believe that most of life is all about marketing yourself and selling your ideas, do read on...

While many of us in sales and marketing spend our lives thinking of how exactly to "connect" with the customer, there are many to whom this comes naturally...this mail is dedicated to all those "natural marketers"!

CRM in Medicine...
I recently changed my Dentist in Chennai. My previous Dentist stays pretty far away n one of our neighbourhod aunties couldn't stop raving about how good this Dentist is, so Mom n I decided to pay him a visit. Well I have this unique recurring dental prob which most Dentists "study" and "investigate" and other than scaling there appears to be no permanent solution they have found for my problem till date. Dr.Ashwath has been different though. Not that he has found a remedy for my problem as yet...but its the way he has handled the whole thing that makes a difference. He has listed down 10 possibilities and is "ruling out" each of them one by one. Knowing well that I can see him probably only once a month and that too only on sundays doesnot stop Dr.Ashwath from providing me with his "Service level differentiators" ... he mails me reminding me about my next appointment, sends me text and videos on possible causes for the kind of problem I face (its nuthin much, its some kind of staining) etc etc...whats more I believe he regularly calls his local patients up in Chennai...and, he doesn't charge you anything close to premium...now THATS Customer Relationship Management at its best!

Cyber CAFE...
Yep, they all call themselves Cyber "Cafes" but I happened to visit one which came very close to it...
This one is in Jay Nagar, B'lore near where my aunt lives. The entrance to the internet parlour looks more like a bakery or a supermarket, for as you enter the aroma of baked items warmly welcomes you...soon the Kwailty Walls refrigerator with huge icecream posters might just catch your eye but watch out for the adjacent coffee machine and the counter with soft drinks, chocolates, et all...it is very difficult to walk past all this without buying a thing and soon you find yourself licking an icecream and getting into the place...the best part is that you have a couple of helpers around who occasionally ask you if you would like anything more!!! ...for ppl like me who write mails like this sometimes from internet centres, such cyber cafes are bliss!! now THATS what I call Customer Delight!!

Push vs Pull Marketing...
Finally, I caught myself thinking recently of the people who have suggested that I start blogging since I anyways spend a lot of time writing...and then I was asking myself, so y am I not doing that?... The real reason of course is that I am extremely lazy to start a creative blog n maintain it n do justice to it...but thinking objectively, I thought to myself, blogging is more like a Pull strategy where ppl choose to visit ur blog as and when they please (of course, if your blog is as good as Shakky's u'll have loadsa visitors, not to worry!!...ok, for those of you who are curious to see his happening blog its toiletseatideas.blogspot.com and no, he is not paying me for this advertisement!...though I think he shuld!!!...now thats PR for u ;)), while what I am doing here is more of a Push strategy wherein I am forcing ALL OF YOU to see this mail and hoping for a conversion rate of atleast 10% of ppl who might end up reading it...

Did you???...
Well...thanks :)