Dealing with unsolicited calls

How many times have you heard people complaining about the calls they get from various insurance, banking, and telecom companies? Forget about others, I am sure even you have been a victim of unsolicited calls. But what have you done about it? May be listed yourself in some so called ‘Do not call’ register. Despite that I have seen people get calls from those companies. If you have experienced something that is mentioned above then I have something to share with you all.
Please never get angry with them. Because it is their job to call up people, it is their way of doing business. Cold calling is one of the toughest and meanest jobs in the world. They are anyways under pressure from their respective bosses to get some customers. I am saying this from personal experience. I was never forced to do cold calling but my friend and I had tried it out just to have fun. We came across people who were polite but at the same time there were some who were very rude who would not think twice before insulting someone. At the end of the exercise we realized that the life of a person who does cold calling is very tough (this is I am saying after doing cold calling without being under any sort of pressure). This is not to say that you should buy all the products and services that are offered to you. But there are ways in which you can say ‘NO’ without being rude.
I have never registered myself with any ‘Do not call’ sort of a thing so I get calls and number of them!! Here are ways that I use to say ‘No’ without being rude.

1. Whenever you get a call from any bank that is dying to give you a loan, just tell them about you credit history i.e. that you defaulted miserably the last time you took a loan and spent two days in jail. And if even after all this, someone is still insisting on giving loan then just go ahead and take the loan and default also!
2. If you are bored giving the same reason mentioned above (I am sure you will get bored, but they won’t get bored calling you up!) then may be you can ask for a loan of around 2, 42,358 crores saying you need that money to start one vada pav stall outside Ghatkopar station, I am sure he will not call you for the next 2,346 years!
3. If someone calls you trying to sell insurance then just tell him that someone from his company just called 15 minutes ago for the same product and tell him that you should make sure that two different sales guys don’t call up the same person and that too within a time frame of 15 minutes! This generally embarrasses them so don’t use this often.
4. We also get calls from some companies asking us to invest money in some schemes guaranteeing return higher than Mount Everest! One answer that I always give and that has always worked is to tell them that your father is one of the best financial advisors in town. Once I told my friend about this, but when he got a call he went one step ahead and said “my father is the financial advisor to your boss!” Result: the caller hung up!!
5. But not everyone’s father is a Financial Advisor like my friend’s! So one answer that you can give is to tell them that you lost your job just yesterday. Forget about investments they would sympathize with you! But there are also some who after sympathizing ask “to ab aapko kab job milega..main next week call karu?!” (So when would you get another job…should I call you next week?!) It is after hearing this question that I got fed up and graduated to the answer number 4!!
6. Sometimes you also get calls asking you to change your telecom service provider and subscribe to their service and they go on to mention their various schemes. If you have some free time (like I have all the time for this kind of calls!) then just counter whatever schemes they mention with one scheme of yours, however fake it may be but just make sure that yours is better than what you are being offered. Considering the number of schemes that are coming up every day, chances are that he may not find out that you are lying and he would end the conversation saying “I’ll get back to you sir”
7. If you just want to have some fun then you can give your friend’s number saying that he is looking exactly for something like this. Or else you can always give your enemy’s number!
8. Finally whatever you do, just be nice to them. Because you may not need what they are offering, but if you are nice to them then they may call up in future to sell something which, who knows, you could be looking for at that point in time!
So never say ‘NO’ just say ‘Not now’!!

Should women rule the country?

Wikipedia defines Economics as follows,
Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek (oikonomia, "management of a household, administration") from (oikos, "house") + (nomos, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house (hold)". Should we just assume for the moment that someone who runs the country should know this subject well. Going by the origin of the name (management of a household, administration), it is not difficult to conclude that only women should run the country as they run the household! But it is not the case as we see right now. How many famous female economists have we heard of? Not many. Correct?
Let’s just list out the qualities the ruler should have. Ruler should be someone who knows how to manage money (of course he is not the only one who takes all decisions but he certainly has some powers) as each and every transaction that takes place is measured in terms of money. Now let’s relate this to a woman. All middle class families have their household budget decided well in advance. Irrespective of inflationary situations, Indian women are blessed with the ability to save from whatever money they get to run the house. And in case of emergency (financial) we see how her savings come to the rescue and rarely do we see deficits (which have become as common as day & night on a bigger level) in households irrespective of income level. We have seen how men have run the countries and messed things up. So let us just give a chance to women to prove their mettle (which they have already done in other areas). I may sound illogical when I promote women rulers solely on the basis of their ability to handle households effectively. But let’s just give them a chance as we have seen enough man made (literally men made!) financial disasters. One more quality that we expect of a ruler is negotiation skill as it plays a huge role in things like getting others to invest in your country, getting favorable terms for your country (again even this decision is affected by many). Now relate this to women. From simple things like buying vegetables, to negotiating renovation costs with painters and carpenters, we, every day, see this display of skills. But since these are mundane activities, the skills always go unnoticed. Leader also needs to be a people’s person, again women beat men hands down in this department, and it is not for nothing that most of the HR professionals are females!! Again this doesn’t guarantee their performance on a bigger lever but at least it gives some support to the argument. We have already seen women making a mark at local and at national level but still they are in minority. So why not have a regulation that makes it compulsory to have only women as people’s representative (at local level) and see what happens. Anyways, I have always felt that women are destined to rule the world so men would be better off giving charge of things to women, themselves. At least this would show men in good light for showing modesty and large-heartedness.

Price of Progress

We discussed in our previous post as to how the organized retail is gaining ground in India and how it is leading to a win-win situation for everyone. But there is a price that we have to pay for the progress that we are making. This price takes different forms and some of them are mentioned here. To give you a simple example: just think about the number of times you have gone to Juhu beach over the last few years. If you put it on graph, I bet, you will get a downward sloping curve. I remember it used to be an event during my school days whenever we would go to Juhu beach. It was a lot of fun as well as one of the best places to hang out with your friends. People would sit there till sunset which was an amazing sight; nature’s beauty at its very best.
But that number has constantly come down since we have encountered the biggest hang out place of them all: Malls. At least this has been the case with me and a lot of people that I know. I just don’t remember the last time I had gone to Juhu beach. Just think of those kids who are in school and have not even heard of Juhu beach. What a huge loss that is going to be; loss not in terms of money but the fact that they will miss out on the joy of walking bare feet at beachside with a bhel in their hands. Agreed that malls crate a lot of employment and a lot of income but the indirect impact is that people who used to sell bhel and kulfi at beach like Juhu lose out. Just take another example of books and how the organized players have replaced the Book walas who used to sit outside Churchgate station. Though they are still there but their number has reduced drastically. I came to know from one of the Book wala that number of Book sellers have gone back to their villages as they had to close down their business (which could also be due to regulation that forced them out of business). One more example could be Mewad Ice cream carts that used to be seen earlier but suddenly they have disappeared and have been replaced by Softee Ice cream parlors who sell better quality ice cream (debatable) at the same price. Still, the question here is not who is better but the fact that person who is selling Softee Ice cream is not same as the one who used to sell Mewad Ice cream. So again, a job has been crated at the cost of another job.
Let me just mention once again that the objective here is not to question the importance of malls (which signify progress in this case) as we can’t stop progress. But at the same time we need to take into account the victims of that progress (Mewad wala, Bhel wala, Book wala) who have lost their employment and gone back to their villages which will certainly have negative impact on their income. Present generation will miss out on better things in life like walking down the Juhu beach and seeing the sunset. Finally everything boils down to individual choice. As we progress, we get better off than we were earlier, there is no doubt about it. Given a choice, personally I would prefer a mall over a Juhu beach. As I get a variety of products at cheap prices as well as a centrally air conditioned place to hang out with my friends without spending a single rupee! Now it is up to me to strike a balance between the two i.e. Progress & the Price of that progress.

Tale of Retail

Last few years have seen an emergence of organized retail in India and how! Wherever you go you find new malls coming up and existing ones being made bigger and better however empty they may be! I remember I had gone out for dinner with my family (total of 18 people) and found out that my cousin (who works for a company making mnemonic devices) had forgotten to make reservation! And as one would expect the hotel was packed from the kitchen (which rests at the north-end of the hotel till the south-end where even the security guard’s seat was occupied by my niece who was waiting to get inside. All this happening on a weekday in Ghatkopar! I felt agitated on having to wait outside but at the same time little economist within me told me that despite all the talks of slowdown at least Ghatkopar’s GDP remained unaffected! (Anyways that is not our topic of discussion. Feeling pity for the security guard, I asked my niece, who was behaving as if she had not eaten since last 23 years, that we should go to the nearby mall which had just opened a few days back. She agreed reluctantly.
When we entered we were made to pass through that ubiquitous entrance which rarely works. Then we were encountered by a security guard (weighing around 28 kgs) who frisked us as if they had received some warning regarding some terrorist squad who had infiltrated Ghatkopar’s borders! We were in for the biggest surprise of our life when we discovered that there were very few people inside (only the two of us to be specific!) Then why all this frisking and all?!?! What did they think? That a 24 year old Gujarati was going to blow up the whole mall with the help of his 8 year old niece?! Anyways even this is not our topic of discussion!
Feeling very embarrassed at the thought of being the first two people to enter that mall that day we decided to leave instantly (thank god for not having been frisked on our way out) and instead join our family members outside hotel. However, this is not to say that this form of retail ain’t going to work. The malls are here to stay but only those who’ll give right things at right place at right time with right promotion (sorry couldn’t help but mention the 4Ps concept that I studied!) as it was evident in other malls which were packed to the brim at that very point in time and that too within tantalizingly close distance of the mall that I had gone to!
So finally coming to the central theme of this post, my point here is to support the views of those who believe that organized and mom & pop stores can actually live in harmony with each other and grow as well. Now since it is the small mom & pop stores that have served us since generations, I’ll talk about the things that they are doing to survive as well as prosper. Let’s take an example: we have been buying all our household requirements from a nearby store for years now. And one thing that gives this kind of stores an edge over other stores (read organized stores) is the personalized service that they give. They greet their customers by their name (not by ‘sir’ or ‘madam’), they are aware of their customers requirements as in the owner of the store that we go to knows that every Tuesday and Saturday we buy a narial on our way to temple. So he makes it a point to keep it ready the moment we reach his store and we, in turn, are assured of our daily requirements. There are also other things like home delivery, selling on credit that is peculiar to mom & pop stores. There are times when in case of an emergency the owner would open his store in midnight to serve its customers. These things are very difficult for the malls to implement. But still I feel these things are very common as any local store (which wants to survive) would do this. So what other things that can be done to enhance the level of service?
Well I experienced a couple of those things when I visited my school friend’s newly opened general store. I had gone their with my mother with the intention of getting her introduced to my friend as well his family members who were managing it so that we could that extra discount (typical gujju mentality!) And while I was browsing the store I saw that there was one person dedicated exclusively for the home delivery transactions. Now this may sound simple enough but later I found out, from my friend, the logic behind it. He mentioned as to how people get frustrated when they are asking for something and the person who is serving them, at the same time, also takes the order on phone. This irritates both the customers, one who is on the phone as well as the one who is present at the store (depending on who is being made to wait!) So keeping someone to deal exclusively with home delivery orders leads to a win-win situation for all. Second thing that I found very interesting was that every sales person had been trained to remind customers of the things they could buy: Like a person buying Bread was reminded of things like butter, jam etc. Agreed this is basic, but still not common! And finally third thing which just won me over was that whenever a customer left the store, the sales person who was serving would say “Avajo, ane fari vaar jarur thi avajo!” (Good bye, and do come back next time). Again this may sound basic thing when you say it in English (as we experience this every time we go to Café Coffe Day or McDonald’s), but this could do wonders when said in local language as it instantly connects with the customer as it did when my mother and I left the store.
When I entered the store I entered with the intention of getting that extra bit of discount but when I left I wasn’t thinking of it (nor did I get any!), but I was sure about one thing that the store had added one new & regular customer to its list. Now as we can see even when it comes to buying from mom & pop stores, it won’t take that much time to change loyalty (as in my case). Not because I had problems with the old one but it’s just that I have found one store which is giving that EXTRA bit of service. As we can see this extra bit of service that now we get is not because the store owner has read some marketing book and realized the importance of giving better service. This change is happening because they don’t want to lose their customers to organized retailers. Agreed, organized retail has added to the competition and sometimes small retailers may find it difficult to survive but at the same time small stores who will innovate, like we have seen above, will prosper. In all this, if there is someone who will benefit irrespective of what happens, then its customer!!