Gandhigiri

'We can't do anything about it.We are sorrry however.'This is what the reply of the so called customer centric managers of this organisation.

Kalyanbhai will not remain silent.He had declared the war.But this war is without a weapon however with a determination to stand by the truth.

He told the manager politely that,'I will spend 2 hours daily in front of your store and will interact with each and every walk-ins during that time period and will share my experience with you and your store.'The store manager laughted at it.This sounded like an idiotic idea and thus he gave "Three Finger salute".

Next day,punctual kalyanbhai took leave for an hour and reached at the mall and was just standing in front of the store.The moment he found a customer walking in,he approached him and borrowed a minute.

Then introduced himself and said that,'I bought a cellphone from this store a day before and went back to home.Suddenly,I discovered that,there is some problem with the sound system of it and it wasn't audible most of the time.I revisited the store.Two sales people at the counter opened the mobile phone and then were unable to identify the problem.They assembled parts again and said that,'we can't do anything,it can't be repaired here,so you may leave now'.Kalyanbhai told him that,' I bought it from your store yesterday evening,I do have the bill and you helped me out explaining all the features.Now you are refusing to resolve my problem.In case,you are not technically sound enough to deal with this problem,Why did you dismantle it?Now,either you replace the phone or return the money.These guys were still adamant and said that,it is your mistake and may be you didn't handle it properly and therefore it led to such a problem.This was annoying and disturbing.Kalyanbhai wanted to speak to the store manager.He was a chameleon,cause the guy who was a gentleman till the purchase to Kalyanbhai was behaving like a hooligan now.He refused of any help.

So this can't be resolved at this level it seems."May I talk to your boss or any senior authority?"Kalyanbhai asked this like a nagging wife.And he spoke to the Regional Head and then the Eastern zone,Customer Care Head.But the line of replies remained same.In stead of being empathetic,they blamed him.

The defiant soldier,kalyanbhai remained calm for a while and told the Eastern Zone head that,'I will continue my protest from this moment peacefully.Till you replace this phone,daily I will sacrifice 1 hour of my time and share the same experience with all your prospective customers in front of your store.The managers found it funny and advised him not to behave like a kid and banged the phone down.

Therefore,I would request and warn you not to buy anything from this store and get into trouble like this.

This exercise continued for 3 days and he could mange to speak to some 30 customers.On the second day,a customer was just about to pack a costly mobile phone worth 3ok but after listening to his story,he dropped the idea of buying the same.

This incident opened the eyes of the store manger.He realised the power of customer and understood,why Gandhi had said that,'Customer is king,it is from his money,you earn your bread n butter".

Being panic,called up all his seniors and told them about the kalyanbhai episode.Some of the seniors still advised him to wait and observe for another day,if he still continues the protest,we will do something about him.

On the third day end,Kalyanbhai starts getting 4-5 calls from the top notch CXOs of the company who by this time had realised the blunder.They apologised sincerely.One of the senior mangers was asked to go down from Kolkata to Bhubaneswar.

A brand new model of the same cellphone with a king size bouquet accompanied a unknown visitor to Kalyanbhai's office.The person was asked to wait for a while at the reception.And then..there comes Kalyanbhai...!!!!!He welcomed the company representative and offered him tea/coffee.Looking at his demeanour,the person from the mobile company says,'Kalyanbhai!Can you ggive me a jadu ki jhappi...hugged him..hold him tight for a minute..apologised and said that,today you made me realise that,'GANDHIGIRI is practical and you taught all of our colleagues the importance of customer service and taught so many lessons of CRM(Customer Relationship Management),in this last 72 hours.'

Kalyanbhai with his unique smile was happy that his patience paid him and he left his enduring legacy behind.

Bapu..may be Kalyanbhai is your incarnation or what???That is what a question to ponder?However,may God produce so many such people who will fight for the right without destroying public property or without hurting anyone's sentiments.He won his short term enemies by his endurance,patience and unique approach.Long live,Gandhi Bhai..oopss..KALYANBHAI...