I had reached the new Terminal 2 at Bangalore airport after a long day of meetings with a couple hours to spare for the Mumbai flight. The terminal is dazzling in its beauty, a far cry from the structures I grew up with. DigiYatra ensured I breezed through. Since there was time for the flight and I was hungry, I made my way to the lounge.
It had been a busy day and I had not eaten lunch. While I knew I would get a full meal on the Vistara flight, that was still a few hours away. I checked the food offerings in the lounge and not finding anything Jain, I decided to check with one of the lounge staff if they had any Jain options. The reply, “No, Sir. Only the curd rice over there.” Then he asked me, “Where are you seated?” I pointed to a spot. He didn’t say anything and walked away.
I picked up some juice and sat down. About ten minutes later, the same person whom I had spoken to came with a plate of kulcha and chole. He said, “Sir, I had the kitchen prepare this specially for you. They are both Jain.” And before I could thank him, he had walked away – and returned with a glass of water. I was overwhelmed.
This was service beyond the line of duty. I was just another individual in the crowd. He had not seen me earlier and would probably not see me again for a long time. He, along with the kitchen staff, had to go out of their way to prepare a fresh meal for a “segment of one” (to borrow a phrase from marketing). I spoke about customer service and delight to my team, and here it was – a living embodiment of the same.
I thanked him. He replied, “If you can, do send an email to us.” (Which I did a couple days later.)
As I walked to the boarding gate after a full meal, I thought to myself: How can we in Netcore create an environment where frontline, customer-facing staff can take actions which positively impact our customers? Somewhere in the training of the lounge staff, someone had inculcated a deep motivation for customer delight. And the person who served me took a call at that moment to use that freedom to get me a personalised meal. For him, I was special – like everyone else. For me, it was an experience that will live long in my memory.
