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Hello all hope everyone\u2019s doing well. Blogging after a reasonably long time, this time something unconventional and beyond my forte. I have been very interested in Economics, Finances, Capital and other Entrepreneurial matters, as I am an aspiring Entrepreneur and will be one in real-time in a month or two when I start my own Web Development Company. I have also been closely following experts,\u00a0columnists\u00a0and panellists who write on Entrepreneurial subjects, one of them being my uncle Sunil Gandhi, a veteran Chartered Accountant on his blog Anekant<\/a>. He mainly writes on \u201cCustomer Experience\u201d- in simpler words, a methodology for entrepreneurs to give your customers a better service. I as a small scale Entrepreneur too had believed in this concept and hence had been reading his literature often. But the recent fiscal fiasco, in which Kingfisher Airlines disembarked, left me shaken. I present my perspective on the issue here:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I haven\u2019t been a frequent flyer by air to judge airlines on each and every detail, but yes I have travelled by air enough number of times and in variety of airlines to pass a personal verdict as to which is better and which isn\u2019t. Of all the airlines I\u2019ve travelled so far (I\u2019ve travelled in Jet Airways, Air Deccan (Now a part of Jet Airways), Jetlite, Spicejet, IndiGo and last but not the least KingFisher). Of all, my senses were captivated by just one- KingFisher. The reason being, it\u2019s Customer Experience. After you disembark a Kingfisher\u2019s aircraft, you feel like you\u2019ve been to some King\u2019s Palace where you were served like King\u2019s Royal guests with all amenities possible. There are several aspects in Kingfisher\u2019s service which leave you just spellbound. In the next paragraph I will aim to jot down one by one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I begin my customer experience with ground services. First thing which grapples your attention will be kingfisher\u2019s graphical design. It uses Red as its theme colour. On the airport you find red bagging counters with red-dressed support staff (males and females both, fairly good looking), red billboards, red baggage tags and almost everything red. Now the thing to observe is this red isn\u2019t eye-disturbing or gaudy. It\u2019s mild and good. To my opinion this red design overall is capable to seduce an impotent person. (Might be an overstatement, but apt to describe the awesomely designed Kingfisher campaign). You\u2019ve announcements and everything happening on time. You\u2019ve support executives after check-in (even for economy class customers) to escort you to the final check-in from where you proceed towards the runway. After the final check-in, you see an awesome white-red coloured bus waiting for you to escort you to your aircraft. Now what is special about this bus? Again red! Yes, the bus is awesomely designed, with lavish red couches (yes you have puffed and smooth couches in the bus unlike those cheap airlines with Bakelite polymer seats). The bus is air-conditioned (something which even Jet Airways doesn\u2019t manage to provide even after looting customers). And yes won\u2019t forget to mention, the bus driver too is dressed in red. This bus then swiftly takes you to your aircraft. (You don\u2019t feeling like getting off this awesome bus.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Talking about the on-board services now. You don\u2019t have to wait down for the dummy staircase to arrive before the aircraft. It\u2019s already there! (Mentioning it explicitly because I know some shitty airlines with unbearable level of mismanagement who keep their guests stranded on the runway waiting for the staircase to arrive to board the aircraft). Then as soon as the last step on the staircase disappears, you have two too beautiful (and yeah unusually sexy too from a guy\u2019s perspective) airhostesses welcoming and greeting you. What a marvellous start to a journey! (This too is a part of WOWing your customer. Though it targets the male senses, but who cares? Profit, Profit and Profit is what an entrepreneur wants). Then you have some welcome drinks and water bottles given to you immediately as you seat. Won\u2019t forget to cite that beautiful airhostesses personally assist you in fastening up the seat beat. (That sounds cheap, but who cares? Remember Profit and Customer Experience!) You also have the airhosts (Yes red-dressed males too to WOW the females, Mallya doesn\u2019t leave a stone unturned) and airhostesses assisting you to keep your luggage up in the luggage boxes without you asking them to do so.\u00a0 Then the ambience of the aircraft, I bet no other airlines have such aircrafts, at least not the domestic ones. You feel almost in heaven when you\u2019re in the aircraft. You see the smoke\/air (I don\u2019t know what thing it was) coming up from the windows inside which give you a heavenly feeling. And I would explicitly cite that the aircraft is well air-conditioned in advanced making sure that you do not sweat for a second even after being on-board. (I remember my experience in Air Deccan; bloody jerks didn\u2019t start the AC till the aircraft was on the verge of taking off. Misers! ) I have a pic here to show the awesome interiors in Kingfisher\u2019s fleet:<\/p>\n

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Also one of the best part of the on-board services in Kingfisher is the awesome cabin crew (Hey, Hey both males and females). Your eyes do feel pleasant seeing faces around at least for the time till you\u2019re on the aircraft. Lolz! (Had to mention because there are Airlines like Air India who hire people with \u201cDijvijay\u201d faces as Air Hostesses. Awful! <\/em>) Then one of the most exclusive features which separates Kingfisher\u2019s experience from the rest is it\u2019s On-board Entertainment System. You\u2019ve small Television screen behind each seat not making your travel demure. The TV is preloaded with short movies, videos, news, interviews, songs, etc. (There\u2019s always content related to Deepika Padukone, partial Mallya, but who cares? – Customer Experience<\/em>). To augment audio pertaining to the videos, you have a kit exclusively given to you containing brand new headphones, a pen (For any crap you wish to write during the flight) and some rough stationary, in case you\u2019re some Ruskin Bond.) And yes, won\u2019t forget to mention, this kit is brand new, given to each guests and yes to Gujju Bhais reading this, this is your property you can take it home. I have some 4-5 such kits @ my place. Ha-ha. The television also has the facility to show you the current height the aircraft is at, the speed of the aircraft, the temperature outside the aircraft, all this to add thrill to the journey at high. (No other domestic airlines, even looting ones like Jet Airways provide such features on-board to economy class customers<\/em>). Then comes the main part- Gourmet Services (Sada Shabdo ma: FOOD). That too complimentary! (Other misers ask you to order it explicitly and pay for it). The food quality is A+ Grade. Any cuisine, be it Indian or Continental tastes too delicious. (The gourmet Sandwich in Ahmedabad-Delhi flight tasted as good as the Rajma Chawal during Delhi-Bagdogra flight) For a foodie like me, this defines Wow Customer Experience.<\/p>\n

Lastly, before the flight\u2019s landing you\u2019ve air-hostesses coming to you individually and asking for your feedback. (Is this feedback taken seriously? Yes it is, see the end of this blog post). When you descend from the aircraft, you\u2019ve the airhostesses again greeting you and thanking you for availing Kingfisher\u2019s services. I remember my experience. I was so overwhelmed that I thanked the air-hostesses instead, that too twice or thrice to which I was given an awesome smile and \u201cour pleasure sir\u201d in return. Then once you\u2019re on the ground, there is again a Kingfisher coach waiting ready for you to escort you to the airport terminals. And point to be noted my lord; they don\u2019t fill up people inside the coach as a herd of cows and goats. There are some 5-6 coaches present; each one of them accommodates only that amount of guests which can be comfortably seated on the lavish red couches inside. (Misers like Spicejet and IndiGo shall take some lessons). There is no hassle at the\u00a0bagging\u00a0rotator. Each and every baggage is systematically delivered without any misplacement. I haven\u2019t heard a story till date of some baggage misplaced\/lost from a Kingfisher flight. Overall, you get a lifetime experience, totally enchanting. (Please note, all the services I mentioned are provided in the Economy Class. Imagine the treatment in Business Class then! )<\/p>\n

Coming to the Entrepreneur\u2019s perspective now. From my above description, you might have been convinced by the fact that kingfisher provides a reasonably WOW Customer Experience. Now let\u2019s see what it got in return. Just and just losses. (And yes, unaccountable sarcasm from Faking News. Check this: http:\/\/www.fakingnews.com\/2011\/11\/mallya-announces-austerity-drive-deepika-will-travel-in-gareeb-rath\/<\/a>) Let me mention some stats here. To your astonishment, want to tell you that Kingfisher hasn\u2019t ever made a profit since it got listed! It made 1070 crores of loss during 2010-2011. It owes 200+ crores to Oil companies for fuel. And a lot more. Now let\u2019s compare Kingfisher and Jet Airways. Both have almost the same rates for Economy class travel. On one hand where Jet Airways acts like a yet another airline with hardly any customer experience even after looting the people, Kingfisher on the other hand provides awesome services, with real value for money and an unforgettable customer experience. Now, if just loss is the fate of providing a WOW Customer Experience to the audience, why would an entrepreneur want to do that?<\/p>\n

To provide a Wow Customer Experience, it requires an Entrepreneur to go out of the box. Kingfisher\u2019s On-board entertainment, gourmet services are some out of the box ideas that constitute a WOW Experience for its customer. But this Wow Experience, rather designing any Wow Experience requires extra capital that too with no returns for their investment guaranteed. In Kingfisher\u2019s case it was loss, it might not be so in all cases. There might have been some mis-planning @ the Management level that led to such high losses, but it was not only mis-planning. Some other Airline (let\u2019s say Jet Airways) could design same level of Wow Experience with better planning, but it will have to compromise with its profits (It will still be in profits, but lesser in magnitude). The problem is the social structure our country has. The main of customer experience is increasing the customer base. For airlines this doesn\u2019t happen so. Instead of Air Travellers increasing, the rate has sharply fallen in the last 5 years, the figures say. The bread-hungry Indian mass doesn\u2019t require any Wow Experience, it has learnt just compromising since ages and will continue to practice so in the coming time too. I don\u2019t say that the Wow Experience doesn\u2019t impact the Indian Customer. It definitely does, but as an entrepreneur, I too want something in return for the Wow-Experience- more customers and referrals. But this somehow doesn\u2019t take place in the Indian mass. Just take your example. Even after reading this awesome article of mine about Kingfisher, will you prefer Kingfisher for your next air travel? Definitely not. You still prefer saving your bucks (compromising with Customer Experience) and commuting in IndiGo and Spicejet.<\/em><\/p>\n

This was my perspective about Kingfisher\u2019s case. It might necessarily not be correct. But I feel too strong about this awesome Air Carrier and I felt a need to pen down the awesome experience I had when it served me. And yes, the commerce part of the aspect- Customer Experience was inspired by my fua. Hope you all enjoyed reading this piece.<\/p>\n

P.S. Love Red Love Kingfisher.<\/em><\/p>\n

Love & Regards,<\/p>\n

Anish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been very interested in Economics, Finances, Capital and other Entrepreneurial matters, as I am an aspiring Entrepreneur and will be one in real-time in a month or two when I start my own Web Development Company. I as a small scale Entrepreneur have believed in concept of “Customer Experience” . But the recent fiscal fiasco, in which Kingfisher Airlines disembarked, left me shaken. I present my perspective on the issue here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}"},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482,"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions\/482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibelievethat.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}