Friday Photo – Khau Galli – Pancharatna building

Khau Galli, a street full of food stalls behind Panchratna building.

Khau Galli Flox Chambers, behind Pancharatna building

3 Tips from Champion Customer Representative

Last week I called a Customer Service of one company. They took couple of minutes and solved my problem. The call was full of ‘Thanks’ and ‘apology’ and lot of other formal words. I started wondering how can a company who hires thousands of employees to talk to customers (many of them are angry customers), make sure that representative is always polite and uses formal terms from start till end.

3 Tips from Customer Representatives

I spoke to one of the my friend who has worked at more than one back-office-company-customer-care-company. Here are few interesting  ideas which he shared with me.

Number 1) Never use negative words like ‘We can’t help you’ or ‘This is your problem’ or ‘I won’t transfer your call to my Manager’

Number 2)First talk about offering a not-so-cool solution to a problem. Once customer thinks about this ‘not-so-cool’ option, offer a better option which company can afford to provide. for eg: ‘contact one of our local technician to fix the problem‘ after few minutes say ‘Do not worry – we will send a technician to your place to fix it‘

Number 3) Never say ‘Since you didn’t pay contract money now you have to pay 1000 rupees to fix problem’ instead say ‘Lets get this present problem fixed for 1000 rupees and then I will start new contract for you, give 3 months free’. So instead of using statements like ‘if you do x then we will give you y‘ say something like – ‘Lets first do X and then Y will be done‘

There is a checklist of initial greeting and the way call gets ended. They way call gets forwarded to next department. However in addition to all the standard checklist items, depending upon how customer sounds, a smart customer representative changes his tone.

Interview with Mr Nishank Parikh

When you talk to some person for few minutes – you get sense of where that person is going in life. When you talk to Nishank Parikh – all you sense is working confidence and humility. Lets hear more from him:

Nishank Parikh, Diamond Trading and Brokerage, Mumbai Diamond market

Nishankbhai, How did you start your career in diamond industry?
I started working in diamond market 7 years back. I had just finished my HSC (12th) exams. I got opportunity to work with Monarch Gems. I next 4.5 years I got chance to work in different tasks.

Started with accounts department – printing export invoices, bank documentation and other formal office documents. Than I was transferred to service  task – visit office of different companies, show goods and try to get new business for company. It was and lot of learning. After this moved to stock keeping of company and managing all diamond goods.

Eventually started working in marketing department for local business and slowly started getting exposure to new clients in international market.

After all these years one hood thing i realise is – I didn’t get comfortable with just one thing i already knew – i tried to play different roles and lea  new thing. This helped me grow and also i was in position to add lot of value to company.

After all these years of learning, I decided it was time that o start my business. Did some serious planning,took guidance  – started my own Entrepreneur journey in diamond market with diamond brokerage and diamond trading.

I successfully completed my graduation too while working diamond market.

If not diamond market, what other profession would you have tried?
[smiles] I cannot think of anything else. My dad was always working in diamond market. While I was studying an started thinking about what I would do in life, I was already taking lot of inspiration from my dad and all that I knew about diamond market. I think quite early in life I was determined to become diamond trader and be good at it.

Do you consider any person as your Mentor?
Absolutely! My mentor is Priteshbhai Shah from Monarch Gems. I have learned lot of things from him. In-fact I wont mind to say that whatever I have achieved in my career has lot of contribution Priteshbhai.

I remember when I my Dad took me to Priteshbhai’s office for the first time, Priteshbhai told my dad that he will make sure that I get to learn lot of things and in 4 – 5 years I will be in in position to do good work in industry. I can never forget all the help I got from Priteshbhai.

How was your experience during 2008 slowdown?
I was still working at Monarch Gems. I was taken care of by my Monarch Gems. I was taking part in marketing activities around that time and got exposed to various things in market. First we started seeing price cut of 5% – 10% . Many took small loss and sold their goods. Others kept holding it only to sell it later for bigger losses in panic. People who were financially in good position kept holding their diamonds for long time and were able to escape slowdown to great extent. Some of the rich and smart people also did lot of buying when prices were at bottom. They made huge profit year later.

Can you think of any good or bad aspect about our Diamond market?
One distinct aspect in our industry is of ‘Referral’ or ‘relations’. This you can take it as positive or negative. For every task – small or big – if you have good network and support from people  – things move smoothly. Any diamond brokerage deal or any small office paper work – if you know people – your work gets completed.

Its common to hear from people in market something like ‘I would never do this trade for such a low price but since it is for you – I will do the business anyways‘.

What do you think about Indian Diamond market when we talk about it globally?
It is promising place. Day by day it is growing.  Just find information about how many Clients/buyers use to come to market 5 years back. Compare that record with today’s situation. There is a huge progress. Previously few selected buyers use to visit markets in Mumbai and they had fix partners from whom they would do all business. Now you see many buyers and they confidently do business with several companies. They don’t limit them-self to selected few companies and look for good opportunities through out the market. It is so inspiring to see a big base Diamond manufacturing out of places like Surat and Bhavnagar.

What kind of changes do you see coming to our market in next 3 – 5 years?
Not sure what will happen. Up and down cycle is part of our industry. Many a times markets sentiments are manipulated artificially.  But one thing will never change – work hard, make smart decisions and strengthen your relationships in business network – do this – and you will grow in diamond market.

It is very important to stay honest – else in long run it will become difficult to survive in business. By outsmarting people and making short term gains will only bring loss-making surprises to you someday in future. Trust plays vital role in our industry.

When you are not working – what do you do? Any hobbies?
Not really! I think I spent most of my day at work. I enjoy talking to people in market – again about business and stuff happening in market. You learn amazing things when you talk 10 new people in market. Keep your eyes and hears open – there are lot of business ideas and tips in people’s discussions.

Any message for Diamondbhai.com readers? Specifically for new comers in our industry?
Keep yourself prepared for first 3 – 5 years for struggle phase. It takes hard work and patience to grow in market. be open for all kind of work. Don’t discriminate work as small or big.

Friday Photo – Milan Tea House

Mumbai Diamond Market runs on Milan Tea House. If you like this picture do stop by for a cup of Tea.

(Do you have any interesting picture from our market? Send it to me. I will share it in Friday Photo. We will give credits to you.)

Milan Tea House - Mumbai Diamond Market

Are you already fan of DiamondBhai.com Facebook page ? If not visit page here and hit ‘Like’ button

Friday Photo

What is Friday photo?
Every Friday morning we post one or more pictures. These pictures are directly or indirectly related to Diamond market.

Can anyone submit Photo?
Yes! You can email photo to chetan [at the rate] diamondbhai (decimal point) com

What will I get if my Photo is posted on diamondbhai.com?
If we like your photo and it gets posted in ‘Friday Photo’ series – I will buy you Cup of Tea and Fafda Jalebi.

Should I add my or my company’s name at bottom of the photo?
Either you do it or we will do it. If you give us Photo and ask us to display credits, we will do it.

And here’s first photo of ‘Friday Photo’ series.

Mumbai Dabbawala - Opera House, Mumbai Diamond Market

Test your Business Decision Making in 2 minutes

In past weeks we have posted interesting articles on how we look at same money differently. If you have not read below 2 articles, spend 5 minutes they are worth reading it. These articles show how our mind unknowingly influences our decision process.

Why Rs 100 is not same Rs. 100?
In this post our friend puts extra efforts to save 100 rupees when he is buying 400 rupees worth of item. However when it comes to big purchase of 9000 rupees, he doesn’t care about putting effort to save 100 rupees.

I want your Diwali Bonus back
we explained how we look at money we get in bonus differently compared to regular salary we get. Post explains that a bonus money is considered as an extra/free money and most of the people end up spending it on things which they would never buy with regular salary. In reality money you got in bonus and money from your salary is all same, it is part of your income. However we create Mental model which makes us look at some money differently from other.

Business Decision Making Test

Anyways, Today we have one more experiment for you. I am going to give you two scenarios and ask how would you make decision. Let’s test your decision making 🙂

[Scenario 1]
Let say you bought advance ticket for next Aamir Khan movie for 250 rupees. On day of show you walk in to Theater – you realise that you have lost the ticket. It was in your shirt pocket – but now its gone.

Man!
What would you do next?
Buy a new ticket?
Or cancel the idea to see movie?

Ask yourself this question and keep answer with your self. No-No hold on! Ask yourself seriously. What would you decide? Take 5 seconds.

Alright! Now let’s talk about next situation

[Scenario 2]
You wanted to see new Aamir Khan movie. You know ticket cost is 250 rupees. You check your shirt pocket – it has 250 rupees. You reach theater – realise you lost money somewhere. Money is gone.

Man!
You lost 250 rupees. What to do?

Would you remove money from your wallet/pant-pocket or borrow from friend or use credit card ?

Would you still buy ticket?
Or
You would walk back home?

Make a decision. I give you 5 seconds.

Results
Here’s what happened when above two scenarios were test on a group of 100 people:
In [scenario 1]  out of 100 who lost tickets – only 44 people bought new ticket again.
In [scenario 2] out of 100 who lost 250 rupees – 80 people arranged for additional 250 rupees and bought movie ticket.

Did your decision making matched with above result? Let us know what you think about it.

Conclusion: In both the cases person lost 250 rupees but people make decision differently. I have no idea why we do things differently. Thriw these scenarios in front of your friend while traveling in train and see how they make decision.

Friends please help me spread word about DiamondBhai.com. Support us by hitting ‘Like’ button. Visit our facebook page and hit ‘Like’. Call your friend and tell them about diamondbhai.com. If you dont send diamondbhai.com link to 5 friends in next 10 minutes – an angry crow will come down and do _____ on your head. Don’t believe it? Just wait for 10 minutes.

5 Things to do on Facebook to grow your Diamond and Jewelry Business

1) Share sufficient information: On your personal profile share enough content to build new relationship and cherish one which are already in the friend list. Social Networking is all about building relations. If you do not share any interesting information (personal and general) how would some one register your presence.

How To Use Facebook to Grow your Business

2) Do not share too much personal stuff: people use facebook without paying attention to what goes public and what stays private inside profile. Sharing photos from a business trip, exhibition, office meeting or work-place-evening-Chai time  are excellent thing to show that your business is full of sincerity and fun. Sharing information about what books you read or what new thing you are trying to do, is cool too. But sharing some personal pictures with whole world is not great idea. Share your personal stuff only with friends and family. Keep business and personal stuff separate. Spend a good 30 minutes today inside your facebook profile to find out what part you are OK to share with strangers, rest of the stuff should be shared privately only with close ones.

3) Avoid being pushy: I see lot of Jewelry and Diamond business talking about nothing but their business. There are many profile who talk about one thing – that is – what product they are sellign today. Problem is everyone in their friend list is doing same. Everyone around you is just talking about some Diamonds or Jewelry they want to sell. After a while no one really cares about what other guy talks about.

4) Bring Balance: Keep balance of organic stuff and sales-pitch. Organic stuff is something cool or informative which everyone will like. Some cool picture or interesting information or some though provoking idea. Once in a while a silly joke. Mix all this with your product-pitching.

5) Think like a school kid (sometimes): Get your camera or just use cell phone camera and click something cool in diamond market today. Put your business name tag at the bottom of picture and share it on facebook.

6) “Do not beat the dead horse” I have no idea how that phrase originated, but it sounds cool to use. What it really means is “an action being done over and over when it simply won’t work” – use this phrase couple of times on facebook in next few months when your friend repeats same-thing again and again. If you heard this phrase for the first time today – Congratulations! You have learned a new phrase today – “Don’t beat a dead horse” . And with that I just did some organic sharing – I shared something where you have learned something new today or you revisited something cool you already knew.

7) Are you paying attention?: Title of this post says “5 things to do” and we are right now on point number ‘7’. Chances are you didn’t notice it. Internet is very helpful but very dangerous place. People’s attention is not of high quality because there are so many things to see.  Next time you write some status message or share something – make it cool enough for people to pay a good quality attention.