No team of customer service experts, no makeover mavericks, just a shoestring budget and inherent understanding of the mantra ‘Customer is the king.’ And, Anna Durai changed the auto ride game on the stretch of Old Mahabalipuram Road, Chennai.

The inspiring story of the inventive auto driver demonstrates that with a bit of extra thought, effort and planning, one can build a customer focus strategy on a minimum budget to deliver a reverberating impact. Add to that random ‘brainstorming’ with the passengers on how he might better their life!
Durai plies an auto, like none other! Furnished with utilities that one might require during a short distance trip, he has augmented the concept of customer service with no extra cost.

When his business didn’t go as planned, he chose to bring in his expertise and entrepreneurial thinking into his current mode of earning. It all began with placing newspapers in the backseat as a small provision for the riders to occupy themselves productively amidst traffic.

As he began interacting with the commuters to comprehend them better, he understood their needs and today, his auto offers a slice of life for everyone during their short journey. Magazines and newspapers for readers, Wi-Fi for people who want to surf, a small TV and music player for entertainment, a laptop, iPad or tablet for someone who wants to close an assignment while on the road. He also offers snacks, drinking water or juice in a mini-fridge inside the auto for people who might have skipped a meal!

Indeed, a gesture that will keep customers coming back and generate word-of-mouth publicity.

The most brilliant ideas are always simple. However, realizing a vision requires understanding the need-gap in any situation and a sense of purpose and passion for delivering. The auto ride is now a revered service whereby commuters enlist the travel services rather than him looking for passengers. His clientele includes employees of tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, to name a few.

Customer delight is an art, and we have a lot to learn from Anna Durai’s ground-level perspective.

Here are a few learnings:

• Large budgets are not a prerequisite for establishing your brand: A breakthrough in executing great customer experiences comes from unorthodox and innovative thinking. It is about a growth mindset that individuals need to inculcate within themselves. A curious individual can provide the spark required for out-of-the-box creativity.
• CSR can start small: A thoughtfully chalked out CSR plan requires zero investment and can go a long way to demonstrate commitment to purpose and doing good. Offering free rides to doctors, teachers, and frontline workers is a noble deed. It’s a simple and effective way –- of directly touching lives and giving back to the society.
• The brand needs to be where the consumers are: Integrating technology and connectivity is critical in today’s customer experience journey. Anna Durai understood that it is crucial for people, during transit, to entertain themselves or to connect, so they don’t get disconcerted with the traffic or miss out on an important call.
• Cost and value pricing is the key to customer loyalty: Even after setting the bar of services so high, he kept the charges similar to the other autos, making it the ride of choice for customers. The cost-efficient strategy now ensures that passengers needing a ride in the city call him for a ride and even pre-book his services from his website.
• Hyperlocal experiments have their own magic: He drives his auto in a limited area and has yet gained the nation’s attention. Creating an experience for the customer wherever and in whatever role you are is vital to establishing your brand. In addition, experimentation generates curiosity that will push people to try your brand.

Customer delight is not a sudden flash of inspiration. It is the accumulation of incremental improvisations, carefully meted out through experimentation and a certain amount of risk.

Gaining knowledge is the key to innovation. Reading newspapers elicited the idea of providing it for his customers. His efforts to try an alternative business model that’s never been tried before led his practice to become a classic customer delight case study.

Anna Durai has shown us that an indomitable entrepreneurial spirit can open up magical possibilities in any situation – lessons in customer delight that each one of us can implement in our work-life.

Photo credit: The Logical Indian