The Cable Guy

As I settled into an apartment, I required the Dish TV service to come in for installation. Tata Sky came highly recommended, and a quick phone call to their toll free number set up the appointment. As the gent scanned the premises, he concluded - in the least enthusiastic manner - that it was going to take extra cable and more time than usual to get it up and running. He promised to return but after an hour or so, I got a sms stating that I had requested for the job to be cancelled.

Exasperated, I called Airtel. The representative made a similar assessment, however he immediately got on with the job. Seeing his enthusiastic approach, I asked him midway if he could also set up an additional connection. This would set him way past his working hours, but he still smiled and agreed to do so.

As I contemplated on the two scenarios, it dawned on me that despite the millions that Tata Sky spent on fantastic advertising, it just took a lazy technician to blow a sale. Further he also figured how to manipulate the system so that he was not penalized. But that was not it – we also have a situation where a company would not know that an individual has gone out of his way to make a sale possible. I wonder which one I should be more concerned for – I lean towards the latter.