The Day called Today

Today was an eventful day for mine. There were several incidents that made it special in it's own way. To start of today finally after 7 remainders and umpteen numbers of follow ups one of the major customers of my list was blacklisted and all the circuits were blocked and they were barred from using our services further. Let me give a background of this case:

This company was one of the leading pharmaceutical companies of India. The total outstanding for this company was around 50 Lakhs of rupees and right from December this client has not paid a single rupee till date. Being a Relationship Manager my primary work is to look whether this non payment is due to some discomfort of customer regarding the services that they have procured from us. After I was confirmed that there was no such issue my focus went on towards collection of this entire amount. I have been following up with this account from December failed to collect the clean collectible amount. Hence finally things went out of my control and the Credit Control team sent 5 remainders in last one month to ensure flow of funds from customer side. To my surprise there has been no replies to even a single mail from customer's side till date. Finally I went ahead and after necessary approvals disconnected the customers services.

The response was immediate as some of their business units were at a hit because of disconnection of all the telecom services procured by them. There were phone calls after phone calls and finally after a commitment of clearance of amount in 3 working days we finally reconnected them. I was requested to be present before the CEO and the CIO of the company for a meeting to reconciliate the account and arrive at a value that will be cleared from their side. Little did I knew there is more twist awaiting for me untill I arrived before their CEO and CIO.

The reaction was vehement. I was put against severe wrath and was described as an employee of a fucked up company and what not. My patience got a hit and I also replied back retaliating but keeping my tone as gentle as I could have done and keeping my cool. The decision that came out was they do not want to do any further business with us and will terminate all their services after payment of the entire amount.

I left the client's office with a heavy heart. I was in sales earlier before shifting to customer services management and know how difficult it is to earn a customer and then to win his trust. It is called relationship management and being a relationship manager I was pondering whether the course of actions were apt and are justifed. The more I asked the question to myself the more my heart grew heavier. One question is still there in the back of my mind: If a customer defaults payments and defers his commitment for N number of times is it wise to disconnect him and loosing him permanently? That to our enterprise large customers having a pan India and even in some cases pan world presence? How to decide which number is N, after which the customer should be treated harshly? Can we not make our sales managers also a little bit more responsible towards ensuring smooth managerment of revenue, rather than only keeping themselves busy with selling? I only have questions, GOK who has the answers!!!!

Now coming to the second incident that made the day special. I have a collection executive working with me for issue resolution and smooth collection of funds. He is more like a friend of mine and we have become quite good friends of late. Today he took me to his house for lunch. It was a sudden and a very eternal request because of which I could not say no. He lives in a small house with his parents, his father has lost his job quite few years ago and he is the only earning member of family. There is one sister who is still studying. All in all they are not very comfortable financially neither they are very uncomfortable. What touched my heart is the eternity and the love given to me by all of them. I was not treated any less than their own son and was not at all differentiated as a guest who has come for the first time. Once again I realised one fact: LOVE, COMPASSION AND ETERNITY ARE BEYOND THE SIZE OF HOUSE, THEIR ECONOMIC CONDITION OR EVEN BEYOND CRISIS OR ABUNDANCE. RATHER THEY ARE MORE DEPENDENT OF THE KINDNESS AND TENDERNESS OF THE HEART OF THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THAT HOUSE. I thanked him for making my day and make me feel being at home away from home.

The third incident is quite depressing. I have been achieving my targets and every month used to cross at least one crore. This month my target was 2 crores and I am standing at 2 Lakhs. Now this is embarassing because every month in the dashboard I used to be in the TOP 25 LIST. This time I am one of the bottom fives and my boss ridiculed today telling me that I have created a new record. It was really embarassing. I wish all my custome should have cooperated with me and this would not have happened at all. Any ways I guess failures only open the paths of success. :-)

Well that is all for the day. Hope to have a better tomorrow. This is the best part of being so optimistic. However dark and dreadful the dusk is today, I always expect the next dawn to be full of brightness and success. I wish the same for one and all. Let the tomorrow for everyone be brighter and successful in evey aspect.