Trade-Off
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Met my old travel agent today morning to work out the details of the travel for the China conference (don't want to miss it like the other ones I've been skipping since I've joined IIM-L).
Anyway, he had some free time and after business it was time for personal updates (I've known him for six years and barring one, he's arranged the travel for all my foreign trips).
He works for a big and famous travel agency. Over the years people like me have got so used to him, that in fact we have forgotten the identity of the travel agency and it is only him that we recognise. He now wants to move out...maybe start an agency of his own. And he also wants to take along with him, all his faithful customers. And therein lies the catch.
Over the years, to maintain the privacy of his personal life, he has rarely given his personal or other contact details to his clients. And for many of the senior managers of the accounts he handles, he is a very trustable voice on the phone (they hardly have time to drive down). Actually the would agree to move with him to whichever agency he moves.....but all that they know is that phone number. To many of his clients, he is inseparable from that phone number. And the irony that phone number is his office's.
At the beginning of his carrier, the agency had advised him to provide his personal phone number and contact to clients create better long-term relationships but at that he was concerned about privacy. Now he has second thoughts on whether he took the right decision...then.
How difficult it is.... when the beauty of the object depends on the lighting... and you get used to seeing that 'beautiful' object...then one day the lighting changes...
Met my old travel agent today morning to work out the details of the travel for the China conference (don't want to miss it like the other ones I've been skipping since I've joined IIM-L).
Anyway, he had some free time and after business it was time for personal updates (I've known him for six years and barring one, he's arranged the travel for all my foreign trips).
He works for a big and famous travel agency. Over the years people like me have got so used to him, that in fact we have forgotten the identity of the travel agency and it is only him that we recognise. He now wants to move out...maybe start an agency of his own. And he also wants to take along with him, all his faithful customers. And therein lies the catch.
Over the years, to maintain the privacy of his personal life, he has rarely given his personal or other contact details to his clients. And for many of the senior managers of the accounts he handles, he is a very trustable voice on the phone (they hardly have time to drive down). Actually the would agree to move with him to whichever agency he moves.....but all that they know is that phone number. To many of his clients, he is inseparable from that phone number. And the irony that phone number is his office's.
At the beginning of his carrier, the agency had advised him to provide his personal phone number and contact to clients create better long-term relationships but at that he was concerned about privacy. Now he has second thoughts on whether he took the right decision...then.
How difficult it is.... when the beauty of the object depends on the lighting... and you get used to seeing that 'beautiful' object...then one day the lighting changes...
posted by Ayan Bhattacharya @ 3:40 AM
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