The Maple leaf guest house owner is probably unaware of the relationship his employees have built up over time ( with me and many others ) which is the prime reason why many like me continue to patronize this place . He himself has never spoken to me except an occasional greetings and may not even recollect where I work . To him running this guest house properly would mean high occupancy rate, on-time billings and collections and keeping expenses under control !!
So when gradually his older employees started leaving and the new ones could not continue the culture , the CRM broke down ! The owner will be clueless now to understand what went wrong and why he will start losing longtime guests like me .
Sunday late evening arrival ..
Good evening, Sir, Ghar mein sab theek hain ??
Yes , Thank you Kewal & how are you ?
My strolley bag and notebook back pack get quickly whisked away even before I finish signing the Hertz trip completion form .
Good evening Sir, Please sign here ..
All other fields in the guest register are already pre-entered !
HP Sir ka samaan sab rakh do !
My walking shoes , slippers and toiletries articles ( which I leave behind here ) are sent to my room immediately along with an extra pillow, iron box, bottle of mineral water and remote for TV and AC .
Thank You Manjeet ,
Sir , aaj karela mangwa rakha hai, aur rajmaa bhi .
Half-half kar doon ?
And that decides my dinner as well .
Manjeet and Hem manage the front desk, reception, telephone switch board, billing. They also double up as IT wireless lan specialist. electrician, TV and backup generator technicians .
Kewal, Suman and Hari are responsible for everything else except cooking . Room service, House keeping, Bell desk, Porter, Wake up alarm, paper delivery and shoe shine.
Vijay cleans the floor, waters the plants and does odd jobs
Rajinder and Ram take care of logistics, airport pick up and drop service and city guide as well .
5.45 AM - hot team in a flask with sugar free
6.10AM – TOI + ET delivery
8.15AM – Breakfast - non oil, non spicy bland food .
Occasionally - Aaj bhaturey bhej doon ? less oil mein ho jayega !
8.45 AM – office drop in the car – low A/C, low blower, No FM or CD , no cell phone talk and moderate speed !
And in the evening when I return ..
Aaj ka din kaisa tha Sir ??
And sometime we would talk about my daughter, son, Ram’s fourth Daughter, Manjeet’s wife’s exam preparation, their families in Nepal & Bihar or Kewal’s new & fancy Samsung cell phone .
And end up with something similar to
Fresh paalak laya hoon , aur bhindi bhi … to close dinner again .
Over the last year , slowly attrition took its toll , here too
Hari was the first to go – went to
Rajinder had a fight with the owner and left in a huff suddenly
Manjeet switched to a different guest house a couple of blocks away
Kewal boarded a flight to
Did not see Suman and Ram went off to
The new staff refused to understand me ..
Aaj khaney mein kya hai, Pankaj ?
Saab, room mein menu card hai, aap choose kar lijeye !!
Vijay , recently promoted to room service does his best to make up , but it does not work .
Last trip , a 3 day stay & everything went awry !!
The CRM had broken down completely and there was no customer service either . It was not a difficult decision to make . Even the belated Diwali traditional dry fruit gift pack, sent thru Vijay could not change my mind !
Sad ! four years of great relationship .
Eroded by 3 days of insensitive treatment .
And I switch to a new guest house !!
Krish..
