'Customerize'

On the way to Hassan from Bangalore there is a little town called Kunigal.

I was there twice last Sunday on the way to Shravanabelagola, an ancient Jain monolith situated on a rock.

Before starting we were reliably informed by our friend, “There is a Kamat Hotel on the way. Have your breakfast there. ”

After negotiating Sunday morning blues and Bangalore traffic, we reached this little town at 10 AM very very hungry. We could not locate the famous Kamat hotel on the way.

There are not many ‘good’ restaurants in Kunigal, our driver told us. We will have to ‘manage’.

After a few enquiries in Kannada by the driver, we were able to locate Hotel Sowmya on the state highway in the busy town centre.

The restaurant looks like any other in a small town. The tables were pretty neat and clean. The same could not be said of the floors though. Based on some previous experience, I though to myself, “Usually restaurants in small towns serve authentic country food…”

As expected the food was good. But the highlight was the waiter. Speaking fluent English and serving all what we ordered in record time, we really could not ask for more.

I decided that given the lack of other eating places, evening coffee on our return should definitely be had here.

On our return, I sat on the same bench and asked for coffee. And immediately a super jumbo cup of coffee arrived; double the size of the normal coffee he served in the morning.

This waiter remembered that I had two cups of coffee in the morning since I found the serving to be small (I mentioned that to him). He immediately customized his cup of coffee for me in the evening…

…And he did not forget that I wanted strong coffee with less sugar.

The holy grail of marketing, customizing your product to meet each individual customer’s need…

What the best companies in the world were trying to do investing million of dollars, this person was doing without any investment in the small town of Kunigal on the way to Hassan.