I started sharing my mobile number on Pluggd.in around November of 2009 and here are quite a few weird calls I received in the last few weeks/months. Why am I sharing this?
Read on for details.
–
Ghana / NComputing
Person by the name Ebenezer Osei (he event left a comment) called up regarding NComputing PCs. He owns Internet cafe in Ghana and wanted to get discounted rates for his cafe expansion plans.
He called up atleast four times and unfortunately, all my attempts to reach out to NComputing team bore no result.
Companies spend so much time (and money) in reaching out to consumers, but hardly have any channel for users/customers to reach out to them.
Nice Door, But it is Closed
An Entrepreneur from Ludhiana
This guy (he is setting up a bottling plant) called up and asked if he can get a collateral free loan from banks (he shared his experience with SBI and several other sources that were supposed to provide collateral free loan, but didn’t) . He did try his luck with SBI, and after a few calls I connected him to an investor in Delhi.
Mrs. Singh
Here is the call script.
The Lady: Hello, this is Mrs Singh.
Me: Aww…Mrs. Singh?
lady: Yes. Just call me Mrs. Singh.
Me: Alright. How can I help you?
Mrs. Singh: We are looking for franchise of the service apartment company you own?
Me: Who? Me? My service apartments? Where? When?
– well, she probably landed on this post (Helion Invests $4mn in HummingBird, Service Apartment Operator) and thought we own HummingBird.
The Mosquito Guy
11’o clock in the night, this man calls up and inquires about the mosquito repellant.
Why now? Why me? Well, it seems the dude actually was bitten by a mosquito and logged onto Internet to figure out the solution– and landed on the Mozziquit post.
Internet addict or Badly bitten?
The Sardarji
So you have this Sardarji who called up and without any intro asks ‘Paaji, iPhone kitte ka hai? Idea pe chalta hai kya?’… Hello?
Later he told me went to Internet and searched for iPhone price and came across this article – iPhone Price in India (He thought that I sell iPhones)
There have been numerous calls – right from inquiries about Savita Bhabhi (“bhaiya, iska video hai kya?”) to Uninor Franchisee (from places like Patna, Mangalore etc) to a few flirtatious smses/calls 
, to entrepreneurs calling for advice.
And the reason why I am sharing all this here is very simple.
These are the ‘real’ users of the system. They do not understand what a blog/website/news site is. They hit a search engine (whatever default that comes with the browser) and probably click on the first result and if they spot a phone number, bingo!
They are the ones who click on an ad thinking it’s the content. They are the ones who do not have a lot of time to explore. They want info right now and whatever comes their way, they pick it up.
When you are building a consumer product, think of these users – who do not have the time to understand all your great UI, but just have a specific intent in mind.
Most importantly, approachability is the key to understanding your customers (otherwise, go back to corporate life, where you will spend money on false market research to understand users).
So, open the door and let them in (and be prepared for a surprise). Whatever product hypothesis that you have, needs to be validated/shattered, and approachability is the key to get your users reach out to you.
As far as I am concerned, I have again started sharing my mobile number on the site (fyi, it’s +91 98452 06443) and will share such interesting calls details on my personal twitter account (@cnha).
Till then, you figure out your approachability strategy.
Do it before they call your competition.
Recommended Read: Cost-Effective Ways to Conduct Usability Testing.
[image credit : Aunt Owwee]
To phir Ashish Bhaiyya,
Video hai kya
?
Ha ha ha…I can understand how it cold feel when someone calls you at 11 O’clock to ask about the mosquito repellent.
Seriously i agree with you and in true sense they are the actual users and they really don’t have time to understand..and try clicking here and there. When i login to my analytic accounts, at times i see strange kind of keywords/keyphrase which i never ever imagine could be used to search our services
This is kickass first hand experience. Very valuable for industries of all sizes.
Very sensible points!
LOL! Super-post every product manager should read.
Ashish, seriously this is one of the best pieces from you. Loved re-reading this thoroughly.
~ Cheers,
Arvind
Think of this. You actually created customers for yourself for services that you actually dont sell but talk about.
Exactly! And imagine how many customers aren’t able to reach out to brands..because they don’t know whom to talk to!
i guess these kind of users are very important for content publishers,, atleast they increase the ctrs
Lol
but this also really shows the internet knowledge % in india, we are great on one side of coin but the other side we are great in getting out too
Thanks & Regards
Sai Pothuri
You have a good imaginative mind, you could be the next Chetan Bhagat. How did you know the guy who called you for iPhone was a Bengali or a Bihari or Sikh?
Very nice Ashish.
Just goes on to show that even in this Web 2.0 (and other TLAs) era, talking to human remains a “core” customer need.
Very true. I am sure you read this on RWW: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_wants_to_be_your_one_true_login.php
3 cheers for you Ashish!!
I had an hearty laugh while reading Mosquito incident and at the same time boss you touched based few VERY VERY Important points in entrepreneurship in the best possible way. I will remember this for my start-up and try to see how can i improve and scale it for a better customer experience. Thanks dude!
-Rahul.
it was a rare kind of article mr ashsish. icame on the site looking about 3g ang got varous kind of info.i wish need some guidance about how do make my blog worth it has been 2 yrs and ihvnt done anytjhing about it.and about one more thing in delhi we have market research compoanies who hav employd recruiters to search for people of various age groups who r particular users of brand.idont use that brand but i go in for feedback discusion.i do it for my part time and my friends too but the thing is that these recurters make a lot of comision in between for just bringing anyone from any age group and they tell us to act like genuine users of that product.they get upto rs 500 to 1000.per head and they share rs 100 per person for 2hr discusiion on products.but the market research becomes somwhat untrue.pls dont mind my long story .i express too much.
hahahahahaha….. i cannot sit without laughinggg..i also got so many cals by seeing ma number in orkut and facebook.