True Story - "I sell Trust & Honesty because everyone else sells medicines"

#TrueStory

Anil uncle is my Dad's friend at Jabalpur. He is a very well respected man known for treating diabetes through ayurvedic medicines. Today he has patients from all over India and a few residing abroad too. New patients come to him through word of mouth.

It was in Dec 2018, when Radhe Shyam a 45 yrs old farmer from Narsinghpur, visited him for diabetes treatment.

Radhe had traveled over 200 Kms to attend a court case at Jabalpur that day.

He bought medicines for 2 months costing Rs.2000 and realised that he doesn't have the money. Unfortunately he was not even carrying his ATM card.

Looking at his situation, Anil uncle smiled, made him relax and gave him the medicines asking him to deposit the money to his SBI A/c from Narsinghpur.

Watching all this, I couldn't resist asking "Uncle, you met this person for the first time & took the business risk of Rs. 2000?"

He said "I have not sold him medicine but earned a relationship for life. Even if he turns out to be one off those who will not pay, it still outweighs the benefit my business will reap from 99 other lifelong relationships I have earned. " 

Last month when I met Anil uncle, I asked him about Radhe's incidence. I was surprised to learn that not only did he received the money but now Radhe regularly buys his medicine from him.

His business motto is "I offer trust & honesty to oblige my customers and they reciprocate by offering a life long relationship."

Let’s decode this story from a brand building lens

We love brands and buy them because it offers something more than just the product or service (that everyone offers).

• Brand shares a belief I believe in

         or

• Brand offers me empathy “Makes me feel it understands my problem & offers a solution through its offering” 

The experience Radhe had with Mr. Anil, made him feel obligated. (Remember we feel obligated when we recieve something that we do not expect).

When we feel are obliged, our sub conscious mind compels us to repay it. So Radhe did a repeat purchase which made the brand “Mr Anil” familiar to him.

Our sub conscious had another bias – ‘familiarity heuristic ‘(decision made in the past are good to be repeated when faced with similar situation)

Repeated purchase of a particular brand makes it a habit and leads to developing neural pathway (shortcut) in our sub conscious mind (Medicine = Mr. Anil).

So whenever there is a need for medicine, Radhe’s  sub conscious mind will compel his conscious mind to contact Mr. Anil and all this will happen at cognitive level without Radhe realizing it consciously.

During the course of repeated purchases, Radhe will become a brand evangelist of “Mr. Anil” and he will propagate the brand (unconsciously). Reason, during our evolution we learnt to share information (gossip, knowledge and experience) and oblige our clan members. It helps survive.

That’s how Mr. Anil today has customers all over India including a few residing abroad.

Click here to read more about why we feel compelled to return an obligation through the lens of our Behavioural bias #Reciprocity