Why I paid by Cash


I am a strong proponent of paying electronically, don’t quite know the reason to it but I enjoy the experience of be paying by cheque or cards, I have often walked away from a purchase if the merchant refused to accept card. Electronic payments have now become mainstream, so much so that, food contractors within large offices display Paytm QR codes as a mode of acceptance and people like me pay INR 10 for a coffee using Paytm.

This week though I was faced with a peculiar situation, after the never ending East Coast ride my bike was due for service, having dropped it at an authorized RE service center earlier in the week, I was expecting a significant bill but was happy that effects of demonetization had resulted in acceptability of cards at the service center.

So I get a call on Tuesday, saying the bike will be ready by evening and the rear caliber needs to be replaced hence the bill amount is approx. INR 8000, I was a little surprised at the amount but, having owned an RE for 4 years I have now become accustomed to living with these expenses, after all it is all worth it, if you are going to be spending 10 days on the road riding from Bengaluru to Bhubaneshwar.

Some traits never go

Coming from a business family, I like to negotiate and reduce outflow to the extent possible, I called back the owner and asked him if changing the caliber was necessary, his response assured me that it was best to change it and trusted him for the same. Next thing I ask him,
Me - Hey I hope you are still accepting cards
Owner – Get cash
Me - ?? What happened to the card machine, I prefer not to carry cash
Owner – Get as much cash as possible, will figure the rest when you are here

Knowing the owner

Since 2013, I have been servicing my bike with this service center, earlier his father used to accept bikes and now he does. Over the years they have guided me on understanding the bike, its functioning and how to better maintain it. There was a time I switched to a different service center because of his unwillingness to accept card, only to return to them, because of their quality of service and the personal connect I was able to build with them. So much so that when I was returning for a short vacation from U.S. in September last year, he sent a mechanic home and picked up the bike for service, not a service he generally offers.

D-day – Picking the bike

So I call the service center and informed them, I will be coming and if they are accepting cards, prompt comes the response, card machine is not working please bring cash.
Frustrated as I was, I arranged cash and went to the service center, the billing as well as the repair carried out was explained and the damaged part was showcased. I test drove the bike, it felt perfect and had requested for fixing a few accessories which they obliged.
While I waited in the customer lounge, I pondered does service beat everything else? The warmth, affection and diligence shown by the owner and his team has altered my spending behavior.
As we become more virtual in our behavior will stores like his gain more customers because of their unique offering of creating a personal connect, how long will they be able to stay away from being engulfed into the world of electronic payments? And become depended on the banking system.
I don’t have the answer to that, but as a consultant in this field and a passionate observer I will be keenly watching.

As I was leaving I told him, bro at least start accepting payments through Bhim, he only smiled at me and thumped of for a test ride.

Returning from a night ride in September

Comments

  1. Nimish26 March 2017 at 13:56

    Amazing take on the current scenario. Agreed that the introduction of electronic payments is faster and easier for the citizens. Just a couple of thoughts on what potential challenges that this field may face:
    1. Penetration: Electronic payments need to aid and augment the the path rural banking is going to take place in years to come. Needless to say that profitability and service sustainability is a challenge to go with it.

    2. Every new development in the field of finance comes with a dip of fraud associated with it. It is inevitable but the scale of fraud needs to be reduced. Transactions need to be monitored without sacrificing customer confidentiality, which would be a careful balance to strike for market participants.

    Customer service and satisfaction: I feel this aspect of marketing just like other marketing initiatives is changing rapidly with time. Customer satisfaction is now beyond personalized service and personal care etc. Some fundamentals are needed in today's world of customer service. One such fundamental is ease of electronic payments which shows that shopkeepers honor customer's time.

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