Day 27 · Ninety Days of Runway · Pulse Beat
Her first hire was not a programmer. It was Revathi, a retired schoolteacher who lived downstairs and had been bringing Meera tea and unsolicited opinions for a year. "You are answering every…
Her first hire was not a programmer. It was Revathi, a retired schoolteacher who lived downstairs and had been bringing Meera tea and unsolicited opinions for a year.
"You are answering every customer message yourself," Revathi said, as if reading a charge sheet. "At night. In your pyjamas."
"There's nobody else."
"There is me." She folded her arms. "I know how to talk to women who are frightened about money. I did it for thirty-four years."
Meera hesitated. "I can't pay much."
"I will take a thousand rupees a month and dinner twice a week," said Revathi, with the dignity of a person who has already decided. "You are too thin and your messages are too long."
So the company acquired a head of customer care, aged sixty-nine, who answered every message in three short sentences and signed them Revathi, Thali. Within a week the replies grew warmer. Within two, customers began writing back to thank her by name.
"It is not complicated," Revathi said. "People want to be told the truth, gently, by someone who sounds as if they have eaten."