Customer Love – Apne Style

Apne? – its Urdu for ‘homeboy/girl’, our own.

What do you say when people ask you what IS Customer Love? I find myself explaining it as a marketing exercise, but it’s not really. It is not just a means of getting more cash in the bank, more customers on your books.

It is about getting that life/world-changing thing that you do out there, to the people who really need it.

I know (oh, believe me, I know) that we all need to pay the bills. But you know, if you’re gonna do this ‘escape the 9-to-5’ thing, carve out your own life, it can’t be about the money. You have to keep remembering why you do what you do, and hope and pray that the money WILL sort itself out, and will be abundant. But it can’t be about that. If it is, then its just easier to go work for ‘the man.’

First, I need to fill you in on a little background and then talk to you about someone who, I believe, took ‘Customer’ Love to a whole new level.

You remember July/August, 2010 and the Pakistan Floods. It was the worst natural disaster ever, its impact greater than the great Tsunami, the Haiti earthquake and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake combined. One fifth of the country underwater, thousands stranded in remote areas, 20 MILLION (did you get that? 20 MILLION) people lost their homes, their possessions, their underwear for chrissakes. Most importantly, they lost their livelihoods.

Now, these people were already on the edge of poverty. They were already busting a gut and using every last trick in the book to survive. Some were even in refugee camps, so you get the picture. Add to that crops destroyed, highways destroyed, power plants out, rising inflation, suicide bombers here and there. Yeah, now you get the picture.

Hopeless.

And in the midst of all this, you have my friend and fellow Desi sister, Noor Aftab.

Yeah, that’s her on the left, 26 years old and an Investment Banker in Karachi specializing in micro-finance. (Check her out on Linkedin – seriously AWESOME young lady.) She turned her back on a luxurious lifestyle and a prestigious job.

This is a country where such jobs are rare, in a country where you just do not do that kind of thing. (She wasn’t the only one by the way, but more about the others later.)

At FWB, she had worked on projects to help disadvantaged women get into business, to get on their feet. She felt she had to go to them and do everything she could.

She got moving, and I mean moving! She set up a crisis cell, she managed to get hold of helicopters, she mobilized people everywhere, not just in Pakistan but from the US, UK, Australia. She whacked Facebook until she was getting help from the moon, practically.

This is an excerpt from an email from Noor, in early August, 2010.

“We are taking pictures, uploading status on facebook, linkedin and twitter. I used to be one who wore heels all the time even at home. Now I only wear sneakers. A week back I used to head investments at a bank in Pakistan. Now I am CSO— Chief Service Officer. My job? Ringing door bells. Collecting stuff. Writing emails, talking to people, doing fund raisers.”

She got out there to the thousands of people stranded out in SWAT, who had been waiting weeks and weeks for help.

The big organizations largely ignored the more remote areas as being too dangerous, not cost-effective, and Taliban-infested. People were dying. Relatives in the UK were flying out personally to get help for their families.

Noor mounted her own Operation IMDAD (supplies/help) – got survivor kits, clothes, and food – and she got out there.

Once things settled down a little, she moved from crisis relief to longer term goals. Schools have been set up, and you can hopefully can see all the things she’s been doing here: Shahina Aftab Foundation (SAF)

In November, Noor spent her birthday in Hong Kong, as SAF became the first Pakistani Organization to showcase its work at the Global Summit of Micro Investments Organized by C5. This is what she had to say.

@ Jen, remember when we started this? Jan-Feb 2009 with Caravan of Dreams and now this women-based micro financing is materializing. We are in for a revolution and the world is accepting our work. People tell me they see passion oozing out of my eyes and face, isn’t this what it is all about? Being a true Desi sister, I risked it all. Bet it all just like you. That’s what the happiness is about! “

So, a word for all you pioneers out there, you cubicle escapees, from the Desi sisters:

If you’re not going to do what you really want to do, and I mean REALLY REALLY want to do (the stuff that you hardly dare admit you want to do, the stuff that takes your breath away)…

…then you might as well go work for The Man.

You’ll just recreate your own cubicle, and run like a rat on amphetamines just to get to where you used to be.

This choice, this new life, it’s not about stability or control. It’s about freedom, freedom to really open up your wings, to find out who you are and what you can do. To find out what you are truly capable of.

So go out and do amazing stuff.

Noor did what she knew was right, helped…and carved out her place as a leader in her field…thats the point I’m making 🙂

PS : Noor Aftab hasn’t quite got the hang of it, but she is on Twitter at @nooraftab and on Facebook at Shahina Aftab Foundation (SAF).

Desi sisters various attempts at rescue are detailed here… www.pyaarapakistan.com and we have a website (for now) over here www.desisisters.co.uk

Definitions:

Desi – a Sanskrit/Hindi/Urdu word meaning both from the homeland and ‘the belief that with enough optimism and enthusiasm, dedication and discipline, nothing is impossible.

Desi sisters –  a place where ordinary people do extraordinary things. Noor calls it a ‘ female empowerment network’,  fueled by Bollywood and Bhangra, mixed in with saris and henna.

SWAT – an area in Pakistan renowned for its natural beauty, part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where , supposedly, all the terrorists are coming from… see WIKI

IMDAD – another urdu word, it means “supplies/help.” Operation IMDAD

More from Noor: ACCA article and a slideshow here.