"It's the first time I'm meeting you Paolo, but I remember your TTT days, when you had nice hair."
This was the greeting of a charming lady to whom I was delivering my newest Bush Diary DVD. As I eased into a comfortable chair in her gallery wondering how I would ever get back out of it, this die-hard "fan" regaled me with her memories of my early television days, while I slipped away in reminiscences of my once luxuriant fro. As the fierce afternoon sun waned, we chatted about everything and nothing. I was grateful to be in her company, and pleasantly surprised at her enthusiasm about mine.
I've spent the last month travelling to the far corners of Trinidad delivering my second Bush Diary DVD. When I first revealed my plan to bring the DVDs to people wherever they are, it was received with strident scepticism by some businessmen. They puzzled how, without a delivery charge, I would recoup my fuel costs or account for vehicular wear and tear.
Additionally, when I show up at people's homes, the reaction is often one of disbelief. Orders were placed online so perhaps many recipients didn't anticipate that I would personally be making the drop. But why not me? I produced this DVD so who better than me to bring it to the customer? Difficulty with the concept possibly stems from the fact that entrepreneurship in this country is perceived as a Lordship. For some, it means delegating all responsibility to compliant underlings.
As the owner of a small business reliant on customer satisfaction, offering the convenience of delivery just seems like common sense. I am not selling shoes or appliances, but information in the form of DVDs which I consider vital for every citizen of this country. Apart from the Bush Diary DVD, I have also produced The Road Less Travelled series. They both offer perspectives on T&T's true depth of character and beauty. Of all the choices consumers must make with their budgets, particularly during tough economic times, that they should choose to purchase my DVDs means I must make getting them convenient.
Moreover, when people buy these products they are demonstrating a love for and an abiding interest in this country. These emotions, albeit tortured at times, are at the very heart of my productions. In many cases, customers are purchasing DVDs to mail to relatives and friends abroad. This says they are keen to share the more endearing features of T&T with others. This is a profound manifestation of a belief that there is still enough good in this country to keep the embers of hope alive.
In this regard, more than mere consumer goods, I am selling an idea or a way of thinking about nationhood. It is a singular product, the marketing of which calls for a singular approach.
In addition to some businessmen advising that I attach a fee to the delivery service I provide, some folks have suggested making the DVDs available to the public free of charge. Hand them out like vaccines, give them to the TV stations, the libraries, the schools. "Are they available on the YouTubes?"
Now I am passionate about this work, not insane. The shows and the DVDs are extraordinarily costly. Of course, if I were independently wealthy it would be free DVDs for every man, woman and child! But I am not a Rockefeller so I must draw a line between magnanimity and stupidity. What customers get in the bargain, though, is value for money through programmes portraying this country in the most beautiful, soul-stirring composition possible and delivery straight to their door.
Personally, I enjoy these tete-a-tetes with the good people. It's an opportunity to share my passion for natural and cultural heritage with like-minded sorts.
Meeting with citizens from widely varying backgrounds delivers keen insight into the customer; average age, how the DVDs will be used, their eventual destinations. The delivery model provides a welcome by-product of on-the-ground demographics absolutely critical to any small business.
Everything I do depends on building lasting relationships with both clients and customers. Clich� though it may be, it is difficult to achieve this without a hands-on approach. As a micro enterprise, I am all too aware that each purchase made by a customer, every proposal accepted by a client represents a choice, one that could easily have gone somewhere else. For this reason I try to reward that faith by giving clients and customers the best possible experience they could hope for. It is human interaction before commercial transaction.
So I'm sitting there in that porch at a home in Sangre Grande as this elderly woman clutches her new Bush Diary DVD. She is snatching mental vignettes of episodes she'd seen on television. She wants to know the back story on some of the more endearing scenes. As the fading afternoon sun chases shadows across the porch, this time spent many miles away from my office with an admirer of my shows is, in my humble estimation, a road well-travelled.