Crux of good customer service - honesty and sincerity?

Does the crux of good customer service lie in honesty and sincerity?

Being partially in the service line, I've had customers screaming in my ears over phone calls and virtually through e-mails. It's a pain, to be honest and I dread receiving complaints of any sort. Yesterday I had an upset customer who thought our service was lousy because I asked for her residential address even though she was a privilege card member. Pardon me but my memory does slip me once in a while about what I presume was a trivial detail, but to the customer, it was tantamount to a death penalty. Or so I thought from her e-mail. To rub salt to the wound, she did not receive the other e-mail which I sent in reply to her other grievance. *grits teeth* No prizes for guessing correctly. She was livid and me? *scratch scratch* Busy figuring out how to appease her. I finally decided to reply her e-mail instead of deleting everything and pretending I never received anything from her. Hah, u caught me. So hush eh?

I apologised for my thoughtlessness and kept stressing on how much we value her services. By apologising, I show a sliver of humanity and expressed honesty, inadvertently proving that no man is infallible. The lousy service suddenly became 'personalised' because someone is really listening and understands the resentment bottled up. Strike 1.

Second, reinforce the good customer service again by resending her the e-mail which she did not receive. That e-mail did a whole lot of good because it cleared up her misgivings about lopsided customer treatments between different regions. Somehow I realised that customers do not necessarily want you to agree with them on everything, despite having the age old adage "The customer is always right" booming precociously by my earside. I clarified that we run our activities in all regions placing equal importance in each and pointed out that she actually missed out on our activity which was conducted in her region just last month. See? Customer not always right, but just gently nudge them to let them know. Then inform them when they can participate in the activity again. Sincerity speaks out by itself. First we're sorry, second we sincerely want to make up for it. Strike 2.

Lastly, throw in something sweet to make them feel that they are really being appreciated. I don't know what to give initially. Planned on mailing a product sample to customer but decided not to on second thoughts. Erm, because my superiors are penny pinching trolls who prefer that we do our deeds without involving monetary properties. So I sent out something which was of educational value instead.. and prolly what the trolls would have sent out themselves s'well. But of course, I made sure that my aggrieved customer would not think too lowly of the "sweet thing".

Today, I got this swell mail which made my day a bit more bearable:


Dear Person Who Cared,

With heartfelt thanks for your explanation and apologies, my apologies too if i have been a bit harsh. Your explanation is very much justified and accepted and of course i will like to meet you in person too, do give me a personal e mail should you be in (AREA) conducting any roadshows. Too bad that i missed the last roadshow, but will definitely be there for the next one. I am a strong supporter of your roadshows, the last one i attended i managed to get a (THING).

Thanks once again for giving me an extra bonus i.e. the (SOMETHING SWEET).
God bless.


Regards, Happy Customer

Strike 3. Message went through. Mission accomplished.

Okay, I can't say this works in all cases. But after many an attempt at trying to appease an irate customer, honesty, sincerity, understanding and appreciation worked great for me by far. Hence, to that question above, I'd say "Aye!".

It's a full day madness

I dislike the bouts of almost breakdowns or jumpiness that comes with pressure, especially from work. But I also opine that it helps to push me, helping me break barriers which I never thought were possible.

Reading this in the midst of my morning madness saddens me a little. Get your acts together and stop finding excuses already. You can't be pampered so much and expect the new generation to follow you because of your fear to change - sadly for the better. For every vision conceived, we're taking one baby step forward. But with the digression, we're falling two steps behind.

TAIPING: Some Malay teachers in Bagan Serai are “going mad” as they cannot handle (what does this spell to you?) teaching Mathematics and Science subjects in English, claimed a state assemblyman.

Dr Khalil Idham Lim Abdullah (Titi Serong) said the teachers themselves had to take English classes to improve their command of English.

While they are still grappling with the language, they are required to teach their students as well, said Khalil, who was chairman of the Perak Backbenchers Club in the former Pakatan Rakyat-led state government.

“The teachers themselves have a poor command of English (the root of the problem is already stated, what are the actions then?). How do we expect them to teach their students?” (By putting more effort to brush up the language then?)he asked in his speech after a briefing on the subject at the state PAS headquarters in Jalan Air Kuning on Tuesday.

Some teachers, he said, “have simply gone crazy” because of this, likening the matter to the blind leading the blind (Hence we need more effort. More willingness to accept changes). He claimed the minimum passing mark for both subjects were lowered to ensure that only a rosy picture was painted (Don't do it. Accept that changes do not take place so fast. Getting minimal marks doesn't matter. Learn from the mistake and better oneself) of the move.

Earlier, the gathering was told by Malaysian Translators Association president Associate Prof Abdullah Hassan that a big gathering is scheduled to be held in front of Istana Negara at 2pm on March 7 to protest against the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English.

Prof Abdullah said the argument that the usage of English would provide better job opportunities could only hold water if there were plenty of job openings. (Passing the blame again. Think further, please. English is a world language. Why limit yourself when you have the chance to experience more?)

Blast the pressure cooker tip for the day:

Draw out a 101 Things To Do Today, (All Incomplete) So Sue Me List like I did today. I can't guarantee it works for everyone, but it almost always does for me. Prolly 80% of the chores get done each time.

What We Can Do

Restrictions. Boundaries. Shut up and no questions.

We're bred in a society that tells us what not to do, rather than what we can do.

The rationale behind could be the niggling fear within the higher ones that with inquiring minds and adventurous explorations, there will be questions abound. Coming out with an answer requires much work, so why bother encouraging questions in the 1st place?

While certainty can put minds at ease, it's not healthy for the growth and development of the nation. We need to get those brain juices flowing. So what if we plummet into an immeasurable situation? A situation which one is unable to derive a solution still with all the tools and knowledge at hand?

The answer? We need to create something out of nothing. We need assumptions, presumptions, experiments, hypothesis till we can prove a theory. A new theory.

What's the worst scenario if an upper one can't provide an answer to its people? I can't think of any. Unless one wants to take those useless pride into account, the selfish want of avoiding red-faced scenarios, which is pure bullshit. C'me on, we're all humans. It's better to share the puzzle with the people, get plenty more questions and have one of em stumbling upon a great discovery. Rather than shying away & be the king in your own land and a pauper in the eyes of the world, stop imposing your opinions on others and allow the people to grow and expand their horizons.

It's not necessary to provide an answer to each question. Encouraging the process of thinking itself is a great step forward.

So now tell us what we can do. And let us get cracking.


** I am one of those who say, "No, we can't do this. We can't do it that way..." and all the blah upon reflex, normally out of die-hard habits. This post is written upon reflections that I'm guilty of imposing self-barricading restrictions or what Buu will say, limiting beliefs. :)

If it sounds all too grim, pls forgive me. I'm just writing to remind myself or if there are actually any other ppl reading this blog that next time round that what we could do is go, "Hey, we should experiment this way and see if it works" or "Hey, that new road over there might just lead me out of this iffy place".

It takes practise to shake off the mentality of wanting to be certain of the way we solve a prob, and not willing to take the risk and plunge into infiniteness. I've started, and want to be reminded, just like this. :)

Erm, if this post does sound cryptic.. pls do let me know. I'll need to fine tune my style of writing in that case. I did not encrypt any hidden meanings, honestly. Just a generalisation of our everyday life. Till the next post, cheerio~

Camp's here, bye bye Buu

I'm going to Port Dickson tomorrow!!! Sun, sea, beach.... here I don't come!!! hahaha...

Holiday season is so not for me. I'm attending to duty calls again. 1 day in PD and 1 day in Seremban. And then I come back KL jadi widow. Yes yes.. camps starting. I can hear ye kukubirds yelling. Take care of my hubs for me, okay? Lucky kkbs, get to have Penang food. I so envy.

Aitelliu... the kids can really really cry very loooong. I sit outside also can hear, meaning should be quite loud also. Although I've been together with Buu since he joined the company, I haven't really seen the camps in action. Tonight my first lor. And they tell me the teens can do it too. And with a lot of cendol. Waah. So rugi, knot see.

On a totally non-related note, I realised that I don't like myself recently. Feel that I'm behaving like a grouch. My evil alter ego, that bad soya, is taking over me... and I don't like it. Haih.. mood fluctuates like siao onii.

The saving grace for today is when Buu & I decided to have a piece of char siew for a son and was gently reminded that we also have a piece of siew yuk as a daughter. hahaha. Sorry, TJ and Ailin. Mummy loves you both. Daddy loves you both too. That made me so much more cheerful. See, the wonder porcine does. Praise pork!

And I have a confession to make. I pigged out on Roti Babi again yesterday at Yut Kee. The price is so damnfarkin expensive, I noes. But yours truly here is oh-so-degil laa. Too irresistable sia, but I satisfied my pork pangs. Hee hee hee. *rubs tum tum* Colleague Linda ordered the fried mee hoon which was not bad. Wet with lots of "liew"= ingredients like fishcake, vege, prawns and rubbery sotong (a bit overcooked). I shall go back for the belacan fried rice next time round. :)

By the way, I might feature my new maid back at hometown in the next post. So stay tuned. Nighty nite, peepz!

Dear blog,

Dear blog,

I'm late for work today. And my appraisal is next week. Nyahahaha. Car overheated and smoke was billowing out of the hood. Awesome, it's a first for me. Kinda freaked out. Thank god I did not contribute to the jam at LDP, which from hearsay, was crawling from bumper-to-bumper due to many cars that broke down. Extreme thanks to Buu boy for coming to my rescue, he brought 3 tubs of water to cool down the radiator. And heartfelt thanks for chomping down all the onigiri and inarizushi this morning, even though the rice turned out too soggy & squishy. You make me wanna weep... nobody would gobble down my experimental chow as willingly as you (T.T). My baby is so nice!! He said he'll be my guinea pig for everything I cook. I'm a blessed girl! :)


P/S: I'm not the only one. Nik had the same prob as me! The spooks of it, too much of a coincidence. Anyway, we made it through.. so, the rest of today will be a better day! *grins*
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Noon: I feel like *****ing. But I can't. What kind of logic is that when you can't rant at your own blog anymore?

Pendrive fix

I'm in a fix because I lost my pendrive. All my coop reports are stuck there. And all my roadshow reports too. And my mini project pictures as well. Been mulling over it for quite some time already. To say I'm sad is an understatement... but I think I should move on and focus on something more constructive already.

Still, I feel grateful because I had a talk with someone that I never thought would strike up personal talk with me tonight. I think it's a sign for me to focus on something other than my own matters. It's not going to be an easy task, and I'm going to need all the faith and patience I can get to help me through this responsibility.

Of late, I feel really stressed out. I understand that it has nothing to do with work or life... only on how I view things. I tend to take things too hard, unable to let go of bygones, and at times staying too rigid. Seriously, I really must frame myself to loosen up. If not, I'll soon turn out to be a nut case.

Tonight's going to be a long night.... gambatte, spunkz~

She Who Permed

I'm uploading a picture of you

because you said your new hair very pretty.

Well, I'll let the readers decide. ;)