service yourself first

Nothing works tonight. My LG dvd recorder screws up on my once again, wasting the 3 hours of effort last night, and now yousendit is down, delaying all my photos to be sent out. Faced with such frustration, one could simply complaint and yell at any customer service that one can find, but did any one thought before this: What's the point?


Right now, having involved in customer service, i got the opportunity to experience first hand how is it like to sit at the "frontline" counter, thus getting a new insight in the ever "wonderful" human nature, and how pointless somethings can be:


- People demands info from the wrong department:

Percetage of it happening: to a high extent. Most of the time walk in customers will ask you issues that is not under your department. And then they demand you to find it out for them. You see, how would that be better, when (ONE) the info will pass through so many hands, taking the risk of been mis-translated (think of the Pass-the-message Game we played at OGL camp) (TWO) Your case/issue/question will be again mis-interpreted coz the person asking is not the person in question, risking the question being distorted, and (THREE) isnt it is faster if you ask the correct place directly, and no risk of mis-interpretation?


- People gumble or shout and yell or scolds the service officers

Ok, i accept the fact that the person will be displaying such an extreme behaviour due to stress or etc, but other than venting out his frustration, does it solve the issue he has? Bearing in mind, especially for the case of system flaws etc, the service person is not responsible for that, so why should the poor person take all the blame and be shouted at or nasty treated? As if they are the slave or servant, owning the customer in their past lives.

So what happens in the end is that in order to pacify the situation, the service person will keep on apologising (for something they never done). And that another thing; what is the point of an apology that is said for the point of saying? In the first place the scold shld not have taken place; how much can the service officer do? Re-programme the system himself/herself? Re-build the building? Change a policy ownself without management approval?


- People complaints and complaints about anything they dont like

And many times it is not constructive: Ie: throw something at you and say "i dont care, i dont like the way it is now". Right, so what you do suggest it should be? "I dont care, it is your job" . See my point?

Better still is those who creeps behind you, and directly shoots a complaint to the top top HQ, leaving behind only a brief description, a surname and NO contact number. Ok, if it is real flaw, the organisation can change. But what the point of that when you are not allowing further contact for follow up actions, so as to get a better understanding of the complaint and areas to improve on?


- People challenge the service personalle on issues that are fixed (ie: Policies, design of online booking system)

Similiar to earlier point, i didnt understand this part too. Ok, from the perspective of a customer you do feel frustrated when the service personal tells you "this is the limitation, nothing can be done" But when one continue to argue on with the classic statement "it's not about money", what can you get from it? The low low level service person have no ability to do anything. Even if you are the best debator in the world you are just channelling your abilities to the wrong person. In cases, it still ended off with the customer walking off with nothing in return. Worth the saliva to argue there and ruin the poor service guy/girl day?



....
Pardon me for the last time, but at times it did appear to me that those who complaint might to be seen as ignorant..... Rather, the perhaps smarter one will just get the neccessary info and seek help from the correct place, be it getting info or giving constructive feedback... And now, i found myself especially appreciative of those are willingly to seek help themselves, and even more patience to other service personal out there...it is really a tough job.


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bubble dream

Saturday noon, sat down infront of telly, watched watever that is screening. And CNA is showing the repeated docm on the "boy in the bubble", and after glued to watching it for half an hour, i really got to say my heart sank as i watch the entire account of the boy's 12 years of life in the bubble.

Doctor's narrow minded? too optimistic? or short sighted? Was the boy really happily living for 12 years or it was full of fear? No doubt he contributed significantly to medical research, but the change from a happy jumping kid to a older boy with not much expression makes me feel sorry for it.

When i'm have more time think i'll go read more about this online.. meanwhile, if you are free surfing around, perhaps you want to check it out at wiki or pbs.org (as indicated thru-out the 30min program) .....maybe this incident may inspires you think about many things around us.


wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Vetter
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Dont prefer to be perfect, even for prefects.

For the benefit of any who are not aware, my 2,3 weeks of absent in updating is because I'm doing my internship now, and for god, it's so tiring...Having depleted of energy after every day and using coffee to perk me up during the day, it was until now then i have the juice to create this post. Which of cos, created also after sufficient inspiration was gathered.

And no prize for forcasting it before you read on, yes, it's gonna be about work life.

So what's does the ever-reflective evoxiang.blogspot.com tells you tonight?
Being Perfect might not be ideal.


How does this idea comes about? It was after i had settled down on my your-job-scope-is-almost-everything-and-you-got-to-multitask-and-do-things-fast-and-be-polite-despite-all-odds job, and started to observe...

..It appears that those who always finish all their task and make leave on time or take time off are seen as slack. For instance, i got a guy here, married with kids, but always not frequently in office. People always seem to ask around has he done his stuff when he's not around, especially when i first entered and not seen him yet, that dont do too good in contributing my impression score of him.

On the other hand, i got another guy, also married with kids. Now this is the first few person i met when i entered, and that moment it got one big word "BUSY" stamped all on him. Always running around, having a room that have piles of document on every usage or non-usage space, having so many things thru his mind, staying back late after work, etc etc...and scaring the shit out of the intern on his first day, thinking that he landed in a very very busy department (it's is really, but not that bad)

As it turns out? Guy number 1 came back from his leave, and now it looks different. When i thought he some one that will avoid job, he didnt. In fact he offers to help when needed... His task was as completed, despite the shorter time he stays in office. As for person number 2, i slowly realise that he has slight signs of a kan-jong spider, have too much things going thru his mind, time management skills is not ideal, and tends take breaks during working time when he has unfinished stuff...

A disclaimer, not that i am now saying person number 2 is bad, but just that sometimes you cant help wondering this: If his time management is better then maybe he wont stay back that late; or even have so much work pile'd up.. He is commitment for sure, his job is tough no doubt, but it can actually not be as bad as it seems right?

Which reminds me of what i learnt in HR.. of a sign known as "presenteem". Studies shown that those who stayed late in office received higher appraisal scores, as compared to those who leave on time, if else kept constant. This also contributes to a culture whereby people feels guilty when leaving early... Bearing in mind, appraisal rating can be contributed not only by real performance but impression scores too.

Implications? Perfect might not do good; Having some imperfections might help you instead.


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