Monday, August 29, 2005
Personal opinions abt Singapore's customer service quality
I watched the news a few days ago, and found out that a few years back Singapore was ranked among the top 10 for its customer service quality, but now it deteriorated termendously and was kicked back to 21st in rank.
This, however, does come with a reason for it. A shopping trip yesterday already confirmed my doubts abt whether Singapore is really that lousy in providing customers satisfaction. Let me fill you in on the details, and of the "friendly" staffs we have here in Singapore.
Firstly, I went to the "Orange" (guys who are not sure, just think of how many mobile service providers we have in sg, and the color that represents them) shop in Bugis to trade-in my phone. I was happily queueing up to get a number (just like in banks, and I think it's stupid, bcos it makes everything more slow), and when it's my turn, the stupid staff called out to the person behind me instead, saying "Hello Sir, can I help?". I wanted to shout at him that I am right in front of him, and why did he ignore me and call out to someone behind me instead, when the guy behind me told the damn guy that I came first. N the response from that staff was "Oh, u came first ah?". I mean, hello, don't you have eyes to see? The queue was only so short, and since I'm already standing right in front of him, what makes him think I'm not in the queue? Well, just to add on, the guy standing behind me was in a business suit. So, does that mean he should attend to the guy first just bcos he seems more like a prospective customer than I? Does that mean he should ignore my presence? I seriously dun understand what's wrong with him, or whether there really is something wrong with his eyes, to the extent of not knowing I'm in front of the business suit guy.
Secondly, after getting the number, and waiting for the digital LED board to display the dreaded number (I waited for like 45 mins at least, for God's sake), we shopped ard 1st, den when we came back the number jumps to 4000+ but my number tag is 3000+, so my mum went and asked the same stupid guy why is it showing 4000+ now, when just now it's only at 3000+. The guy just told my mum that the number will anyhow jump one, and then didn't make an effort to actually tell her to wait patiently or whatever. He just brushed past my mum to attend to another customer. The guy's attitude really suck loh, he just end the conversation with a few words and so abruptly without actually trying to appease the customer, or saying some comforting words. He could have explained something like weekends there'll be more ppl, and to ask my mum to wait awhile more rite? I wonder how they train their staffs man..And to think at one point when I was too bored, I kept track of what the digital LED board was displaying. The scrolling text at the bottom wrote "Pls approach our friendly staffs for assistance". C'mon, stop decieving ppl, your staffs all suck ok?
After that, I accompanied my mum to a jewellery shop, cos she wanted to buy a pair of earrings at $29. When we got to the shop, she had problems finding the earrings she saw last wk, so she asked one of the staff there. N you know what he did? He just pointed over to the cabinet displaying the earrings, without even a word coming out of his mouth. What's worse, he didn't even look at my mum, and after the pointing ritual, he fled off to do his own stuffs. Hey, what's this man? Aren't you supposed to at least tell my mum that it's over there or something? Are your lips glued together by some anonymous force that you can't open your mouth to talk? There wasn't even a single customer in the shop then, so why can't you attend to us? $29 also money ok, even though not alot, but if 10 ppl buy that earring it's alot liao ok? So what if we don't buy something that's worth hundred over dollars? Those so-called "customer-oriented" ppl are all money-faced de loh, they'll only attend to you and treat u nicely if u get something expensive.
Looks like Singapore's customer service leaves much to be desired. I hope they do something abt it, or they'll only become a laughing stock of other countries, or even by their own countrymen. Even a single trip can reveal all the flaws of Singaporeans, I dunno what else is worse than this. I dun wanna put the shops' name right here, in order to preserve what little pride they still have.
Fingers dancing ended on 8/29/2005 09:58:00 PM
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Saturday, August 20, 2005
Something worth pondering abt...
After a long talk with my fren yesterday while on the way to town, I realised I've learned something new from our conversation too.
I am aware that different people have different personalities, and it's all these personalites that actually makes us love or hate our frenz or foes. There may be people whom we can't accept, whether it's their behaviour or language or just the way they look, however we can't change the fact that they are of this certain breed. It also has alot to do with who we always mix around with and the environment we are brought up in. For example, a tough person may have gone thru alot of difficulties in his life since young, and a dependant person may be one that is showered with lots of love from his family.
The fact that you can't change a person comes from the logic that whatever you try to do, the person will always have that hateful personality you tried so hard to change deep within, and if not done properly, you may lose that fren bcos he can't accept the fact that u can't accept him for who he is. Therefore, if you can't stand a certain person, just withdraw away from him and stick with your own grp of people whom you can click with. That's the best way to end things isn't it? There's no point in trying to change someone if it makes u angry/disappointed when you don't get the outcome u expect from that person after the changeover, which will then lead to more problems in future. Frenz should be one whom u can communicate with initially and not build on gradually from trying to fit them into your category of a good fren. You can't stop someone from hating you, but on the other hand, there might be other ppl who love you for who you are.
With that, I shall this piece of entry. Just a word of advice to whoever may be reading this blog: Just be yourself and you'll be a happy person. It's a torture to change yourself just to accommodate to another person.
Fingers dancing ended on 8/20/2005 02:50:00 PM
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Friday, August 05, 2005
Comments abt Thailand trip
Well, overall Bangkok was fun. We did alot of shopping and walked till my feet popped out a few blisters haha. However, those days in Bangkok, especially when we're browsing the night markets, were the most frightful days of my life. I think it's the difference in culture and thinking bah, cos the way they look at you was kinda funny, like they're waiting to prounce on you and snatch ur bag the moment u take ur hands off it, so for the whole day I was practically clutching onto my bag, for fear it'll be gone b4 I know it. I hate to do that, but my passport was inside, and if I lose it, I can't return to my beloved Singapore rite? So dun blame me for being paranoid haha.
Some of the places we went to are Chartuchak, the weekend night market. It was so huge that 2 hrs there made us realise we only browse thru maybe 1/4 of the whole market, but no choice cos it closes at 7pm and it was a Sunday that we went. There's also this Suan Lam night bazaar which I guess opens everyday without fail cos it's more like a square-sized pavilion with all the shops inside lined up horizontally, and there were a total of 4 pavilions, and for that we also managed to finish strolling like 3/4 of only 1 pavilion area, while the other 3 are left untouched cos of lack of time. The best part of our shopping spree was MBK, a very large shopping mall but houses cheap and nice stuffs. MBK and the Suan Lam Night Bazaar are also the 2 places where i got most of my stuffs from.
Anyway the most exciting part of the trip should have been the Thai Girls Show. However, it was a disappointment. The women there, I had expected them to be really chio with figures that can make u drool, but when we stepped in there, we were automatically turned off by most of the girls' figures. I can dare say I only saw 1 who looks ok and has a good figure. There was 1 girl who's fatter than me, and she can dare do pole dancing up on the stage (with her bra and panties on luckily). I was however, glad that she didn't remove any of the 2 piece suit she was wearing. Actually only those with gd figures remove everything, but not all, some of them removed their bras only. Stunts were also performed, things like using the vagina to open metal bottle caps (Ouch that hurts!), shooting off balloons tied to the top of the poles using their vaginas also, but with what i'm not sure, needles bah i guess, and also inserting a plastic egg into their vaginas, and then shooting it at customers. It hit one of the guys we went on the trip with, on his forehead, and according to him, it was damn gross and sticky haha. The girls will also automatically go to those male customers and try to make them high (rubbing in between their legs) while waiting for their generous tips b4 performing anal sex with them, right there and then. According to the other guy, he said instead of going over to the customers and shaking hands with them, what they did was to shake hands with their dickies. Funny but true haha...
Fingers dancing ended on 8/05/2005 03:43:00 PM
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