I have nothing to do. I'm bored out of my brains. Yet, it's still 2 hours before my shift ends. This is one of the downsides of being in a compressed workweek. I'm actually done for the day. I finished everything I needed to do 3 hours after I started my shift. I need to be more productive.
Boredom is something that I will be adjusting to soon. I need to find a way to maximize the time I have. Hmm... What to do? I'll be able to write here more. I'll be able to read more of the novels I so love. I'll be able to exploit the resources here in the office more. (LoL).
Since I'm now in a compressed workweek (which means that I didn't get the promotion I was hoping for but I don't care since the person who got promoted deserved it), I have been able to get an additional day of rest (I just use it for sleep). This is the time I try to clean up my house, try to put the washed clothes in my closet, try to find the courage to finish my blog template, and try to get re-acquainted with everything else.
So anyway, I've been quite busy during weekends for the past couple of weeks. It's the season of the company's annual Sports fest. I'm in our account's volleyball team. So far, our team's standing is 3-0. Haha. Championships, here we come. Kidding aside, playing volleyball again has been refreshing. My stamina has deteriorated drastically compared to when I was still in High School. I must say, the skills have retained but I need to work on being tired after a set and a half. Sadly, smoking has already taken its toll.
We have not been attending our zips class. At first, it was just because of the weather. Eventually, everyone was just pre-occupied with something. Don't get me wrong, we're still very interested in completing the 6 modules (were at module 4 now); it's just that the weekends have been really busy. We'll find time, soon.
This is the irony. I’m bored when I’m at work. When I don’t have work, I can’t seem to get enough time to accomplisheverything. Maybe it will be better soon. I will learn to adapt. Tell you about it later.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Mr. Manager and Customer Service
Working for almost 2 years in a customer service oriented industry has made me change how I personally expect receiving customer service. It dramatically increased my expectations as a consumer. I always make it sure that people I help out at work gets 110% customer satisfaction right after our transaction. The extra mile is always present when I help out. I couldn’t help it but to expect the same in return when it’s my turn to become the consumer.
Yesterday, right after my shift, I decided to treat myself to some retail therapy. It’s the time of the month again where I immerse myself in the countless possibilities of being at the mall. After my haircut, I started at it. Store after store I went searching for the best buys someone like me can have. To tell you the truth, as much as I would’ve liked to say I bought the coolest pair of loafers someone could buy, I was only able to get myself a pair of cheap earphones (Though it sounded like it was worth $200. It’s the Philips SHE255). I wasn’t able to find something I really liked. I went from Glorietta, Greenbelt, to Galeria but nothing tickled my interest. So I just got the earphones because Cash was raving about it for weeks now. (You wouldn’t believe how discerning she is when it comes to stuff so I know that it is a good pair).
Getting back in tune of my intro, right after the shopping spree, or lack of it, I decided to hitch a ride from my mom to our house. That was around 4PM. She agreed but she had plans for an early dinner before going home. So we agreed to meet at her office’s lobby then straight to the restaurant. Wan Chai is a Chinese restaurant near her office. It is the restaurant she unfortunately chose. It is the restaurant where the manager apparently doesn’t value customer satisfaction. She ordered some fish, shrimp, beef with broccoli, and half a dozen varieties of dimsum and dumplings. The food is your normal Chinese delicacy; nothing too special about it. At least it didn’t reek with MSG like some of the other Chinese places. It was time for the shrimp dumplings.
It stinks!!! It tasted so old that the shrimp was itchy on the palate and the wrap felt like wood. I immediately asked for our waitress after I had the ghastly how-dare-they-serve-and-call-that-food thing completely out of my mouth and some water to wash out the wretchedness. I politely pointed out the lack of freshness of the dumpling and asked all the other ones served be taken back. I also asked them, with the approval of my mom, to just cancel that particular order. The orders were taken back to the kitchen and after a few seconds, Mr. Manager comes asking what the deal was about. I again politely pointed out that the shrimp dumpling was bad. He started being defensive that when the orders came, it is always fresh. It’s always straight to the freezers. My mom butted in with her points of not knowing that it is indeed fresh and what if those were week-old dumplings. Mr. Manager didn’t just agree with us and walked away and let us enjoy the rest of the decent dishes. He had to just prove his point that the shrimp dumplings were the finest and we had to pay for just one order since it was already consumed (or mutilated).
That was the moment I thought he went too far. He expected us to pay for something that was inedible. He expected us to barter with good money and bad goods. Money was not the issue. The issue was about us not being happy campers because of a product of theirs. Mr. Manager didn’t even apologize, much less empathize, that we had to endure such a horrid experience from their establishment. He just pointed out that we had to pay for the order. He simply just went too far; and my mom felt the same way. Mr. Manager got his share of tongue-lashing.
If that had been my restaurant, the order was immediately cancelled after the customer pointed out that it was bad, no questions asked (or rebuttals for that matter). Then the customer would have a choice of replacing the order with another one with out extra charge. They would even get an extra dish on the house. In that way, I would make sure that my restaurant will not have a bad reputation (more revenue for us). That particular customer will still come back (more revenue for us again). My restaurant will have a free marketing campaign by word of mouth (more revenue for us again). Everybody will be satisfied. The stupid dumplings will just be marked as bad in inventory.
That didn’t happen. I don’t think my mom (and everybody from their company) will dine in that restaurant again. Rumors will start to build about that restaurant. Eventually, no one will eat there and they will be forced to close down the franchise. Such a pity.
If only Mr. Manger was aware of customer satisfaction, he’d be a better manager. Hopefully his boss will not hear about this ordeal because it will mean his job.
So what happened with the shrimp dumpling ordeal? We paid for the stupid single order that was “consumed”. Mr. Manager didn’t personally assist with serving the bill. And, hopefully Mr. Manager will have the urge to switch careers (With any luck not in a customer oriented industry unless he learns the value of customer satisfaction) to avoid that from happening again with other consumers.
Yesterday, right after my shift, I decided to treat myself to some retail therapy. It’s the time of the month again where I immerse myself in the countless possibilities of being at the mall. After my haircut, I started at it. Store after store I went searching for the best buys someone like me can have. To tell you the truth, as much as I would’ve liked to say I bought the coolest pair of loafers someone could buy, I was only able to get myself a pair of cheap earphones (Though it sounded like it was worth $200. It’s the Philips SHE255). I wasn’t able to find something I really liked. I went from Glorietta, Greenbelt, to Galeria but nothing tickled my interest. So I just got the earphones because Cash was raving about it for weeks now. (You wouldn’t believe how discerning she is when it comes to stuff so I know that it is a good pair).
Getting back in tune of my intro, right after the shopping spree, or lack of it, I decided to hitch a ride from my mom to our house. That was around 4PM. She agreed but she had plans for an early dinner before going home. So we agreed to meet at her office’s lobby then straight to the restaurant. Wan Chai is a Chinese restaurant near her office. It is the restaurant she unfortunately chose. It is the restaurant where the manager apparently doesn’t value customer satisfaction. She ordered some fish, shrimp, beef with broccoli, and half a dozen varieties of dimsum and dumplings. The food is your normal Chinese delicacy; nothing too special about it. At least it didn’t reek with MSG like some of the other Chinese places. It was time for the shrimp dumplings.
It stinks!!! It tasted so old that the shrimp was itchy on the palate and the wrap felt like wood. I immediately asked for our waitress after I had the ghastly how-dare-they-serve-and-call-that-food thing completely out of my mouth and some water to wash out the wretchedness. I politely pointed out the lack of freshness of the dumpling and asked all the other ones served be taken back. I also asked them, with the approval of my mom, to just cancel that particular order. The orders were taken back to the kitchen and after a few seconds, Mr. Manager comes asking what the deal was about. I again politely pointed out that the shrimp dumpling was bad. He started being defensive that when the orders came, it is always fresh. It’s always straight to the freezers. My mom butted in with her points of not knowing that it is indeed fresh and what if those were week-old dumplings. Mr. Manager didn’t just agree with us and walked away and let us enjoy the rest of the decent dishes. He had to just prove his point that the shrimp dumplings were the finest and we had to pay for just one order since it was already consumed (or mutilated).
That was the moment I thought he went too far. He expected us to pay for something that was inedible. He expected us to barter with good money and bad goods. Money was not the issue. The issue was about us not being happy campers because of a product of theirs. Mr. Manager didn’t even apologize, much less empathize, that we had to endure such a horrid experience from their establishment. He just pointed out that we had to pay for the order. He simply just went too far; and my mom felt the same way. Mr. Manager got his share of tongue-lashing.
If that had been my restaurant, the order was immediately cancelled after the customer pointed out that it was bad, no questions asked (or rebuttals for that matter). Then the customer would have a choice of replacing the order with another one with out extra charge. They would even get an extra dish on the house. In that way, I would make sure that my restaurant will not have a bad reputation (more revenue for us). That particular customer will still come back (more revenue for us again). My restaurant will have a free marketing campaign by word of mouth (more revenue for us again). Everybody will be satisfied. The stupid dumplings will just be marked as bad in inventory.
That didn’t happen. I don’t think my mom (and everybody from their company) will dine in that restaurant again. Rumors will start to build about that restaurant. Eventually, no one will eat there and they will be forced to close down the franchise. Such a pity.
If only Mr. Manger was aware of customer satisfaction, he’d be a better manager. Hopefully his boss will not hear about this ordeal because it will mean his job.
So what happened with the shrimp dumpling ordeal? We paid for the stupid single order that was “consumed”. Mr. Manager didn’t personally assist with serving the bill. And, hopefully Mr. Manager will have the urge to switch careers (With any luck not in a customer oriented industry unless he learns the value of customer satisfaction) to avoid that from happening again with other consumers.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
June: Where did it go? July: Huh?
So, yeah, June and July have been pretty busy for me. It does show here, right? No posts or updates of any sort? Well, yeah, pretty busy.
July was the month that I have been privileged to achieve my pseudo-promotion. Well, it is a promotion but has the same monetary compensation. This is the Tier 2 to Tier 3 kind of promotion. You get a new set of responsibilities, mind you; these are the tasks that, as the client refer to it, "the end of the line", for escalations for our account, and yet pay's the same. Another thing is NO more SAVEs incentives. So I say goodbye to impulsive buying, for now. What the heck, I'M NOT STRESSED. That's something I don't think money can buy.
I've been joining the PlanetZips crew every Sunday afternoon in Valle 1 for, you've guessed it right, zips (or poi). I've been at it for a month and a half already (on and off). I haven't been attending regularly though but I must say, our batch is quite good. We're promising. Paulino said so. LoL. I'll take it from the pro with this one. This zips thing has done wonders for me. I can remember the first day I attended. I didn't want to go. I was dead tired even if I didn't do anything strenuous before that. It was the time of the year when I was just putting my best effort but nothing was going right. I was indeed down. A couple of hours after that, lo and behold, I felt I was reborn. (Yeah, here’s a testimonial for the PlanetZips crew). I felt the adrenalin back in my veins. I felt that I could do anything I wanted. I was just pumped up. Thank God, this euphoria still lingers until this very moment.
I've also been getting my feet in management. No, I didn't take classes. I have been trying to get a few internal interviews for a true blue promotion. I've been thinking of becoming a supervisor for the company. I, helping people reach the pinnacle of their career maturity, that's what I'm planning on doing. It started with the ramp up of other accounts in the company. Friends and acquaintances applied and deservingly got the position. It did cross my mind that I too will be able to be efficient with the position. So I had to take the first step, completing the internal job application form which basically is a list of achievements within the company and a brief explanation why you are interested and qualified for the job. With that, I needed to answer a 5 question sheet focusing on being a supervisor. It was like high school term paper week all over again. It was going to be fun but I didn't know where to start. Luckily, I had an angel start it up for me. Ideas, gist, terminologies were all served on a silver platter for me to consume. They are all for my disposal. After a week of cramming, editing, and a dozen proof-reading, I had with me my official IJAF and needed requirements. I was on my way.
The plan was for me to try out for supervisory positions with other accounts in the company since there were a lot, as in everybody was growing. Then I heard that our own little account was also in need of “guides” for our agents. So I just submitted my application for that position, right before the deadline ended. I had some mock interviews with people who were willing to share their time for my benefit (and I did get a lot of tips from you, thanks again). So it was time to wait for the interview itself.
As far as I can remember, my interview was initially scheduled for a Thursday morning at 5:00 AM. Next thing I knew, it became a Friday morning, same time. Unfortunately (to my stress level's bursting limit), it got rescheduled again for Tuesday morning, same time. (That weekend in between those days were hell for me. All I could think about was that interview. How it will go, how I'll do, will I flunk, stammer, grasp for words, and worst of all, mind go blank). Moving on, the interview came. It was no big deal. I think I intelligently answered all necessary questions. The thing is, it could've been better. People say that it's usually the case with interviews but this one, I know that I've could’ve done much better. Oh well, I went with all of this for the experience anyway and that chance to be considered as well. At this point, there has been no announcement yet. It’s still a waiting game. I'm not expecting anything though. Hoping that it will be me, yes, but expecting, no.
While I'm waiting (goes true for all the other 7 applicants), I'm just thinking about other aspects of my life: family, friends, myself, etc. It's like I'm sticky noting things I can think of and just posting it on a random wall of my thoughts. There's no organization at all. At least, everything's being taken care of in one go. How sloppy, I know. It's efficient nevertheless, for me.
So, that's how most of my June and July went. No details. It sucks. Better do a better job of blogging my thoughts more often.
July was the month that I have been privileged to achieve my pseudo-promotion. Well, it is a promotion but has the same monetary compensation. This is the Tier 2 to Tier 3 kind of promotion. You get a new set of responsibilities, mind you; these are the tasks that, as the client refer to it, "the end of the line", for escalations for our account, and yet pay's the same. Another thing is NO more SAVEs incentives. So I say goodbye to impulsive buying, for now. What the heck, I'M NOT STRESSED. That's something I don't think money can buy.
I've been joining the PlanetZips crew every Sunday afternoon in Valle 1 for, you've guessed it right, zips (or poi). I've been at it for a month and a half already (on and off). I haven't been attending regularly though but I must say, our batch is quite good. We're promising. Paulino said so. LoL. I'll take it from the pro with this one. This zips thing has done wonders for me. I can remember the first day I attended. I didn't want to go. I was dead tired even if I didn't do anything strenuous before that. It was the time of the year when I was just putting my best effort but nothing was going right. I was indeed down. A couple of hours after that, lo and behold, I felt I was reborn. (Yeah, here’s a testimonial for the PlanetZips crew). I felt the adrenalin back in my veins. I felt that I could do anything I wanted. I was just pumped up. Thank God, this euphoria still lingers until this very moment.
I've also been getting my feet in management. No, I didn't take classes. I have been trying to get a few internal interviews for a true blue promotion. I've been thinking of becoming a supervisor for the company. I, helping people reach the pinnacle of their career maturity, that's what I'm planning on doing. It started with the ramp up of other accounts in the company. Friends and acquaintances applied and deservingly got the position. It did cross my mind that I too will be able to be efficient with the position. So I had to take the first step, completing the internal job application form which basically is a list of achievements within the company and a brief explanation why you are interested and qualified for the job. With that, I needed to answer a 5 question sheet focusing on being a supervisor. It was like high school term paper week all over again. It was going to be fun but I didn't know where to start. Luckily, I had an angel start it up for me. Ideas, gist, terminologies were all served on a silver platter for me to consume. They are all for my disposal. After a week of cramming, editing, and a dozen proof-reading, I had with me my official IJAF and needed requirements. I was on my way.
The plan was for me to try out for supervisory positions with other accounts in the company since there were a lot, as in everybody was growing. Then I heard that our own little account was also in need of “guides” for our agents. So I just submitted my application for that position, right before the deadline ended. I had some mock interviews with people who were willing to share their time for my benefit (and I did get a lot of tips from you, thanks again). So it was time to wait for the interview itself.
As far as I can remember, my interview was initially scheduled for a Thursday morning at 5:00 AM. Next thing I knew, it became a Friday morning, same time. Unfortunately (to my stress level's bursting limit), it got rescheduled again for Tuesday morning, same time. (That weekend in between those days were hell for me. All I could think about was that interview. How it will go, how I'll do, will I flunk, stammer, grasp for words, and worst of all, mind go blank). Moving on, the interview came. It was no big deal. I think I intelligently answered all necessary questions. The thing is, it could've been better. People say that it's usually the case with interviews but this one, I know that I've could’ve done much better. Oh well, I went with all of this for the experience anyway and that chance to be considered as well. At this point, there has been no announcement yet. It’s still a waiting game. I'm not expecting anything though. Hoping that it will be me, yes, but expecting, no.
While I'm waiting (goes true for all the other 7 applicants), I'm just thinking about other aspects of my life: family, friends, myself, etc. It's like I'm sticky noting things I can think of and just posting it on a random wall of my thoughts. There's no organization at all. At least, everything's being taken care of in one go. How sloppy, I know. It's efficient nevertheless, for me.
So, that's how most of my June and July went. No details. It sucks. Better do a better job of blogging my thoughts more often.
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