Everybody appreciates good service, even those who work in the service industry themselves. But why is it that sometimes, they forget their reasons for existence in their organisations in the first place? Why is it that since their work is to serve customers, they fail to realise that their actions are continuously appraised not only by their supervisors but also by the customers they serve? Case in point as follows:
I went to Alamanda yesterday during lunchtime. A friend of mine was in the area and called me up for a lunch date. So all was well and dandy until we parted ways. He needed to go to KL while I had to go back to the office. But before I went back, I snuck into Carrefour to get some toiletries as well as to get the free parking. Since I didn't get many things, I went straight to the "10 items or less" or express lane queue. The normal registers had only one or two people in queue, but they were buying lots of stuff while the express lane had four people in the queue. I had two items, which I put on the counter just as the person in front of me was finished paying for his purchase. The guy behind me, who happens to be a Carrefour off-duty staff, had only one item, which he too put on the counter behind my stuff. Imagine my surprise and annoyance when the cashier nonchalantly took the Carrefour staff's purchase and continued to ring it into the register. I looked at him and asked, "Kenapa ambik barang customer belakang padahal saya dok ada kat depan?". To which, he replied a volcanic-eruption-inducing reply, "Tak apalah, satu je..." At this point, the customer-behind-me-whose-purchase-had-been-registered started to apologise to me. Which I thought was unnecessary, because it wasn't him who cut the queue but rather the cashier who chose to cut MY queue to attend to his colleagues purchase. "Okay," I said to myself, "don't let this get to you... Just let it go,.." all the while thinking that the cashier will apologise to me after seeing that his colleague doing so.
Guess what... he didn't say a thing... He just rung up my purchase, took my money, gave me the correct change and receipt and that was it! I stood there for a good 10 seconds looking at him, and he just pretended as if I were invisible. This is too much, so I went to the customer service counter and said that I wanted to lodge a complain against the cashier. I was referred to a supervisor and I related the incidence to her. So she gave me a form to fill up. While I was filling up the form, she stood next to me, all the while looking intently at what I was writing and effectively ignoring the chatter coming out of her walkie-talkie. Once I was done, I handed the form to her, to which she apologised on behalf of Carrefour and promised that such incidences would not be repeated in the future. Yeah, right... We'll just see... Maybe tomorrow I'll go there again to follow up on what (in)action will be taken in response to my lodged complain...
Why am I so pissed? Read my earlier post, especially my answer on Item 2 of the tag. Although many would retaliate in defense to what I would label as Malay mentality, these isolated incidences are the ones that give a bad impression to Malays. You see, I've seen and even experienced similar occurrences before, like the time when also at the express lane, some (Malay) idiots bring a trolleyful of stuff which were CLEARLY more than 10 items into the queue. When I gently reminded them that the lane was for customers making small purchases, they (the supposedly berbudi-bahasa, berhemah tinggi bangsa) just ignored me. But to further rub in salt to wound, even the (Malay) cashiers wouldn't dare say anything to them! And the same thing happened after that. Again, a (Malay) lady got into the queue with a basket filled to the brim. Again, this self-appointed promoter of justice pointed out the nature of the lane to this lady. This time she said, "Maaf ye, akak nak cepat ni". To which, this (Chinese) cashier said, "Maaf ye puan, baris ni untuk pembelian tak melebihi 10 barang saja. Puan boleh masuk queue sebelah sana," gesturing to the normal lane. Seeing that I had an ally on my side, the dejected lady mumbled something under her breath (which I don't give a damn anyway to whatever she might be saying) and parked her spot at the end of a longer queue.
Why do I have to relate these stories? Am I saying that the Malays are a useless bunch of people that I seemingly am prepared to denounce any association to them? Or am I just a sod who thinks too highly of other races? Does that make me an anti-racist, reason being I'm as if bashing my own race? Or maybe, just maybe... I want us to become better people instead? Maybe I want us to get out of the safety of the Bumiputera cocoon and see the world as it really is, a world where only the strongest will survive? A world where customers are increasingly aware of their rights and are no longer afraid to stand up for them? A service industry that really delivers what they're supposed to deliver? Think about it for a moment. Am I really doing what I seem to be doing? Am I really saying what I seem to be saying? To those of you keen on coming to the defense of the Malays, by all means do so. But please, I plead you. Think long-term, think survival, think of people's ever-rising expectations. Think of basic customer service, of some simple common sense?
I went to Alamanda yesterday during lunchtime. A friend of mine was in the area and called me up for a lunch date. So all was well and dandy until we parted ways. He needed to go to KL while I had to go back to the office. But before I went back, I snuck into Carrefour to get some toiletries as well as to get the free parking. Since I didn't get many things, I went straight to the "10 items or less" or express lane queue. The normal registers had only one or two people in queue, but they were buying lots of stuff while the express lane had four people in the queue. I had two items, which I put on the counter just as the person in front of me was finished paying for his purchase. The guy behind me, who happens to be a Carrefour off-duty staff, had only one item, which he too put on the counter behind my stuff. Imagine my surprise and annoyance when the cashier nonchalantly took the Carrefour staff's purchase and continued to ring it into the register. I looked at him and asked, "Kenapa ambik barang customer belakang padahal saya dok ada kat depan?". To which, he replied a volcanic-eruption-inducing reply, "Tak apalah, satu je..." At this point, the customer-behind-me-whose-purchase-had-been-registered started to apologise to me. Which I thought was unnecessary, because it wasn't him who cut the queue but rather the cashier who chose to cut MY queue to attend to his colleagues purchase. "Okay," I said to myself, "don't let this get to you... Just let it go,.." all the while thinking that the cashier will apologise to me after seeing that his colleague doing so.
Guess what... he didn't say a thing... He just rung up my purchase, took my money, gave me the correct change and receipt and that was it! I stood there for a good 10 seconds looking at him, and he just pretended as if I were invisible. This is too much, so I went to the customer service counter and said that I wanted to lodge a complain against the cashier. I was referred to a supervisor and I related the incidence to her. So she gave me a form to fill up. While I was filling up the form, she stood next to me, all the while looking intently at what I was writing and effectively ignoring the chatter coming out of her walkie-talkie. Once I was done, I handed the form to her, to which she apologised on behalf of Carrefour and promised that such incidences would not be repeated in the future. Yeah, right... We'll just see... Maybe tomorrow I'll go there again to follow up on what (in)action will be taken in response to my lodged complain...
Why am I so pissed? Read my earlier post, especially my answer on Item 2 of the tag. Although many would retaliate in defense to what I would label as Malay mentality, these isolated incidences are the ones that give a bad impression to Malays. You see, I've seen and even experienced similar occurrences before, like the time when also at the express lane, some (Malay) idiots bring a trolleyful of stuff which were CLEARLY more than 10 items into the queue. When I gently reminded them that the lane was for customers making small purchases, they (the supposedly berbudi-bahasa, berhemah tinggi bangsa) just ignored me. But to further rub in salt to wound, even the (Malay) cashiers wouldn't dare say anything to them! And the same thing happened after that. Again, a (Malay) lady got into the queue with a basket filled to the brim. Again, this self-appointed promoter of justice pointed out the nature of the lane to this lady. This time she said, "Maaf ye, akak nak cepat ni". To which, this (Chinese) cashier said, "Maaf ye puan, baris ni untuk pembelian tak melebihi 10 barang saja. Puan boleh masuk queue sebelah sana," gesturing to the normal lane. Seeing that I had an ally on my side, the dejected lady mumbled something under her breath (which I don't give a damn anyway to whatever she might be saying) and parked her spot at the end of a longer queue.
Why do I have to relate these stories? Am I saying that the Malays are a useless bunch of people that I seemingly am prepared to denounce any association to them? Or am I just a sod who thinks too highly of other races? Does that make me an anti-racist, reason being I'm as if bashing my own race? Or maybe, just maybe... I want us to become better people instead? Maybe I want us to get out of the safety of the Bumiputera cocoon and see the world as it really is, a world where only the strongest will survive? A world where customers are increasingly aware of their rights and are no longer afraid to stand up for them? A service industry that really delivers what they're supposed to deliver? Think about it for a moment. Am I really doing what I seem to be doing? Am I really saying what I seem to be saying? To those of you keen on coming to the defense of the Malays, by all means do so. But please, I plead you. Think long-term, think survival, think of people's ever-rising expectations. Think of basic customer service, of some simple common sense?
|