Today as I was having breakfast (er..or was it yesterday..? Gosh, my Short Term Memory Lost is back), I saw the debate on the lousy customer service/support provided by many companies in the UK. It was on BBC. They interviewed few people and nearly all of them voiced out their anger and frustration with these “helpdesk”.

I’m writing this because I feel for them. I, myself, am a victim of such lousy customer support…or helpdesk, whatever you call it. I’m sure those of you from the Malaysia experience this as well…..especially our friendly Telekom and Maybank.

My experience with Citibank and Maxis was a pleasant one though. They were very efficient and I got straight to my point without wasting time.

As for others, you (the customer) will have to press so many numbers to go through so many different levels in order to speak to somebody. It’s like their main purpose is to stop you from reaching them. If that’s the case, what’s the purpose of customer support? And some of their “system” is using IT system which doesn’t integrate well at all……..and some even voiced by someone who cannot speak proper English. Isn’t that frustrating?

I feel that in order to provide good customer support (a satisfied customer is a loyal customer), you need to get your people to TALK to them. Not your lousy system. Some people might argue  that they do not have that enough resources. Well, your resources are more important than your customers? Get people to talk to the customers. Minimize the “stages” the customers need to go through in order to speak to someone. And if they managed to go through the “stages”, make sure somebody answer the call ! No point keeping the customer waiting for 2 minutes without anyone answering.

Call centre, good customer support, good helpdesk…..all these are very important and might be the points that you need to do well in order to be more significant than your competitors. So do it well! Treat your customers properly!

Oh, and please don’t try to think you are smarter than your customer (I had a Streamyx call centre guy arguing with me over what is WIRELESS…He said I should use cable instead of wireless….even after I told him my router and laptop are side by side and I didn’t have any cable. =_= and he said I donno what I am talking…).

Now people, tell me about your experience.

p/s….wanted to draw comic on this, but i’m just too tired. I need to rush something for my friend’s birthday this Saturday…..and I just finished my work at 11.30pm =_= I need some sleep…badly.    

I found out about this online typing speed test from one of my friend’s blog Life’s Roller Coaster.

Here’s the link to the test

Speedtest – how fast are you?

Let me see how fast can you type I got my typing skill from………..MIRC =_= and lots of chatting =_=

Here’s my result:

You type 542 characters per minute
You have 102 correct words and
you have 0 wrong wordsHohoho.

Try to beat my record

Last Saturday, I decided to visit the famous Natural History Museum in South Kensington. If you’ve watched the movie “A night at the museum” (or some names which sound like that)…the one with a walking skele-dinosaur, then you should know which museum I’m talking about. Mmm…but how come I didn’t manage to find the Egytian Mummy…

It’s a very very large museum. There’s the dinosaur exhibition hall….with a lot of fossils and replicas of the now extinct dinosaurs. We’re soooooo small compared to them.

Then i moved on to the mammal exhibition hall and my heart sank. Inside those display glasses are dead creatures…lions..tigers…dogs… a lot of them… Some of them have very sad eyes especially the male lion. Most of the colors have faded because the government doesn’t allow the hunting of such animals for such purposes. Phew.

I walked on….and on…….and guess what? There are a lot of unknown creatures which have become extinct…and many more which are threatened by none other than human beings. Most of the zebras are dying. The Malayan Tapir has less than a few in the wild. Creatures ranging from horses to whales to dolphins….are forced into extinction by us.

Trees are being cut down for furniture….forests are being cleared for the sake of development……and most of them unplanned development. Animals are being killed for their fur, meat………or for the case of sharks………i can say for “glamour” because people who eat shark fins (which is actually toxin to the body) are considered “rich”.

I know this post is kinda unrelated to my blog but I still want to post it up. Many people will argue with me that as time goes by, certain species of animals will perish and new ones will appear. If it is by the order of mother nature…then i am fine. But if it by us, human beings, for some useless reasons…….then i really don’t see the point.

Shark fins…everyone will say that they’ve killed the shark, if they don’t eat it then the sharks will die in vain. BULLSHIT. Try telling them that the shark fins are actually toxin to the human body (proven by medical experts) and see how will they react.  I’ve stopped eating shark fin for more than 10 years now. If I can do it, why not you?

And if I can think of our dying world as this way, why can’t you? How you plan to save our world is another story because before going that far, you at least need to start caring for this world. Remember, our actions now will not have an immediate impact on our generation…but the generations to come.

I came across Seth Godin’s post on “Advice for real estate agent (quit now!)” and find it very useful.

The real estate industry has been very popular over the last few years. Many people are getting homes for themselves and many more who are starting to invest in properties….hoping to gain a big profit from it.

I nearly got into real estate investment before but I don’t have the money, and I don’t have the guts to use other people’s money to do it (in this case, bank). Furthermore, I realized that there are too many investors and too many properties……..perhaps more than our nation’s need for them.

Don’t get me wrong. It can still give you a big profit if you are good at it.

But every property investor needs a good real estate agent. No, no matter how much you try, it will never be easy if you become your own agent. You will still need a real estate agent who knows his stuff. And believe me, you can find A LOT of them in Malaysia.

Hope you’ve taken some time to read the post linked above. I believe it is relevant not just to real estate agent, but for everything else. Be something you are good at…be a specialist. Rather than trying to become the best real estate agent in Malaysia, maybe try to become the best real estate agent specializing in studio apartment in Bangsar.

Hope it helps.

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This is quite similar to another comic strip of mine regarding taking time off to visit parents.

The above comic strip is inspired by the movie “Click”. I’m greatly touched by the movie. That’s why nowadays, no matter how busy I am with work…i will never ignore a call or email from my family and friends. I will never say I am very busy to reply. To me, work is work…….If i screw up the work, I can always correct it or change another 1. But I only have 1 family…..I cannot afford to screw things up.

Hope this comic strip is able to teach some of you busy workacholics out there that your family and friends deserve some of your time.