Warning: This is sort of like a rant post.

Thursday (the day I’m writing this) has not been very kind to me so far, thanks to my work (which is doing a year 2000 technology) and some inconsiderate drivers. So I was having this negative aura around me when I approached the Kelana Jaya Shell station to pump petrol.

Once I stopped the car, there was this bank employee who walked towards me with a big smile on his face. So I smiled back (pretty reluctantly). I proceeded with all those Bonuslink and credit card stuff while anticipating this guy to ask me if I would like to apply for a credit card from the bank he’s working for.

And I waited….and waited. Then I heard someone talking behind the pillar, right next to my car. And he was alone, the credit card salesman. Yes, he was using his mobile phone, right next to my car and I was pumping petrol.

I could feel the atomic bomb exploded within me. I called out to him:

“EXCUSE ME? hey you, can’t you read that simple sign that says NO MOBILE PHONE USAGE? Next time want to make a call, go further away la, there are so many empty spaces here”.

He smiled and walked off. His plan to get a new credit card customer, ruined, because of his own stupidity.

And we see this ALL THE TIME. People who want to get some deals or businesses from the potential customers, only to show the ugly side of them. For me, if you can’t even follow simple things like not using a mobile phone in a petrol station, how do you expect me to believe whatever you are going to say? I already have a negative impression of you without you even saying anything.

Sorry man, I’ll pass. No point buying from someone I dislike.

p/s….. and sometimes i really really wonder, why is it so hard for people to follow simple instructions like not using phone in the petrol station? i’ve seen so many people making phone calls while pumping petrol. If you want to risk your life, so be it. Why do you want to risk other people’s life…. and also their cars?

I was in Genting casino with my parents over the weekend (I visit Genting once every 5-6 years. LOL). And to be honest, none of us know how to gamble. We ended up spending some time in the slot machine (the confirm-you-will-win-nothing game). But the slot machine we were using broke. And 3 of us were clueless of what to do.

So we approached the staff on duty.

Lim (my dad) : Sorry, can you help me to see the machine. Seems to be broken.

Staff walked straight to the machine, nearly banging my dad and without a smile, without a word.

Staff : (without a smile and in a rude tone) Minimum RM 10.

Staff opened the machine with a key and brute force. And returned the RM 1 to us.

Alvin : Aiya, they should’ve placed a “min bet RM 10″ sign there.

The fella ignored me.

Lim : How can we get the RM 2 balance out?

Staff : (without a smile) You need a card.

Lim : How can we apply the card then?

Staff : (extended his hand, without a smile again) Where’s your IC?

At this point, I was completely pissed. 5 minutes later, he returned.

Alvin : Friend, what’s your name? *looks at tag*. D*****n right? Okay.

Lim : Young man, mind your attitude.

Staff : What did you just say?

Lim : I said, mind your attitude.

And after that, he became better. :T

It’s funny how such a big corporation can allow its employee(s) to be so rude. I do know that some customers are pretty screwed up and only find troubles but no matter how angry or frustrated you are, you must never vent it on the customer. Do that, you get to enjoy for a while and you might also lose your job. It’s a big NO in the service industry.

Patience is the keyword here. You can go on and curse behind the back as long as you want, but when facing the customer, you have to keep your temper in check. Call me two-face or whatever, but that is how things work in the service industry.

Sadly, in Malaysia, we do get a lot of rude customer-facing employees…..and some pretty brainless ones too.

p/s… and i approached 2 casino employees to ask something in English. They told me they cannot understand English. Hmmm….

Note: this is rant post, about my dad’s experience as a former employee of a local bank.

My dad is a retiree. He used to work for more than 10 years in a local bank. And he even extended his retirement age and worked as contract for the bank for another 2 years. I can still remember that in the past, whenever my dad drove passed the bank, he would look to check if there’s anything suspicious about the bank – any suspicious people, did the alarm go off, are the lights on, etc.

I can only say one thing – my dad was a very loyal employee. Several banks approached him but he refused to go.

But sadly, the bank did not appreciate him after he retired. The bank gave him nothing when he decided to discontinue the contract renewal. Contract staff to them, are not full-time staff and are not eligible for the extra pension funds. I think the pension fund is quite a lot. So in the end, my dad only received the money from the EPF.

Then recently, the bank’s credit card which my dad is holding has reached its expiry date. My dad called up and asked them to send a new card.

The bank refused and said this “Sorry to say that you are no longer our employee. Thus, we will not renew your credit card”.

My dad told me this and I was quite surprised. I thought the banks are competing with each other for credit card customers? Furthermore, my dad has 100% clean record. He never owed the bank anything.

But of course, my dad was very disappointed because after all the hard work, the bank did something like this to him. It was a free for life card, but other banks are giving him the same type of credit card – with higher credit limit. So in the end, he decided to write an email to the bank.

“I understand that the bank renewed my card once after my retirement. The bank’s decision to cancel my card now without any warning, came as a surprise to me. However, I do respect the bank’s decision. Just in case you want to know more about me, you can contact your branch managers XXX, XXX, XXX and XXX.”

2 days later, the bank called and offered to renew the card. =_=

My dad refused. The damage has been done and there’s no turning back.

And the bank called again. They even sent some emails and asked him to reconsider.

Moral of the story? I think for a large corporation like this, this kind of mistake should never be done. First, it makes people think that you never appreciate your current and former employees. Second, you jumped to conclusion without any warning, and without any solid proof. Third, you just chased out one of your most loyal customers.

In the end, my dad did more than rejecting the new card. He went on and closed all his accounts (and ours) with the bank. 35 years of relationship burned, because of a silly mistake.

p/s…. my dad worked for the first bank in his 20s, then the bank got bought over by another bank…and few years later, by this “local bank”.

Businesses exist to help customers with their problems, and not giving them more problems than they already have. This may seem like a simple theory which anyone can tell if they bother to use common sense, and yet it is something that most businesses, big and small, failed to do.

For example, a customer needs to claim for a medical fee. It would help if the business concerned can make the entire process of approving the claim as simple as possible. Things like 12 hours or even 24 hours approval certain help. Imagine what would happen if the claim process is 1 month long and the customer is required to provide not only photocopied receipts but also original ones, handed to the company’s office by the customer himself. To make things worse, the company’s offices don’t operate on weekends.

Talk about helpful customer service

Another example, a customer recently lost his wallet to a robber. He called company A to cancel all his cards, and also to ask for an insurance claim (to cover the cost of the card replacement). Company A said yes, it can be done. The customer was relieved and thanked company A for it. Few weeks later, the claim was rejected. Why? Because the customer did not provide the original supporting documents (including the official bank statement which is required to cover the cost of the lost ATM card – worth RM 12). The customer was furious because he still could not get his credit cards back and he, who has been the customer for 5 years, was forced to show so many documents for something worth RM 12. He called the company up, scolded them and cancelled the membership on the spot. The company lost a very loyal customer who used to spread the good words about this company to his friends.

The above 2 examples, I believe, might have been experienced by many of you before. When we’re in trouble, we expect the companies which we’ve paid to help us, to…well…help us. Instead, what we get is processes and unnecessary procedures, which only give us more headaches than help. I must admit that it’s not wrong for these businesses to have processes and procedures, but they need to abstract them from the customers and not troubling them.

Look, if your business is giving me more headache than helping me, then I will just go to another business and you most probably won’t see me AND my friends. End of story.

Most business owners think that if their products/services are good, or if their price is cheap, then their customers will be happy to deal with them. Well, in some cases, yes. But there are also some clients who want to know more about your business in terms of how it’s being run, before they make any decision whether to give you their money or not.

I’m sure some of you don’t really believe in this but this is exactly what a friend of mine has encountered before. He’s a sales guy and the first question he received from the client (after his usual sales pitch) was “What’s the turnover rate in your company?”

My friend, being a sales guy, replied that the company’s turnover rate is pretty low as the company has a good employee retainment policy. Then one of the directors from the client side said “Is that true? From what I heard, a number of your manager have recently left due to some dispute”. And all of a sudden, my friend knew he was digging his own grave because his company’s turnover rate has in fact risen over the past few months.

Now, if you’re asking why are customers so concerned about something like employee retainment policy? Here are some of the reasons:

• Can’t handle project – If you can’t handle your own people, what makes you think you can handle the project well? Also, it does show what kind of management the company has.
• Project duration extended – If you can’t keep your people, then what if the team doing the project suddenly leave one day? Who is going to take over or even complete the project for the client?
• Bad project implementation – If there’s no proper employee retainment policy, it also means the people working for the project are most probably unhappy folks. Unhappy folks produce problematic project since they’re not giving their all.
• No support – Also, if there are issues with the project, who should they go to if those people who first implemented project are no longer there and there’s no proper knowledge transfer done?

From the 4 points above, you can see why the client is worried about something like employee retainment. Nobody wants to invest their precious money in a project which is going to cost them more needless money than actually helping them. Project delay, no support, bad project implementation and problematic company management are all showing obvious signs that my friend’s company is not doing that well. Besides that, it also shows the customer what kind of business partner they are going to deal with if they give the project to this company.

So, don’t think that customers only care about your products or your expertise because they also care for other things especially if they are looking for a long term business partnership (which is a very good opportunity for any company). And when there are so many companies competing with each other for the customers’ signature, it is a no-brainer that customers have the right to get what they want – good quality project/product, good price, good management, on time project delivery, trustworthy business partners, etc.

If you can’t give them what they want, then sorry, you don’t stand a chance.