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.

I’ve heard of many cases where the person who is paid to do the work, somehow ends up seeking help from the customers. One example is what happened to my sister. She’s an accountant in a MNC and there was this fresh graduate auditor who kept pestering her and the other accountants……not for information or documents, but for help. The fresh graduate did not know how to do her job! To make things worse, my sister actually gave her some documents to study but she didn’t study. She preferred to be spoon-fed.

Spoon-fed by a customer…? Hmmm.

Actually, this kind of incident happens a lot. These people have no idea that they are dealing with the customers, and they are supposed to be the one providing solution, not the other way round. If you can’t give me solution and expect me to teach you how to do it, then what’s the point of paying you? Isn’t it better to just hire a maid?

If you seriously don’t know how to fix it, then just seek assistance from your seniors or something and don’t let the customers know that you can’t fix it. Always know your role and where you are. It won’t benefit you or your employer if you allow the customers to know that you can’t fix the problem (and pestering to teach you to fix it will certainly make things a lot worse).

As for the guy allocating resources, always know who are your main customers and the skillset of your people. No point sending a lazy rookie to the front line of a warzone. You’ll just lose more people and give the impression that your squad (company) is weak. Try to allocate them under some helpful seniors and put them elsewhere.

Remember that if I’m paying you to fix the problem for me, and you can’t do it…then the least you can do is to spend some time figuring out how to do it (and not asking me for help!). If you still can’t do it, I’ll just find someone else.