Tuesday, May 24, 2005
If i had to single out the one most unforgettable lesson I've learned from my job it would be this:
Despite how far we as a nation have progressed economically, financially and all that jazz, in terms of how
civilised we are we've moved not an inch. To quote a certain manager, Singaporeans seriously need a reality check.
It comes from dealing with customers and the aftermath of their visits day after day. Particularly in the kids bit where I usually am. Its insane how quickly the section gets thrashed, especially on public holidays (like today). And how blatantly rude and/or clueless certain customers can be (and i don't mean just the little tykes). And finally, just how inherantly selfish people are.
I really think a book on bookstore etiquette should be published and made compulsory reading in schools, having learnt from experience that the presence of parental figures seldom brings about any form of positive change. Such essential points as those stated below may be included.
(1) Open browsing policies mean just that:
browsing . Which by default implies brevity. Flipping through a book for a few minutes constitutes browsing. Planting yourself in a corner for 5 hours with a stack of magazines does not.
(2) When staff ask if you need a book, they do not mean:
do you intend to continue sitting here for another five hours reading this copy? They really mean,
are you actually planning to buy this? . And because most of the time the answer is actually in the negative, be grateful that we're all nice and polite enough to leave you be and not tell you to fuc off and go to a bleeding library and you don't plan to pay for what you want to read.
(3) Do not take it as your God-given right to root yourself in any crevice and corner you find comfy. Granted, if you're stubborn enough none of us will be able to move you, but having a storeful of grumpy salespeople hating your guts is definitely not good karma.
(4)If you're standing in line at the cashiers, buying
one single measly l0nely item, please for heaven's sake do NOT wait till you actually reach the counter to start digging through your bag for change. I have personally encountered $13.15 (lemony snickett book) paid for purely in coins, all of which were retrieved from the depths of a handbag wile standing
at the counter . impressive,no?
(5) And while we're all really happy to serve you and all that, we're only human just as you are.
Note to all this post was not intended as a complaint. It's really just what i think about working where I do. So the standard of service in Singapore's been going down? no surprise. It seems painfully obvious that service is a two way thing: there is no way
goodcustomer service can materialize in a society where customers lack the basic civilities of humanity. In other words, the problem lies not in the service sector per se. Its something we as a society lack, and seriously, like i said before, what we need more than anything else is a reality check.
thankyougoodnight
0 comments
