By: Natalie Shobana
Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia (pg 13)
September 6th, 2012
“Excuse me, do you sell pine nuts” I asked.
“It’s very expensive” the shop owner replied.
As the saying goes, ‘my blood boiled’.
Customer service in Malaysia truly is a force to be reckoned with. It’s just frustrating at times. I’m sure many
of you reading this, have your own encounters with careless sales people. There are a few categories I’d place them
in. The ‘you’re not rich enough so why
bother’, ‘I can see you, but I’ll just stand here pretending I don’t”, the “I
don’t know Ma’am syndrome” and the cop out ‘it’s our policy’ customer service.
Then
there are the overzealous that follow your every move like you’re about to
steal something. Or maybe that just only happens to me. “Can I help you?”
“Just
looking thanks”
“We
have this in all sizes and three different colours, would you like to try it?”
“Em,
no thank you, I’m just looking but if I
find something I’ll let you know”,
“Ok,
this is a new arrival item Ma’am, would you like to try it?”. This is what I call, induced blood boiling.
What
about the sales people that pretend they don’t see you, especially when you’re
trying to get service. The food would
not have gotten cold had I waited for the chopsticks to arrive. Then there are the waiters that don’t speak
any comprehensible language and don’t understand any of the languages I
speak.
Though
one thing that I find in Malaysia, is that our customer service people lack
knowledge of the product they are selling. They just want to make a sale or like standing
around talking. An experience at a famous bookshop drove the point home. I was looking for a particular book but the
sales people just did not know how to answer any of the my questions. It was
rather disappointing, as I thought back to an experience at a bookshop in India,
where the guy sorting out the shelf, could explain which books were a good read
and why! Maybe we’re just not a country
and reads as much, but I’d expect some basic knowledge about books if they were
working at a bookstore, or was this just a case of “this is what you get for
the salary I’m getting paid”? There is
little pride in the work some customer service people do.
“Where
is this made?”
“I
don’t’ know”, said with a blank stare.
“Can
you go check?”, “Em ok.” Person goes away, talks to someone else that looks
equally as clueless. “Don’t know la Ma’am, but do you want to buy it?”
Then
there is the ‘if I say it’s made in a European country, the price hike is warranted’. Case in point happened in a reputable leather
goods store where the item in question was an expensive leather bag apparently
made in Italy. Not only was the Italian
grammar on the information tag all wrong, the English was appalling. This trend of misleading customers is really
unbecoming and leaves a bad taste.
The
worst has got to be a teleco company’s ‘customer care line’. I had been charged double and only realised
when the credit card bill arrived. So I called them to clarify and wanted to
know why I was not informed. “I’m sorry Ma’am, there was a problem with the
system, it’s not our fault that we charged you twice, it’s the system.”
I replied, “It’s your system; therefore it’s your
problem. So why was I not informed and charged double?
“Sorry
Ma’am, it’s our policy. Anyway it has
been rectified, so it’s not a problem anymore”.
I think my blood boiled over for the little care received!
It’s
not all bad though. Our postman does a good job. He’s conscientious and delivers our letters
in the smelting heat. When a second New
Zealand parcel had not made it to the house, I went to the post office. I was directed to the sorting room and spoke
with the chief postman about it, giving him the details. The parcel was never
found but I was very impressed with the service given.
Service
at local councils and other government run ministries have definitely improved.
Definitely service with a smile, something the private sector can learn from,
because if you don’t care for your customers, someone else will.
Natalie
believes, there’s no substitute for good customer service.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
