Monday, August 3, 2009

On the subject of professionalisme (or rather, a lack of it)

Firstly, refer to this post and this post.

Secondly, when a customer calls up in order to enquire about catering for a certain no of people, maybe you shouldn't tell him/her to "kindly maintain a number of A and above". Honestly, you should be going by his/her requirements, not demanding that he/she follow yours. You run the risk of having said customer delete your email and your phone number from his/her list of possibilities, just for being so douchy about it.

Thirdly, when a customer calls asking for quotations and you say that you will provide it the next day, kindly do so. Don't make him/her wait by the phone for your pathetic excuse of a price list. And when he/she calls and asks when the list is coming the next day, please tell the truth: that you are too lazy/lame/pathetic to actually provide one. That way, it's easy for him/her to move on to suppliers who are serious would really like the business and is not just there for shits and giggles.

Fourth, when someone comes to your store asking for something in particular, and you feel like you have a better model/make/version which is more expensive than what they asked for, fine. Tell them about it. But honestly, if he/she says "no", do him/her a favour and refrain from laying on the guilt trip or making her/him feel stupid. Maybe he/she just doesn't have the cash for it, or maybe he/she prefers using THAT particular one.

Fifth, don't gatal2 bukak mulut cakap "Rugilah kak, akak tak ambik ni" or "akak ni tak kisah ke pasal kesihatan/kecantikan/kekurusan", or whatsoever. If I say I'm not interested, I'm not interested even if you end up foaming at the mouth from trying to talk me into it and start having seizures from it. I'll probly just walk away anyway. Rimas

Sixth, if a customer comes in interested in buying something, please lah don't look her up and down just because she decided not to dress up that day and you think she tak mampu/buat muka masam while you tend to her requests to get a particular shoe size (yes, I'm talking about shoe sales assistants), ignore her completely while she stand there with a shoe for 5 minutes trying to get your attention OR breathe on her neck while she walks around. So yang mana satu nak? Ikut pun tak boleh, tak ikut pun marah. What I mean is, stand by from a safe distance when a customer walks in, so that you'll be alert when she needs help but won't suffocate her with your insecurity, clingy issues. Leave that for your bf/husband/gf/wife to deal with, tqvm.

Oh, and seventh, if a customer says "I'm gonna look around first, to see other options, I might come back later" tak payahla buat muka or roll your eyes at her. Sometimes, that's the very reason she doesn't come back walaupun kasut/baju whatever tu cantik macam permaisuri punya pun. I'd rather buy from some other place which knows the meaning of "having choices".

Last but not least, I end this post with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi "A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so"

1 comment:

Namran Hussin said...

marvellous post..

really down to earth..

something also feel like an idiot when got sales personnel behaving like that toward us.. (the customer).