the focus on Customer Service

I went for a training session with the bank (Which bank? The Commonwealth Bank... haha) today.
It was largely a sales and service seminar where they introduced communication and people interaction concepts but in a view to customer service.
And, during the course, I had learned a few interesting things.



1. You will sometimes fail

It seems that you will never get to please everyone no matter how fast you rush, how hard you work or how accurate you are.
And, that by listening and understanding your clients, it will never always mean that you will come to an agreement.



2. A Positive Attitude

The fact of the service industry (and a significant portion of life) is largely affected and effected by your attitude.
You may the cheerful and friendly guy at the bank, but do a half-baked job.
You will still get more credit due than the are surly and negative guy who does excellent work.
This is because your negativity works against you, and that the client will discount all your effort and hard work.
It's like the client going off and asking himself, "What the heck?"



3. ...dealing with difficult clients

When dealing with annoying or angry customers, there is not much you are able to do gain your measure of satisfaction from the situation.
Why?
This is very simply answered by the phrase, 'the customer is always right'.

What you are able to do is able to be tidily summarized as a perception shift.

The training session referred to this situation as the Aikido Principle.
It is where you take the moral high ground and to detach yourself from the angry words, insults, etc. and be objective with the client.
Then you should be apologetic, empathic and then as helpful as you are able to be by offering workable solutions.
After all, it is rather hard to be annoyed with someone who is bending over backwards trying to help you.



All in all, a very useful session in my personal development.

problem with lazy sunday mornings

I had an sms from Sherls this morning.
She was looking for some friends to have a Sunday breakfast/brunch session with.
Unfortunately I could not make it as it was a laaaaaaaaaaa~zy Sunday morning.

I was able to reply though...

"Arrangements for breakfast should be made the day prior, as to guarantee that I will be awake, coherent or, at the very least, present to your early morning appointment."

I still need alot of work on this whole sunrise/morning thing.

You Rock! You Rule!

Rest in Peace...

Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr. (October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007), under which he was best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series.

He died September 16, 2007 from complications due to cardiac amyloidosis.

Fūrin Kazan

風林火山 - Fūrin Kazan



The title is a reference to the war banner used by Takeda Shingen, which in turn was taken from Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

"Swift as the Wind, Silent as a Forest, Fierce as Fire and Immovable as a Mountain."







"move as swift as the wind,
stay silent as the forest,
attack as fierce as fire,
immovable defense as the mountains."

Colorgenics Profile

My complete personal profile, as provided by Colorgenics





You have exaggerated demands on life but you are cautious enough to try to hide these beliefs from the outside world. You are covert enough to try to impress other people around you with your achievements and at the same time able to put on an act of pretending to be 'humble' - being the same as everyone else. It would appear, however, that whatever you are doing seems to be working out O.K.

You 'need to be needed'. As an idealist you are intolerant of anything short of special consideration from those close to you. If you do not get what you seek you are apt to become reclusive and you will close the doors on all those within your sphere of influence.

In spite of the fact that you believe that your hopes and ideas are realistic, it is hard for you to accept that your needs and desires are misunderstood by almost everyone within your sphere of influence and there is no-one to turn to or rely on. Your pent-up emotions and inherent egocentricity make you quick to take offence, but as matters stand you realise that you will have to make the best of things as they are.

You are trying to prove yourself - not only to yourself but also to everyone around you. There is much that you would like to say and do but the situation warrants self-restraint and that is the last thing that you have on your mind. It would seem that you have an unsatisfied need to ally yourself with others whose standards are as high as your own. You want to be different - to stand out from the crowd. This is subjecting you to considerable stress but you tend to stick to your attitudes despite lack of appreciation. Of course, you are finding the situation uncomfortable and would like nothing better but to break away from it but you don't like the idea of compromise. Your main problem is that you are unable to resolve the situation because you continually postpone making the necessary decisions. You feel that if you make the wrong choice this would lead to such opposition that you would not be able to command the esteem of others. It is essential that those around you are prepared to comply with your wishes.

It is strange that the anxiety that you are experiencing at this time is of your own making simply because of your desire to be respected by your fellow man and with those whom you work with. You are not satisfied. The normal congenial 'you' is becoming quite introverted. This is becoming increasingly more obvious because you seem to shy away from participating in everyday activities. You are refusing to allow yourself to become involved or to participate with others and it is the reluctance to communicate that is the inherent cause of your problems.

smells bad...

I live in an apartment with nice lawns.
I also happen to have to pay a nice tidy sum to the Body Corporate in fees.
So, we have a nice gentleman (who is our caretaker) and he keeps the lawn nice, green and bright.
Over the winter, the lawns wither and waste away.
Every spring, the nice caretaker comes over and plants a new green lawn.
The new green lawn will need fertilizer to help the lawn grow up big and strong.
Since the nice caretaker is a fairly pro-environment guy, he uses manure.

I DO NOT like the smell of shit in the morning !!!