今時今日，服務態度仲可以係。。。

I am currently still quite furious about the customer service level and policy of my ISP.

This is a long weekend in Hong Kong, and I need to ensure some tasks has been completed before I get back to work on Tuesday (the next working day). So, I took my work laptop home and try to connect to office network using VPN on home ISP carrier.

While my home laptop works perfectly fine and got the connection straight away, the work laptop cannot. So, I tried to seek technical support from my ISP. It was 10:15 pm then. Well, anyone would agree with me that this is perhaps the start of the golden period of web surfing for home users. But, guess what? This company, Hutchison Global Communicatoin 和記 is so "customer friendly" that technical support finishes work at 10:00 pm.

So, I ended up being connected to General Customer Enquiry Hotline, which operates for longer hours. By the way, what is the use of having General Customer Enquiry on when Technical Support is off? Does a lot of people ask about their bill during the night time?

Anyway, I was told that there was no technical support, and I asked whether some technical support can be arranged because I need to connect to the office network in time to catch up with my overseas colleagues. Nothing can be arranged of course; that's not in their books.

So, I asked whether his boss could arrange something for me as I need to be online then or else I miss the opportunity. He tried asked his boss, but replied that nothing could be arranged. He tried all he could to help me, with whatever minimal technical skills he had, it was not sufficient to solve the problem.

I asked to talk to his boss, but I gathered his boss was too chicken to confront me. I said I would stay on the line until his boss come on, but he pleaded with me to stop it there, saying his boss was on some other business at that time.

I insisted waiting, and his boss only came to attend to me at around 10:50 pm. By that time, my frustration and dissatifaction was mounted up to the extent that I insisted on having a written apology.

Both the officer and the supervisor informed repeatedly that it was not in their company's policy to provide any written apology, email or in paper.

I asked whether they could provide a written account of the incident as a minimum so that I have proof in case my own boss asked why I didn't attend to my own work. But again it was a NO.

I asked whether they could provide the recording to me, only to find out that I need to fill a form and pay HKD 120 for something that I own as much as they do.

I asked whether the supervisor could escalate to his boss and see if any of the options I have asked for could be arranged. Still NO.

Although the NO's were given quite politely, a NO is still a NO. And I got more and more agitated as time passed.

I debriefed to the officer and the supervisor at various points of time during the conversation that this was not a good way to handle a customer. I told them the basics of Customer Service Excellence as I learnt it during my MBA course, saying that the longer they avoided to resolve my problem and/or soothe my anger, the worst the situation would be.

A service incident without a proper and instant recovery would result in more problem than going outside of the company rules, resulting in as much as damaging the company's reputation. And still, they didn't take heed.

So, in the end, I took the case number and the supervisor's name, asked the supervisor to get his boss to call me and apologize, lodged a complaint at the HK Consumer Council and wrote this blog. See how a small thing, probably the customer was in the wrong even, could build up to!!

I am not sure what will come out of this, but it is really not the way to treat a customer.

A customer is a customer and no matter whether it's his/her problem, you still have to try all you can to help him/her, even if it's not within the written rules.

Why is Ritz Carlton being used as the benchmark of customer service? It's because the staff owns a problem and have the latitude to make up with the customer. Each is empowered to provide remedies within a certain limit, which normally is sufficient to far exceed the expectation of the customer in question for the service incident.

There is really no customer-centric service culture in HK. All they have are company-centric measures. If it is not convenient to the company, they say that it's not in their books. Easy?! Easy for them, but just as easy to agitate customers...

What are we doing, HK? We are converting to a service economy, but what service are we providing? Is this really sufficient??????

與神相遇之行

我在八月的時候自己一個人去了一趟泰國布吉，目的呢？是希望離開繁囂的工作與人際關係，好好的給自己有空間與神相交。

在那之前，我實在很不快樂，埋怨人也埋怨神。當我有一天發現我口所出的都是怨言的時候，我覺得我一定要離開，重新在神中沉澱，再找我的方向。

這一次五天的獨處，實在獲益良多。

其中的一個很重要的啓發是，原來我一直害怕孤單，所以我就向神求有一個伴，哪管是朋友還是情人。

但神卻讓我記起以前以色列人也是求王，卻忘記神才是他們的王。

如果我今天因爲要一個實在的人來愛我，卻忘記我的神是最愛我的那個，我不就跟以色列人一樣？後果會不會是忘記了神的愛？會不會跟神越走越遠？

所以，我要先學習愛神，好像祂是我的愛人一樣。

我回來啦！

先前有太長的一段日子沒有寫Blog， 以至連User ID & Password都忘掉了。
今天不信邪又試一次，居然就讓我蒙中了！Yeah!!
所以，我又回來啦！！！

咖啡 (2006.09.26)

這一年來，我的胃常常閙病，年頭就胃炎了一趟，要戒掉咖啡，奶茶，跟任何有咖啡因，茶鹼的飲料和食品，連“港式飲茶”也只能夠喝白開水。慘況真是不足為外人道。

好不容易胃養好了，才重新可以再接觸這些生命中的vices。(真的不知道中文怎樣翻譯才傳神)
最近，不知爲何常常睡不着，每晚每晚不到淩晨一，二時就是怎樣都睡不着，於是，咖啡又上場了！而且，每天一杯已經不管用，非要早午各一杯才能維持清醒。於是，胃病又跟著上場露臉了！搞得我吃甚麽都沒味道，而且胃都會反抗。不用醫生提點，都知道不能再喝了。

不是有一個説法，人對咖啡的態度，多少反映那個人對愛情的態度嗎？如是，那我就是那些先天身體不能承受愛情的人罷？哈哈。