OPENING UP OUR HEARTS:

          

      Yesterday, I came in a bit late to work due to a minor traffic jam. I was completely stunned by the relentless blow of questions being thrown to me by an angry customer who was waiting impatiently somewhere near my pharmacy counter.  He mumbled a few words, which sounded like “You do not follow up my case”. “Huh! What case wo?’’ I was thinking.

        After reading the short note on my table (written by one of my staff), only I realised that it was related to the Omron digital body weight scale. I promptly clarified that I was having my off days previously and apologized for any inconvenience caused. I had tried to calm him down, but in vain. The customer claimed that he had tested it several times and insisted on an immediate refund for the “faulty” weighing scale he bought two weeks ago.

       “Aiyo, this time really jialak lol. No matter what, I must make it first” I whispered. “We appreciate the business relationship we have with you, Mr Tan, we do not want to lose a loyal customer like you. We are making an immediate refund to you.” I told him. Surprisingly, Mr Tan replied, he understood that I was in a position to follow the company policy. Plus, he was willing to retest the body weight scale with my guidance. Wow! What a 180 degree of change!

        Later, I only found out that Mr tan’s method was slightly inappropriate. He missed out one important step, he should have to tap the parts below the right and left sides of the scale platform to turn on the power. He assumed that all digital body weight scale was working the same conventional way. Following this, Mr Tan changed his mind and decided to keep it. Furthermore, he ended up buying 1 more Sebamed oily hair syampoo from my store. Judging from the long conversation with him, I felt that he is a salesman too.       

      Certain level of EQ is needed to deal with this type of customers in order to survive in business. Soft approach should be applied in this case. Whenever I am about to get angry, I will divert my attention to something else. Counting from 1 to 30 seconds or more and several deep breathings simultaneously is an effective way to keep my emotion under control. At least, to me, it works.

      Besides, subconsciously, we tend to be judgmental about something or someone due to our past events and experiences. More often than not, we think that we are right and reluctant to accept a second opinion. At times, perhaps, we need to unlearn and relearn certain things in our life. We are only truly free until we are free from our judgement. That can only happen if we open up our heart to accept others’ views plus the people around us.

SURVIVAL:

            
       

         This morning, a honey bee accidentally flew into my house. In no time, my instinct prompted me to grab an electrical mosquito pat nearby in an attempt to chase it out from my house to avoid any ‘unfortunate’ bee stings. Luckily, I changed my mind, for I remember someone told me before that honey bee is a bringer of good luck and prosperity. I was instantly inspired with the important role of honey bees in our ecosystem.

         In insect kingdom, honey bee is considered as one of the most hardworking insects on earth. This explains the reason why do people always say ‘as busy as a bee’. It moves from flower to flower to collect nectar. Besides, it also carries pollen from flower to flower which accounts for over 80% of all insect pollination. Our food chains and overall survival will be negatively impacted if the honey bee were to go extinct. Without the existence of honey bees, neither human nor any animals can survive for a longer term on earth, as there is no more pollination, leading to the shortage of plants and food.

       Everything in life is interdependent. We rely on each other closely to ensure our survivals on earth. No one is indispensable on their own. Hence, it is important to invariably maintain a win-win situation to help each other to grow or more specifically in biological term (for animals), we call it as symbiosis. This ‘I support you, you support me’ virtue should be practised perpetually so that the relationship can last long. Personally, I strongly believe that by having more friends, zero enemy, more positive Qi, I will have a peaceful mind, eventually a healthier and happier life. On top of that, it is indeed a great sense of joy and fulfillment to see our comrades’ success together along the journey for a better tomorrow.

LETTING GO:

              A couple of weeks ago, my regional sales manager had briefed the staffs on effective communication with customers following a complaint made against a staff from other store for being too hard selling. After the store refit, my whole store team took the challenge to increase the sale at least 30% or more. Competitors, price slashing are everywhere. Wow! What a great challenge! Fortunately, I had just attended a workshop organized by the company, which gave my spirits a boost.

         In all businesses, we have to put our customers as our first priority if we want the customers to come back and the relationship to last. Too hard selling until intruding upon people’s privacy and feeling will eventually lead to disaster/loss of sales. Hence, it should always be done within limits.

        It is important to observe people’s body language to gauge their interests in our recommendation. Like flying a kite, we should know when is the right time to just hold on, when to let the kite dance across the sky by pulling in and letting out the line and so on. At times, we just have to let things go (provided we have tried our best). As the old saying goes , what is meant to be will always find its way.

LIFE VALUES:

           

            

        A few weeks ago, a customer came into my store to purchase some anti-depressant drugs. I turned her down as I do not sell any group B medicines (Doctor prescribed medicines).However, as a pharmacist, I was ready to be a good listener, or perhaps, a counselor.

        From the conversation, I realized that she was once a complete workaholic who achieved great success in her career, but her demanding schedule had cut drastically into her personal life and obstructed her from spending any quality time with her husband and children. 

         Recently, she just divorced as her husband was found having an affair with other woman. Of course, that could be due to many reasons. From her story, I learned that her top 4 values in life turned out to be 1) family, love 2) health 3) Money 4) Accomplishment. She missed out on her life’s top desires, despite her success in third and fourth goals.

        So often, people are too busy pursuing means values until they forget about their true desires or their ends values. Knowing our own hierarchy of values is important as our top values are those which are going to bring us the most happiness or fulfillment. Failing to do so, we will experience feeling of emptiness and even intense pain. All these magnetic pull of our values will greatly influence the direction of our lives.

       Lastly, I recommended her to take some supplements to keep her relaxed. Moreover, I also shared with her some non-pharmacological methods which could help her to have a better sleep quality. Hopefully, all these help.