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.