1) I want to believe that I am a dynamic figure. Being a highly self-motivated person, I can express myself without any inhibitions in front of many people. Perhaps this is the reason I felt like a champion in customer servicing. My innate leadership and managerial ability provided me the boost to climb the ladder when it comes to providing satisfactory services to the clients. I have worked for Qala Company, Hong Kong Broadband, Hutchison Global Communication and PCCW – all in the line of customer service. In general, my duty was to protect the company’s relationship with our most valued stakeholder: the customers.
I liked working because I am much aware of the satisfaction anyone can get from servanthood and how it can elevate your spirit once you saw the appreciation from other people. In addition, I can speak different languages. I can speak Cantonese, English and Mandarin. I think it is good that you know at least two different languages because you can always reveal your flexibility considering the nature of my work. You can always encounter people whom will converse with you in different, ‘complicated’ languages and sticking to your native tongue won’t be of big help.
I am fond of doing little fixtures in the car, at home, at work and solving crosswords puzzles. I always wanted to discover the fastest way to do the Rubik’s. And still determine to do so. This interest, I presumed, made me develop a highly inquisitive mind, along with honing my creativity and resourcefulness. Qualities that I believe helped me get through dealing with different kinds of customers in particular. I am very good at mingling with others. I do this by simply empathizing with them and providing them with their every need but without jeopardizing the name and reputation of our company. Even if that means bending some rules sometimes.
I support a basketball and a local hockey team. I am doing everything to catch a game and never miss one. I liked these sports mainly because I can see how they can truly demonstrate teamworking in every sense of the word. You can also witness the ‘it’s-not-about-winning-but-how-you-play’ stratagem. And the sense of just witnessing them play or ‘being there’ makes you want to apply the dynamics of their strategy to every difficulties that my own team is experiencing or will experience in the future.
2) Amongst the several complaints the telecom industry in Hong Kong is receiving, the most common are technical difficulties and billing problems. The hardest customer I have ever handled is this guy – name withheld – from Canada. He ordered a broadband service from our company. The problem lies in technical drops. According to him, between 10 to 15 minutes our service drops his broadband link then after 30-50 seconds it will automatically reconnects. We’ve learned that the problem lies in the physical equipment and our technical service provider team cannot go there since the area is too far from our office. I gave him the most comforting talk I can. I told him that I cannot give any estimate of when it will be fixed since we have to check on it first. However, the guy is so persistent that he keeps on calling every three hours and nagging at our customer service representative.
By virtue of the cliché ‘the customer is always right’, we take the blame. What I did is I apologize for the unexpected technical glitch of our service then to proceed to providing him alternative solutions regarding the drops. Prior to learning the real cause of the problem, our customer service provides him with basic troubleshooting practices which didn’t work. SOP. In an effort to improve the performance or our service, I offered him a 24-hour fix and agreed on that. Suddenly, he called again and complained for another matter. This time it is about problems with downloading. He said that he is taking very long period to download. I suppose, this is another technical glitch on our side. Again, I apologize and promptly address the problem. Honestly, I am always motivated to arrive at a win-win situation.
Since we have a structured handling customer complaints system, I applied various techniques to address the technical malfunctioning of our service. Personally, I believe in L. E. A. R. N. This is to listen, to empathise, to apologise and to react now! I have learned that listening is a very effective way to address complaints. And thankfully we have fully-trained customer attendants and dedicated phone lines. In allowing the client the time and space to be heard, in a way, we are improving our service. But prior to making a decision, I always go to the bottom of the problem. I am particular with realistic and fair promises and so I gave him one albeit the place is far from our office. And finally, I documented the incident to avoid recurrence.
3) I envision myself as a manager in three years time. How am I going to do this? I am well aware that my technical and language skills are not sufficient towards achieving this goal. As I psyched myself, I discovered that I set a clear goal and achieving it lies solely on my hands. Base on this, I will engage into self-help learning.
Basically, I will start at keeping a positive attitude. Life is full of challenges and even in the toughest conditions, we must maintain an optimistic outlook. I will have a focus and stay on it. I will concentrate on this goal and keep my motivation at all times. In doing this, I will constantly review my career plans base on visualisation technique. I will keep a career plan growth so that I can measure and ensure myself of the improvements.
I will be tenacious about everything that is hindering me from achieving this goal. I will keep track of my previous mistakes so that I can avoid repeating them. I will imply specific step-by-step approach towards arriving at this goal. In doing this, I will keep a success journal that contains key developmental metrics I will design myself.
In addition, I will make a public commitment in accomplishing my goal. I will tell it to a friend or perhaps the person most dear to me. In this way, I can create a sense of responsibility to myself in avoiding the pitfall of disappointing others and myself as well. Through this, I can also seek support from them.
From an intrapersona’s perspective, I will identify my driving values and dwell on it. This is where I can draw the most motivation and possibly guide me in my decision-making. Apart from this, I will communicate more effectively with my co-workers. I will delegate and manage my time more effectively and will be more assertive with my bosses.
I will also avoid unhealthy office politics. This can derail me from achieving my goal. In light of experiencing inefficiencies at work, I will not blame my bosses or the organisation or even my colleagues. Instead I will do something about it. A logical manner is to deal with it as a responsible adult.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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