Turtle

"Imagine that the whole earth was covered with water, and a man was to throw a yoke with a hole in it into the water. Blown by the wind, that yoke would drift north, south, east and west. Now, suppose that once in hundred years a blind turtle would rise to the surface. What do you think? Would that turtle put his head through the hole in the yoke as he rose to the surface once in a hundred years?"

"It is unlikely Lord."

"Well, it is just as unlikely that one will be born as a human being; it is just unlikely that a Tathagata, a Noble One, a fully enlightened Buddha should arise in the world; and it is just as unlikely that the Dhamma and discipline of the Tathagata should be taught. But now you have been born as a human being, a Tathagata has arisen and the Dhamma has been taught. Therefore, strive to realize the Four Noble Truths."

Monday, May 03, 2010

Customer Service

A very basic rule of customer service is to treat everyone with equal treatment.

Today, someone (in Ningbo, China) lost a customer because the customer made a remark - your shoes are pretty expensive, is there a reason? The salesperson thought that the customer wants to bargain, and changed her attitude almost immediately. Saying that this is a special price, you can walk around and see if you can find anything of this prize and the size you want. The customer walked away. The customer was me.

Well, I didn't dress that well, just in jeans and t-shirt as I was staying nearby. Probably she thought I'm kind of poor to dress like that since this is city centre. But, I stayed just like 2 corners away, less than 5 minutes walk and I just walked out to get dinner, and I wanted to grab a pair of shoes. I had prepared money to spend, and I wanted to buy a pair of shoes. She just lost a customer with that kind of attitude. I ended up buying from her neighbour, a pair of shoes of the same price. Though the design is not as nice, and there were quite a number of better looking designs but my size was no longer available, the salesgirl mad a sincere effort to check out the sizes and the designs for me. I was happy, and I bought from her.

In China, the customer is the king. People imitates the designs very fast - whatever was in fashion, or whatever is on sale, pretty soon the whole street will carry the same designs. No wonder the Chinese people don't really care if they offend the sellers, because they know there'll always be better bargains out there, possibly better.

~ttg~
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)