Customer Service Kudos

Customer Service Officers are unsung heroes of many organisations, large and small.

Being a Supervisor for my company's Information Technology Helpdesk, I know how my staff are sometimes verbally abused for faults and problems that are just part and parcel of high-technology. If something malfunctions, callers would insist that it be fixed immediately, as though we were bored out of our minds and decided to take down the system just for fun.

People forget that it takes time to troubleshoot and fix problems. Has anyone who was ill gone to see a doctor and insisted on being cured immediately? I digress.

Last Saturday, as a result of losing her phone, my wife and I headed down to our mobile service provider to shop for a new phone. While she was browsing for a suitable replacement for her lost Treo 650, I was observing people, as I often do. No, not oogling - just observing.

While at the counter waiting for a representative to check on the availibility of a phone my wife had picked out (ok ok, I convinced her to buy!), a Customer Service Officer was busy greeting people, asking them how she could help and taking an appropriate queue number for them if she couldn't. Here's one conversation that irked me.

Customer Service Officer : Good afternoon sir, how may I help you today?

Male Customer (irritated) : Its a long story! Can you help me? If you can, I'll tell you the whole story. If you can't, I'm not going to waste my time. Just give me a queue number and let me speak to someone who can actually help.

Customer Service Officer (crestfallen) : Here's a queue number, sir.

I fumed at the attitude the CSO had to deal with. Then came this lady....

Customer Service Officer : Good afternoon ma'am, how may I help you today?

Lady Customer (in one breath) : I have a Blackberry but my Blackberry doesn't work now. I have taken my Blackberry to the Blackberry service centre but the people at Blackberry said that they could repair my Blackberry. So, I have come to buy a new Blackberry.

Customer Service Officer (with a straight face) : Here's a queue number, ma'am.

Premster : *giggling*

I know for a fact that I could never do the job of a Customer Service Officer based on my lousy temper and my practically non-existent tolerance for nonsense.

So, to all the people who have to go to their Customer Service jobs daily and have to deal with such people, I take my hat off to you.

Lost Treo

My wife, who has been using my Treo 650 for about six months now, lost it last Friday. She had left it on her office desk and went to attend to some work and when she remembered it a few hours later, it was gone. Although it didn't really bother me that it was lost, what I found odd was that it was stolen while in a high-security Government building! How's that for irony?

Anyway, my wife was quite shaken by the thought of losing the device, one that she had grown to appreciate. She was close to tears when she called to tell me about it. I can't say I wasn't sad to hear that it was missing but these things happen. According to what I've heard, Singapore has one of the highest rate of handphones being lost or stolen. The best part is, the Inforcomm Development Authority Of Singapore (IDA) - our regulatory body for information communication and data technology - indirectly and unwittingly "supports" such theft by not assisting victims to disable stolen phones via the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number, citing high cost and network delays as a result of such traces. So, the perpetrator gets away scot-free.

In countries like Malaysia and in the UK, systems to disable phones via IMEI numbers are available to all mobile subscribers and this helps curb handphone theft as once an IMEI number has been red-flagged in the "lost" database, the phone is rendered useless to anyone who has it. Here's a story of how blocking IMEIs can help reduce handphone theft. I find it sad, not to mention disgraceful, that a technologically advanced country such as ours is unable to have such a system in place.

For now, I've lodged a police report and hope that they will check with the service providers against the IMEI number of my missing Treo 650. If they find the culprit, I will ensure that he / she will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

For all mobile phone users out there, please ensure you have your IMEI number recorded and kept. Your service provider might be able to help track down your phone in the event it is lost or stolen. And even if it is not recovered, you'll be able to sleep better knowing that whoever took your phone will never be able to use it at all.

Ditched The Tech, Survived The Day

Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a round of applause for The Premster. Together with the geeks of the world, I went a whole day without my PC and trusty gadgets yesterday, as promised, and survived. It was tough but I made it.

I started the day turning off my Treo smartphone, a device that follows me around like a life-support machine. It was extremely excruciating and as my smartphone's screen faded off, it beeped as though to ask "Why Prem, why?" My SIM card was transferred to a Motorola Razr V3, a phone (see picture) that was to be my companion for the day. For those of you screaming "That phone is pretty high-tech!", trust me when I tell you that I need features far more than what the V3 could ever provide. To add further difficulty to the experiment, I disabled the bluetooth function on the phone, meaning no hands free answering of calls. My second phone was also left at home and I did not come within 3 meters of a computer, let alone power one up.

The first "casualty" of the day? My wife! We were out shopping for a new car seat for our son and we got lost. She promptly said "You can use your phone to connect to the Internet and get the store's number online". "Nope", came my answer, "Not on this phone!". We had a good laugh.

So there, I made it through Shutdown Day a little bruised technically, stressed mentally but I survived. Take it from me, I am never going to do it again. Ever.

I hope you had a good weekend!

Deepavali Cheer

Its Deepavali today. This is the day that Hindus celebrate the triumph of good over evil. For me, I observe it as a renewal process... a renewal of my faith as well as my commitment to my family and loved ones. My wife, our son and I aren't celebrating this year because of my father's demise - as part of the year long mourning process.

The day didn't start out as well as I hoped because I woke up with a terrible headache. Long story short, the headache was eradicated three super strong asprins later and I am feeling much better now - well enough for an entry to my blog.

I have not been feeling too good since last Monday, hence my gloomy post earlier. But I managed to sort it out in my head, shared my thoughts and feelings with my wife and I was feeling much better by Thursday night. To add to my revived cheer, I got word that my new smartphone was arriving on Friday! Did I mention that I had an obsession with gadgets? What? About a thousand times??

Anyhow, I woke up bright and early (after only 4 hours of sleep) to head down to the distributors to collect my brand new Treo 750v. Needless to say, I spent all day with it - like a new found love. We got to know each other and I eventually "told her" all my secrets. In tech speak, that means 'transferred all my data from my old Treo 650 to the 750v'.

My new Treo 750v accompanied us for our 3 hour family outing today and performed well - by not adding to my already throbbing head. But I still miss my old Treo 650 - my constant companion for about 2 years through thick and thin. It had failed on me a few times but still, I depended on it heavily.

So, as part of my Deepavali renewal process this year, my constant companion has been renewed. I hope for many good years with my new Treo 750v... or at least till the next hot new gadget hits the market. ;)

The Old And The New

Reminder : Don't forget this, ya?