Kak Sabrina

The phone rang.

“Hello, may I speak to Sabrina.”

I looked around the store; to be honest, I had no idea who Sabrina – I really am quite awful with names. Miss “What’s-her-face” was next to me using the other computer, but I was positive that she wasn’t Sabrina.

“I’m afraid she’s stepped out,” I replied cunningly, “may I take a message?”
“This is actually rather urgent, but it has to do with a loan (insert something technical where I had stopped paying attention long ago) – anyway, ask her to call me back.”
“Not a problem. I’ll make sure she gets the message.”

I run out to find Kyle and asked him, “Where’s Kak Sabrina?”
“There!” he pointed, ” She’s been right next to you all along-lah!”

How I start the day

It usually isn’t very tempting to work 13 hours a day for a minimal salary. Thus with my usual lack of sleep, I struggle to feign optimism to to start my mornings. I usually hope for a good, lighthearted breakfast conversation.

“So…Malaysia’s the laughing stock of the world.”

Right. I’m going back to bed.

Hearing Difficulties.

“Right, can you look for the book…’The Bitch?’”

I was rather shocked, “Sorry?”

“‘The Bitch.’”

I didn’t understand how he could say it with such a straight face. People are usually rather conservative here
“How do you spell that sir?” I started to type: B – I …

He gave me a strange look, “You know…the place by the sea…”

“Ohhhhhhh. Beach. Heh heh heh.”

“I didn’t say a bad word! I don’t know what you were thinking tsk tsk,” laughed the customer.

Side Conversations

The briefing had extended by fifteen minutes and we were three minutes to opening time; Aria, once again, had monopolized the briefing with her eager stories and comments.

“Anyone else have any other comments to add to the briefing before we open shop?” asked Mr. Liew.
“Yes,” answered Juli, “it’s about these receipts-”
“Yes!” interrupted Aria, “I have that same problem too! When I blah blah blah….”

“Ugh! So angry! This Kak Aria…keeps on talking and talking,” whispered Juli to Yati.
“Be patient. There’s a reason she’s not married.”

Exotic Names

I dialed the phone.

“Hello, may I speak to…” as I looked at the customer enquiry form, “Mr. Lee Ben Woh?”

There was a pause on the other line.

“Yes. This is SHE.”

Oops.

The Oxford Customer

“Excuse me Miss.”

Just as I was going to skim through the latest recipe book, “Yes, how may I help you?

“I’m looking for the Oxford Primary Dictionary and the Oxford Primary Thesaurus.”

I check the stock. Damn. No stock for the dictionary and only one left for the thesaurus. In the children’s section. And knowing my amazing luck, it would be impossible to find.

Realising how the children’s section is almost always completely thrashed (due to children of course), it would take me forever to find the book; not only would I upset the customer, I would lead her to nothing-ness. Consequently, with my sheer brilliance, I passed the task to Emi, who was in charge of the children section and just as new as me

With the job off my hands, I made backup phone calls to transfer stock for the thesaurus and dictionary only to find that the system is down in other branches. Brilliant.

“Eh!” Emi called for me, “I couldn’t find the book – I think we’ve stopped ordering Oxford Primary book-lah.”

Snap. “Sorry miss, but I’ve just called the other branches about the books you’ve requested for and their systems are down.”

“Oh,” the customer replied in disappointment, “then what to do -ah?

“I’ll have to wait for their calls back. It would be easier if you left your name and contact details,” I said passing the customer enquiry sheet to her.She scribbles her details quickly while I proceeded to start my other customer service work. However, I then noticed that she still stood next to me and stared blankly.

“Um…miss. I’ll call you back when I hear news of your books.”
“No worries, I’ll wait.

It was getting uncomfortable.

The phone rang and I excitedly picked up the phone. “Oh So you have it?” Finally some good news from the other branch, “Can you transfer it to our branch? Great. Thanks.

“Miss, good news – the other branch has stock for your books so I asked for a transfer. It’ll take ten working days for it to arrive, and I’ll call you when the book arrives, Miss.”
“Great! Thanks so much!”

I happily went back to my other customer enquiries when I realised that she was still hovering around the counter.

“Miss? Can I help?
“When are the books arriving?”
“Two weeks time. We’ll call you.”
“Oh what about the one here?”
I was getting a bit annoyed, “We don’t have it.”
“So where are the books?”
“Coming from another branch, Miss.”
“When?”
Oh dear. “Two weeks time.”

This carried on for another fifteen minutes. When I finally was able to convince her to go home, I decided to check to store room/office to get some tissues out of my locker.

Only to find a copy of the Oxford Primary Dictionary in the store room.

First Day at Work

I sat at the customer service desk, very flustered with the chaotic Saturday crowd – unable to locate Stephanie Meyer’s latest book, wrapping gifts haphazardly, and taking three phone calls at the same time. Suddenly amidst the chaos, a young male customer calmly sits in front of the customer service counter. He smiles at me for a while.

I ask, “Can I help you?”

“Yes,” and smiles a very cheeky grin.

My eyebrows furrowed intensely. I was definitely not too keen to help him out. His friends grouped behind him and chuckled. Thus, I pretended to do other work. He continued to hopefully stare a date out of me for the next twenty minutes. His friends continued to tease him about when he was going to make a move. With luck, a colleague of mine was able to pull him away.

And that was the start of my customer service career.