Service and commitment.

We can recall how many times we had to wait and wait for someone to deliver our LCD, AC unit, furtniture and anything we had purchased from the store. Waiting is always enduring and not endearing and it will test our patience to the maximum as practically we feel helpless and out of control. In this manner, Domino Pizza's had been successful. It's service delivery concept is plain and simple. 30 minutes free delivery or you will get a coupon to redeem for a free pizza. It is important to set expectation of service delivery and this was done exceptionaly well by Domino Pizza.

Two weeks ago on Monday I received a call from my broadband service provider offering me to upgrade my house modem. The offer was attractive to me and my family as it provides a higher bandwidth with a lower price. I accepted the offer and as part of the set up, the service provider dispatcher will collect my house modem and replace it with a 3G modem. Although I have to pay them RM100, I will receive a rebate of the same amount in my first bill. So we agreed for the dispatcher to come over to my house in Gombak before 11 am on Saturday and I specifically informed the sales person that is the period I will be at home. The sales person agreed.

Saturday came and by 11.30 am the dispatcher still did not turn up. As my wife and I had to attend to an engagement at 1 pm, we then made our move. At about 1.00 pm I received a call by the dispatcher. He asked me whether he could come over to my house to deliver the modem. I informed the dispatcher that he was late as he was suppose to come at 11 am. He retorted that he did not promise as such. Hearing this, I pointed out to him that the sales person I spoke on Monday agreed to this and I would expect this as it would inconvenient me otherwise. He then apologised to me and we then agreed to another delivery date and time, this time on Monday at my office in Cyberjaya.

Later that evening I received a call from the sales person asking why did I requested for another delivery on Monday and at Cyberjaya. This really dismayed me terribly. Over a period of a week I had to speak thrice for a simple service of collecting and delivering a modem. I expressed my dissatisfaction and threaten to cancel the order. The sales person quickly apologised for the misunderstanding and confirmed that the delivery date and time.

Service is easy if the target and focus is to please the customer. How would we please the customer? There are many aspect of service delivery such as quality of product, timeliness of delivery, responsiveness, providing attention and assurance. However the most important one is commitment to serve.

In the case I related earlier, the commitment is in the form of a promise to deliver the product at a specific period of time. Though the promise was made by the sales person, the sales person need then to inform and direct the dispatcher accordingly. They need to act together behind the scene to deliver the product according to the promise. This is because, from my view point as a customer, the promise was made by the company and not by the sales person alone. As both the sales person and the dispatcher are working and representing the company, I as a customer expect that the promise to be delivered by both of them.

The biggest mistake both the sales person and the dispatcher did was reacting as if the promise the other made was not a commitment the other will take. The dispatcher did this when he said that he did not promise to come by 11 am on Saturday while the sales person did this when he questioned me why I need the delivery on Monday at Cyberjaya.

Probably there was a work relationship strain between them but to approach the customer and showed that they mistrust another was a great risk as I almost cancel the order out of anger and disappointment. Indeed I was and I started to doubt the service I would receive from the company. What saved both of them was the manner both quickly offered an apology when I informed them of my displeasure

In conclusion, in a service orientated encounter with the customer, it is important to be aware of the promise made to the customer as this is a commitment made on behalf of the company. This is especially important when there were more than one who had engaged with the customer. It would be most efficient to put a remark of the promise made on the service or sales form when handing over the order from the order taker to the service delivery unit. This can be made manually on the order form or in a system that the company uses for sales activities. Fulfilling the promise will provide confidence and delight to the customer and avoid a recovery effort in order to regain the customer's confidence.

Communication and the importance of it in live, work and business

All live creatures communicate, that is a fact. Although plants do not have speech capability but they have beautiful flowers to attract insects to help them pollinate. Animals communicate and though to our ear their sounds are incomprehensible, but among them they would understand each other. As long as we and the other creatures socialise in our community and environment, communication is an important tool of interaction.

The need for communication is not only one way. It can be an internal and external need. An internal need means our own need while an external need will be for others. It is not sufficient that we always prioritise our own need, we also have to consider the need of others. If we are able to provide a balance consideration of everyone's need plus ours, everyone will derive the right benefit from the communication.

Take for example a customer who requires service from a technician to repair a computer. The customer's need will be to resolve his or her problem or issue with the computer in a timely and affordable manner. The technician's need is to be paid adequately for the service. In the process of servicing the computer, the customer will like the technician to inform him or her what is the problem or issue with the computer. Then provide options based on pricing, durability and other alternatives. All these will require communication.

Recently I had engaged a property agent to let out my condominium. He was a young chap and seems to be eager to impress me. He got two prospective tenants for viewing. The second viewing landed him with intent to rent from the customer. We discussed on rental and I provided a RM100 discount. A few days after, that he asked me how many parking lots I have at the condominium. I told him the parking lot was not discussed during the viewing and if the tenant requires it then I will charge RM100 per month. So I got back my asking rental.

Before I was paid the booking fee, I asked him to see the tenancy agreement draft that he would be using as I want to check the terms. Initially he was reluctant to provide it to me and seem to take for granted that the tenancy agreement will not be a problem. After I threaten him that I would not go ahead with the deal, he emailed me the document.

I read through the document and found serious legal and sentence structure flaws in the draft. I told him but he did not believe me. He asked me what the flaws were. I told him that as a professional property agent, he should be asking his legal officer. If I were to show all the flaws, then he needs to pay me RM1, 000 for professional legal advice. He disagreed.

Later someone called me. Apparently he was the supervisor at the property agency. He confided to me that the tenancy was taken from a property website and they did not check the wordings. I then asked them how much are they charging for the tenancy and stamping fee. It was a whopping RM280. With stamping of only 20%, the rest will be pocketed. He said that prior to this no one had ever asked this question and thought that I was a lawyer. I told him I am not but I manage contracts. Eventually he agreed to let me handle the tenancy and I will be paid the RM280.

As the time for the tenant to move in comes nearer, the property agent did not provide me any update. I was only paid the half month rental for booking fee but there was no meeting set for tenancy signing and payment of all dues before I can surrender the key. A day before the move in date, he frantically set up a meeting but the tenant did not have enough cash to pay all the money dues as it was a long weekend and they were only told about the meeting that day itself. I was very furious. How can I surrender the keys when I am not paid and how come the tenant was not informed earlier. The property agent failed miserably in his job. He showed a lack of commitment and failed to communicate timey to all parties.

What are the learning points from this? These will be as follows:

1. Understanding is important in any communication. When he was asked for a copy of the tenancy agreement, he did not try to understand why did I need it.


2. Confrontation is a BIG NO. All feedback and complaint needs to be heard. If it is a fact then remedy, if it is based on perception, correct it or change the way we communicate.


3. Assurance will provide confidence. When he was confronted of the tenancy agreement flaws, he should have said that he would ask his supervisor or company instead of asking me as I know he himself would not know it unless he has experience in tenancy.


4. Update is important even if there are no news. Updating all parties to the deal is important. This will enhance confidence and follow up sales. He did not provide any update after getting the half month rental booking and only arranged a meeting in a hasty manner.

Over and under promise

Promise is a commitment to act. However it is quite common in all societies that promise is something which is uncertain until we have an English saying: "Promises are meant to be broken" and a German Proverb: "Nothing weights lighter than a promise". That is the reason why there is a requirement for a written contract to bind promise legally. If the contract is broken, then there will be legal and monetary consequences.

However a written contract would normally be for business and it involves lengthy process and cost with high value and great commitment for those who sign it off. Then what about a simple promise to deliver a service or assistance? Surely this is normally verbal and the uncertainty will then exist.

Promises that were kept by a person will win him or her other people's trust. With trust and consistency, the person will be able to build his or her integrity and reputation. It would be a lot easier to get acceptance from others once a person has high integrity and good reputation. A German Proverb aptly says "Promises are like the full moon, if they are not kept at once they diminish day by day."

So what can we do? A more pragmatic approach to this is to promise only what you can deliver. This would be the basic of promise. To then deliver more than you promise would be a delight for the recipient. So this is my business theory and methodology on promise and the reason I have placed the two prepositions before the word "promise" in my title i.e. "over" and "under" promise.

If you refer to the chart below, the basis of my business theory and method will be a degree of control of the resources (i.e. capability) and knowing intimately what would be the likely outcome of each endeavour to fulfil a promise. The barriers to reaching the highest peak of the chart will be time, cost and manpower. However the prize of delivering the customer's delight will be loyalty and sustainable business.

What would be an example of reaching to the peak of Customer's delight? Let me share a service industry example, say the customer's requisition is to be served within 15 minutes with 100% accuracy of delivery. Depending on your promise capability, the various timeline and customer's reaction will be as follows.
For a delivery of 5 minutes, your capability to serve with 100% accuracy is when orders are low. However in a thriving business, this is something you would not want but the customer is hoping for. For a delivery of 15 minutes, your capability to serve with 100% accuracy is a standard operation that you will deliver to each order. If this is not possible, then there is obviously something wrong with your service operation as this will be below market practice. In the third scenario, with high operation efficiency that surpasses market practice, you will be able to deliver your service within 10 minutes and the customer will be delighted.

Hence with this information, you may provide promise you would know you can deliver. As time passes and a lot more efficiency is gained, the timeline may be further reduced so that your high integrity is established and your good reputation is known as a world class business.

Freedom to our children

Every child from a parent is a distinct individual. A child may even have the same pointed nose of the father or the same curly hair of the mother, but deep inside, the child is different in many ways from their parents and siblings. Likewise twins may look the same in most of their physical features; however one half of the twin is still different in many ways from the other half.

I have two sons and a daughter. My eldest son was very active when he was in school. He was the school prefect when he was in primary and secondary schools. He participated in many of the school's extracurricular activities as well as competed in many competitions representing his school. He was also doing well in his studies.

My other son however was a quite boy and will avoid attention as much as he could. When he was in his primary school, the only time he represented his school was in an English theatre competition when he was in standard six. In spite of this, I did not label or grade my sons in any way then because for me they are different and their difference is special in making them an individual.

My second son now is in his secondary school and this year he is sitting for his SPM national examination. He had gradually bloomed to be an active student. I attribute this to the coaxing from my wife and I as well as the examples that he had emulated from his elder brother. He was selected to be the school prefect when he was in form two and also joined the school's police cadet. He has also been progressing well on his study.

Last April, I asked my second son why he is still performing his duties as a school prefect though it is already four months down the year. It is very common in all schools, even when I was in secondary school and when my eldest son was preparing for this SPM examination two year ago, school prefects who are going to sit for their national examinations are released of their duty very much early of the year.

He told me that the Disciplinary teacher had instructed all school prefects to continue their duties until the end of the year. I discussed the importance for him to prepare for his exam and he agreed to inform the Disciplinary teacher that he will slowly released himself from duty to prepare for his exam. I told my son that if the teacher needs to speak to me, let her have my number.

After that, I was informed by my son that the Disciplinary teacher was not happy with my son's action. It seems that though most of the students in form five were not happy that they were still performing their duties, none of them dared to go against the Disciplinary teacher's instruction. As my son received my support, he went through it by himself.

In May, I attended the "Parents meet the teacher" session. This is the session to discuss on the children's education progress as well as to share the latest report card. I highlighted to the form teacher about the abnormality of the school still insisting the form five students to perform their duties just as the SPM exam is just round the corner. In fact I wrote a note in my son's report card for the school to take action on this matter at the suggestion of the teacher.

Apparently after this the Disciplinary teacher started to approach my son in a more negative manner until one day she asked my son not to wear the school prefect's uniform and instead wear the normal school's uniform. She seems to insinuate that my son was sacked as I have never known of any school giving such instruction even after the school's prefect relinquishes their duties. After all, it was only six months more before the end of the year and by giving that strange instruction meant that I would have to buy new pairs of school uniform for my son. When my son told me about it, I told him to ignore the instruction and to give the Disciplinary teacher my mobile number as I would like to discuss this matter with her personally. Apparently she refused to give me a call.

She then told my son that he was not fit to become a school's prefect. My son had been the school prefect for the past four years, the longest serving prefect at the school. I immediately went to the school after I knew about this. I managed to discuss this matter with the school's principal and eventually the whole incident was sorted out. The school principal decided to put all form five school's prefects on passive duties and will eventually relinquish their duties a couple of months before the SPM examination.

The whole saga was really different than what I had experienced when I was in school. My teachers showed a lot more finesse in educating the young generation. As any other individual, children require love and respect.

Of course there are bound to be children who may require a lot more attention due to their attitude and behavior, and I believe these are very small in numbers. However, there should be some focus on source of symptoms rather than generalising all symptoms and providing one single antidote.

The teachers and parents should ideally partner in building a young generation of thinking and free individual. Discipline is a matter of pride and it has nothing to do with instructions top to bottom with full compliance and expectating no questions asked. A thinking and free young generation will encourage them to explore the unknown territories responsibly and innovate to progress themselves. We can trust our young generantion.

You plan your career

I recently hosted a group of young graduates for lunch. They just joined the company I work for a couple of months ago and the lunch is part of the on boarding process at my company. The lunch provided an opportunity for interaction between the young graduates and departmental managers to share experience and seek clarification on company's philosophy and anything related to career progression.

One of the questions posted to me by one of the young graduates was: "Does the company I currently working for worth the time to be in until retirement?" My response was of course not a straight forward yes or no. Let me share it here.

First and foremost, employment loyalty should be for oneself. I know it sounds selfish, the reality is at this time and era, company strives for sustainable profitability and will not be hesitant to restructure and reengineer its business and operations including making its own staff redundant. Employees at the same time shall strive for sustainable employment either by working for someone or by working for him or herself in a business venture. Sustainable employment means that the employees shall always develop themselves to be able to be assessed as an asset for current or future employer. Developing oneself will also provide a platform for self work or business.

Secondly, establish a goal in your career, what will be the highest position you want to hold if you are working for a company? Then plan many paths toward this position by knowing what will be the next and subsequent positions that you need to perform before eventually landing at the highest position. Set sensible timeline, normally 3-4 years at one position and always plan for a promotion when moving into a new position.

Thirdly, executing this plan shall also include competence gap identification and learning initiatives. Identification of competence gap can be done individually and by others. Be humble to seek and receive views from others. Learning initiatives can be formal and informal. Formal learning may be in the form of classroom training and coaching while informal learning may be in the form of projects involvement. Make sure the learning can cover for an alternative plan if the desired highest position is not attainable. Initiate the learning yourself instead of waiting others to initiate it for you.

Thirdly, harness soft skills such as communication, interpersonal, problem solving as a start and gradually moving to influencing and leadership skills. These skills are important to apply while working.

Lastly, always review the plan. Make some adjustments along the way in order to reach to the goal. Take calculated risk and know when to bail out.

Roughly we can say that the success factor of this plan is made up of 50% from within oneself, 30% within one's influence and 20% based on luck. If the employee is able to develop him or herself, half of the journey is reachable. The next one third is via influencing one's way for a career path by demonstrating one's capability and capacity to move over to higher positions. The last one fifth is luck and luck comes from God. So be nearest to God as you could so that divine interventions always exist in one's career path.

Facebook - Social network vs. Social friendship

Sometime ago, I had a discussion regarding Facebook with my family during a family's dinner at the UiTM Shah Alam Hotel. We were there after fetching my eldest son from his UiTM hostel. The discussion started after one of my sons shared about one of his friends' opinions that in order to become Facebook friends, both parties need to know each other prior to being accepted as friends.

During the discussion, everyone at the table agreed that Facebook is an internet social network tool i.e. Facebook being one of the many virtual networks other than Twitter, LinkedIn, Blog and many others. We then discussed on the definition of social network. We also discussed on the merit of tagging friendship in Facebook as networking for friends that can be done virtually rather than physically.

I then posted a question to everyone, what is the difference between Networking and Friendship? We discussed several aspects. Among them, network is a lot looser in term of connection to friendship. Friendship of course requires a bit more knowledge of one another and most of the time; the sharing in friendship is a lot more open and can be intimate for some. Friends may also be restrictive in term of number as it is normally small circle. Network in the other hand is an extended friendship where there may be close friendship or just mere acquaintances relationship either directly or indirectly. For example, Ahmad is a close friend of Lim at their former college and via Lim, Ahmad knows Puvaneswary and Mary Pega who happened to be Lim's colleagues at the office. Network does not necessarily require in depth knowledge of one another's background, just mere common interest would be sufficient. The common interest can be hobbies, career or sports.

Right or wrong, most of Facebook's users still restrict their Facebook friendship to social friendship i.e. their day-to-day friends. This somehow restricts the benefit they can derive out of Facebook. Among the benefits from Facebook that one can maximise by having a wide network of friends beyond day-to-day friends are:

1. Sharing of common interest such as tour tips, cooking tips, gardening tips.


2. Sharing of uncommon information such as how to have a pokke Gecko farm i.e. rather than hunting for this wild lizard that is quite common nowadays, one can rear this expensive lizard for commercial profit


3. Business opportunities


4. Career opportunitiesGlobal Borderless and virtual friendship

Of course they are bound to be risk in virtual networking in term of exposing one's personal data to unknown recipients; however this can be controlled via Facebook functionalities and one's protective mind set. To safeguard my personal data profile for example, I will not provide my house address and telephone number in my Facebook account. The other measures that I had taken are

1. Restrict access of my Facebook wall to only my friends. Except for any statement that I don't mind the general public to know such as common discussion but I restrict on my personal or sensitive opinion.


2. I also restrict my photograph access to only my Facebook friends


3. I accept Facebook friends via stringent steps below.

There are several steps that can be taken when accepting Facebook friendship. I had devised my own and will usually use the following:

1. Look at the info wall of the requester - the info provided should be sufficient to create interest for me to accept the request. I will normally ignore a request from someone unknown that only provides that person's name and email on his or her info wall.


2. Look at the friends of the requester - there are mutual and non-mutual Facebook friends. Some of the requester's friends may be popular personalities and these popular personalities normally will accept any Tom, Dick or Harry's Facebook request. So it would be noteworthy to also check whether the requester also has other personal friends and how diverse are his or her friends. The diversed friends should also be people whom you would not mind to share your interest and opinion on Facebook


3. Look at the photos of the requester - some people do not put their own profile photo. It is still alright to accept their friendship as long as the requestor's personal info and circle of friends are not dubious and still strike your interest.

In conclusion, Facebook is just a tool for us to use wisely. Facebook add value to life in a manner that it provides benefits for people who are keen to socialise virtually. There are of course no full proof tips on how to utilise Facebook in a safe manner, however an instinct for survival would of course help. Enjoy and discover the infinite world of networking via Facebook.

ONLINE SPAM TO CON

BEWARE! I have searched the net for Lalachite Azurite and it is not lubricant but gemstone. By the way the sender of this "spam to con" email may be different from one to another but so far I've seen, all are Malay names. The email connection can be msn, gmail, yahoo so on and so forth. Only greed will make you fall for this.

Friday, February 4, 2011 9:31 PM
From: "Noreha bt mahat"
Add sender to Contacts
To: undisclosed-recipients

Assalamualaikum,

I'm Noreha Bt Mahat, i work as Assistant Marketing Officer with a Gemstones Processing Company in London. i will like to introduce you to this business opportunity. I need your urgent assistance, which will be a benefit to both of us financially. I am contacting you because I don’t want to lose this contract provided by our company because we both going to get a good profit from this business in the
coming future. That’s why I’m requesting you to be the supplier to our company
so that we can both take advantage of this business opportunity in the company
now.

Currently our company needs a Three(3)years constant supplier of a product called LALACHITE AZURITE which is a new scientific chemical fluid substance, its of lubricant, mainly used in the gemological laboratory for the purification of diamonds clarity treatment, generally what this fluid does is to penetrate deep into diamond and vaporizes out black inclusions in Diamonds and other precious stones. The original supplier of these product is in Malaysia and former supplier of this product to our company has finished his contract and our company is looking for any other person who can be able to supply the LALACHITE AZURITE in large quantity so that to meet the demand of our consumers and merge into partnership with the company presently.

The main reason why I’m writing you seeking your interest for assistance, I just want you to act as an intermediary agent to stand the gap between the sellers of the product in Malaysia and the buyers (our company).This is a big business, which will be of good dividends to both of us.

I only need your cooperation to make this business successful. I will give you more information about this if you are willing to stand as the agent to supply my company the product. Firstly, i will like to secure a supply contract deal for you as a supplier to the company where I work.

Based on percentage, originally the actual purchasing price of this chemical by the company per Carton is about USD4,000.00 if i convert it to US dollars while in Malaysia the local selling price is USD2,100.00 and my company needs not less than 200 Cartons. The reason why I want you to be our agent is to be the link connecting the local seller in Malaysia directly to the buying company then the profit margin will be shared by both of us 60% to you while 40% to me.

Your major assistance for me is just for you to talk to my Director that you can supply the company the product and to also go in details in terms of price and mode of payment then we can pick up from that point.

Please get back to me as soon as you receive my email if you are interested and
willing to do business with me so that I can give you the local seller's contact
in Malaysia so that you can contact her to ask if she has this product in stock
to supply to you. Before our company sends the purchasing manager down to
Malaysia to purchase the product from you directly. Thanks for your
co-operation. Waiting to hear from you soon.

Regard’s
Noreha

Excel in UPSR 2011 Motivational Programme

On Monday, I conducted a motivational programme for year six students at a primary school in Gombak. These students are going to sit for their UPSR examination in September. UPSR is a government standard examination for primary student at year six i.e. 12 years old. Though passing the examination is not mandatory, however to excel in it will open up greater learning opportunity either at the fully funded boarding school, special class in a normal school and either academic or sports scholarships in their upcoming secondary school years.

There were close to 150 students who attended the programme and they were divided into two groups. I conducted a two hour session each culminating a sense of idolisation of people who have excelled, knowing what they have and how did they excel, coming through to what do the students require to excel in their own academic endeavour. I also established with them a sense of self-realisation of their individual goal, strength, weaknesses and support.

Amidst all these, we also had fun. I'm quite please that many of the students then took the opportunity to add me as their facebook friend and had also shown their positive response to the programme on facebook. I share one of them below.

Office liaison or relationship

Yesterday while I was having some drinks at the office cafeteria, I met with an office colleague whom I have not met for a long time. We exchanged greetings and news about each other i.e. ourselves, our work and our families. I then introduced her to those at my table as "my long long long good friend". She responded while pointing at me "and this is my long long long good boss". Only then I realised that she was one of my former subordinates some years back.

In the middle of last week, two of my former subordinates approached me for references to apply for a job. Although I no longer managed them, I was delighted when they approached me and got to know that apart from me, they had also approached their current supervisors.

This posting is about office liaison. There are a couple of office liaisons such as colleagues, superior-subordinates, contact or network. In this topic it is more of superior-subordinates liaison. Liaison is relationship though the latter is commonly used, the former is a more formal description. I will be using relationship a lot more in this posting.

When I started work in 1989, it was totally unthinkable for superiors to mix around with their subordinates. I am working at a European company with strong British presence. So the class separation was quite apparent then.

However, I did not prescribe to that and mix around with as many people as possible. As I climb up the corporate ladder, I continue to mix around freely. However, I will confine it to the office and not out of office as I balance my work and life. After office is my time with my family and I commit fully to that.

So, why relationship is important to us? Human relationship is important to simulate positive emotional well being and to ensure productivity. Human are able to exchange information and ideas that can be discussed and debated to derive to the best conclusion by interacting with each other. However there are certain etiquettes that need to be followed in a relationship i.e. integrate, respect and sincerity.

1. Integrate will be the underlying principle of relationship where it connects one to another. Integrate means that two different individuals may co-exist with each other despite their differences. The differences may be due to class, race or position or any visible or non-visible differences. In integrating, the differences will still exist however these would not be a hindrance to the relationship.
2. Respect will be the catalyst of the relationship where it keeps the relationship civil and harmonious. It will facilitate the relationship though there are differences mentioned above. Respect will also ensure that the relationship is based on mutual freedom to act and react.
3. Sincerity will be the spirit of the relationship where it keeps the relationship free of malice. Sincerity does not exist through verbal claims, it comes from the heart and it is shown in one's action.

With these etiquettes the relationship will hopefully prolong deriving greater benefits to those who are in it.