Monday, June 12, 2006

Behind The Superb Service There Is A Hassled, Annoyed Lady

One of my boring and most hateful work is answering enquiries from customers via email. You can't begin to imagine how exasperating it is to deal with people who are too lazy to read available information but find it more convenient to just hit the 'Ask Us' button. If the info is not there, fine. Go ahead and ask me. If the info is unclear, fine. I don't mind to help. That's why I'm here.

But what about if the info is there, well-explained and easy to understand even by a five-year-old kid? What about if you spend a long time compiling the info for the convenience of your customer so they can immediately view it without requesting for it and STILL get enquiries about it to be delivered personally to an email address? What other excuse can these bunch of buggers give except that they're too lazy to read and too kiasu with the 'Ask Us' button?

These attitude really annoys me, like crazy in fact. But if I can't not answer these lazy people, I can, within my freedom as an individual entity who has to deal with these mentally-challenging people, criticize these bunch of species.

Because I thought our customers can't find the info they are looking for in our previous dull and static website, I took up a three tireless months of compiling information, data and conducting surveys on best sites all over the globe to come up with a beautiful, interactive and information-driven website. All that our customers need to know are just at their fingertips. Even the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) are updated constantly to ensure customers' enquiries are attended to instantly. It least occured to me that they don't look for answers, they wait for answers to come to them. Too lazy to read and skim for the info they want and because they almost instantly get the reply, users will continue to email me redundant questions.

I got so annoyed recently when I received this email:

'Can you please tell the timing for the follwoing break ups: -

1) How much time will it take to reach from station A to reach Point B.

2) Is Point B same as B Station? If yes, is it ok if I reach B station directly?

3) How much time it normally takes at Point B?

4) And if I can reach B station directly, I assume that I can take a bus from Point B to reach Point C?

5) How much time will it take to reach from Point B to Point C.

6) How much time it normally takes at Point C?

7) How much time it normally takes to reach Point D from Point C?

8) How much time it normally takes to reach Point E from Point D.

Above information will help me to make some idea about the time I need to finally reach Point E from Point A. I have to be there at 9.00 pm.

Note to teachers: This is what you get when you raise kids who are exam-oriented. Sampai besar pun still require to be spoon-fed. These questions are akin to 'Encik, ujian ni masuk bab berapa? Bab 1 tu keluar tajuk yang mana satu? Berapa soalan dari tajuk ni? Nak kena baca buku teks je ke atau kena carik rujukan lain?'

You can't help getting asthma attack if you deal with this sort of people every single day. Even people who don't have to deal with them will get cross-eyed when they come across these qs. To make it simpler for you guys out there, this fella wants to get from Point A to Point E. A normal person would want to know the average time to get from Point A to Point E without bothering to drill into too much details. From this info, he/she will basically calculate what time to start the journey in order to make it at Point E before 9 pm. This average time (during peak hour and off- peak hour) is already available in the website anyway. With this knowledge, and with the procedures spelt out clearly in the website, normal average person doesn't have to ask anything anyway.

After all, it's just a 3 hours travel, not Amazing Race episode or even the making of Mission Impossible 4. I can just imagine this Tom Cruise-wannabe painstakingly putting these info into his latest technology digital watch with a Mission Impossible theme song playing in the background and a female voice who tells him:

'You have 2 hours 59 minutes to accomplish the 'Point E Mision'...' A hologram map appears behind his highly-sophisticated eyewear.. 'quickly jump onto the red bus! you have 2 minutes to be at Point B...' more high-pitched Mission Impossible theme song, '... Next step requires 4 minutes 39 seconds to accomplish. Be careful! Don't lose the red bus.' and there'd be snipers who'd try to gun him down to stop him from getting to Point E to make it more challenging, until he arrives at Point E, 'Mission accomplished.' Trettet teretettet...

To this kind of person, I would recommend 'A Complete Guide of Travel Planning for Idiots' before you even hit the 'Ask Us' button. I'd be sorry to anybody in other part of the world should this person try to venture beyond this country's boundary.