REWE

A couple of days,okay,a week or so back. I went to the mall here in the city to get some Christmas Chocolate Calender for my nieces and nephew back in Singapore. So I went down to the ground floor of the mall where there is a supermarket called REWE to get it.

As I was browsing around and found what I was looking for,decided to purchase and head to the cashier. I was in the line and an old lady was in front of me paying for her groceries. So I waited,the line started to get long due to the fact that ONE-UNO-SATU-EIN-UN(I could go on with international word for ONE) cashier counter is available. What would a cashier that has basic customer service skills do with this situation?. First, she must call in the other cashier to open the other counter or worst case,if there is no other cashier available,she must clear the line as quickly as possible. What did she do?. Talked to her follow colleagues who were heading out for their breaks or where ever it was they were going but from the look of it(carrying their wallets and cellphone)they were out for their breaks. 

It was a good 5-6 minutes that she was talking to them and what was the reaction of the rest of the people in the line?. We were mad. What did we do?. Nothing. Why?. It’s just the way it is here. There is YOUR answer dear government of Germany. Are you going to do anything about it?. No. Plain and simple. The typical mindset of,I would say,75% or more Germans here. It could be that the temperature in winter drops to minus 10 or something and I reckon it froze the brain that they have there in their heads. It hurts to read what I have to say but look around and see how well you’re being treated to by the Sales Personnel here. I am not saying that I do not see good customer service here in Germany but Germans can do much better at it. I believe they can. What say you?.

The Adventures Of Baby Cat and Baby Doggy – “Translated”.

“Meow Meow?”, Baby Cat said to Baby Doggy while still looking out the window with his paws and face rubbing the window as he speaks or rather meowed, watching the human kids playing at the playground near the building they were staying. “Do you think they will let us go play at the playground today too?”. “Wooof woof”, Baby Doggy replied. “Well, I’m not sure what they have in mind today..”.

It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon in a small town called Karlsruhe. In the land where everyone is speaking in a special language called, German. Not known to Baby Cat and Baby Doggy. Where they came from, everyone speaks the animal language or in Baby Doggy exact words are,”Woof Woof Woof!”. “It’s call the Baby Animal Language!”.

The Babies decided to ask the humans if they would bring them to the playground today. Climbing down from the window panel along with Baby Doggy, Baby cat who is a tab bit cubby,”Meow!”. I mean, furry. Had some trouble trying to jump onto the desk which was near the window panel. “Woof woof!”,Baby doggy said. “Just jump,Baby Cat!” who has already made it to the table. Baby Cat took a deep breath and jumped off from the window panel. He flew a few inches off into the air and waving his paws franticly and with a loud thud, he almost made it to the desk. His rear paws were dangling from the edge of the desk. Baby Doggy came to his rescue,pulling Baby Cat onto the desk. “Woof woooof!”. “Baby Cat,you really need to go easy on the chocolates!”. Baby Cat gave him a shocking expression. “Meow meow meow meow?!”. “But it’s my favorite!” and following Baby Doggy jumping down to the chair and making their way to the floor.

Standing at 25 centimeter and 20 centimeter respectively, all the furniture around them in the bedroom were,to them,extremely massive. Hopping towards the open door,passing the bathroom,turning to the left where the massive bookshelf stands and towards the red couch where the humans were sitting talking to each other. The Babies stopped where the human feet were,meowed and woofed to get their attention. Baby Cat tried hopping higher,with no success. Baby Doggy waved his paws at the humans.

“Woof woof woof?”, Baby doggy said to Baby Cat. “Do you think we should climb on their legs?”. “Meow meow!”,Baby Cat replied. “Yeah,let’s do that!”. And so the Babies started making their way up to the human feet until one of the human looked down. “Ah, the Babies are here!”,exclaimed the human lady. The lady human picked the Babies up from the floor and settled them next to her. “Baby Cat, I really think we should wash you sometime soon”, said the tanned human lady with long black hair to Baby Cat. Baby Cat looked at her and smelled himself. *sniff sniff* “Meow Meow?,he said. “I don’t smell anything”. The human lady smiled. The babies turned to the other human who was sitting next to them on the sofa with his big shinning television(MacBook Pro)on his lap and typing furiously on it. “Woof Woof woooof?”, Baby Doggy said to the human. “Do we really need to take a bath?”.
The other human fixed his fingers to the “television” and turn only his head to face Baby Doggy. “We can wash the both of you on the sink and you can play with the rubber ducky,if you want!”. And went on,”You’ll like the warm water and the soap too! Won’t you like that,Babies?”. The Babies looked at each other,thinking and turned to the human lady,”Meow! Woof!”,they exclaimed. “Okay!”.

“Meow Meow Meow?!”,Baby Cat tried asking the humans. “Can we then play at the playground today?”. The humans thought for a second. And nodded their heads. The other human with a week long beard who has his television on his lap said to the Babies,”But you know that once you start to get dirty again,we have to wash you.”. The Babies folded their ears and sighed. The human continued by saying the magical word. “You’ll get chocolates if you take a bath…!”. At the sound of the word,the two furry stinky Babies jumped around,meowed and woofed happily.

TBC…

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly- The Evolution

On my last bad customer related post, I have you given a rough idea of extremely bad customers that I have encounter which I have put into various categories. I asked this question to myself a lot when I was working in the stores. To why some customers are just plain nasty? 

Look, everyone are consumers,including myself. Everyone goes out to shop, be it buying groceries, apparels, equipments-whatever. The bottom line is, everyone shops. But to shop with an attitude is another thing. Do the retail personnel deserves to be treated with no respect by the nasty customers? These people, the retail personnels,are there to help you and not working against you. Yes, I do noticed bad customer services also but I will come to that in the near future. We are there to listen to your needs,wants and requests. What we don’t need from costumers are,disrespecting us as professionals,being rude,having absolutely obnoxious manners and so on.

In the “Perfect World” which is obviously not where we are all in right now, if everyone plays their part in respecting each other and understanding one and other,everyone will be happy. But reality check(for me),it is not as so. Though, I am optimistic that everyone can work on that. I can feel it in every fiber in me. 

Move the ego aside,the pride(though i don’t understand why there is a need to,it’s just shopping guys!),the arrogance(you may have all the money in the world but what is more important is the goodness in ones soul-it shines through)and the same goes to Retailers. It takes two to make it happened-never one sided.  

With that said, in my coming blog entries, I am going to be very brutal in my observations at the Sales Personnels here in Karlsruhe,Germany where I am living now. I have been here a couple times and seen(still seeing)bad customer services. I want to change that too. Hopefully, the German government will imposed Excellent Customer Service programs to all Retailers. The outcome of this, you will see everyone being less grumpy in the streets of Germany, more tourist will flock to this country,gives the economy a boost and everyone enjoys the pleasant shopping experience. Call me naive but I call myself determine.