Week 4 Customer Service Story (Zerene)
Last Tuesday, a gentleman came into our shop and enquired about a Parker Pen. He asked if it would be possible to attain the pen with the engraving by the coming Friday. However normally the engraving of a pen takes about one week before it is ready for collection.

So Sandhya called the supplier whether she can get the engraving be done and deliver to the school on Friday. The supplier promised it can be done and she can deliver it either on the Friday or the next coming Monday. Upon hearing this, the customer then paid and left without leaving his contact number down.

When he came on Friday, the parker pen was still with the supplier. He was unable to collect the parker pen. He was angry. As the parker pen was a birthday gift for his nephew, and he did not wish to pass his nephew a belated birthday so he bought another pen without the engraving. In addition, he wanted to cancel the order for the engraving.

Therefore Sandhya called the supplier to cancel the order was being scolded by the supplier as the engraving was already done. Fortunately, the customer come back again and say he wish to have the engraving pen too.


Learning Point
We have to note down the personal information of the customer of they were to order for something from us or the supplier. So that it were be easy for us to contact our customer if anything goes wrong with their order.

Week 3,Customer Service Story by Sandhya

Last week, a student of NYP walked into the ValueShop asking for a pen to be engraved. He was a demanding customer from the start and insisted we engrave 28 characters for him when only 16-20 are allowed. Upon being told so, he was displeased and asked to speak to my supplier. Finally, the supplier and I convinced him that we would do all in our power to help him out. When he finally decided on his pen, he was complaining that we do not provide good service since we could not oblige to his request.

About three days later, when he came to collect his pen, he insisted that there was leakage. Upon enquiring with my supplier on this matter, I came to know that ink residue was normal when a pen was engraved. When I explained this to the customer, he got angry and demanded me to wipe the pen clean for him. I kept my cool though it was not the easiest thing to do in that particular situation.
I learnt from this experience that I have to inform the customer before hand about the ink residue and I also have to ensure the pen is in sellable quality when the customer come to collect the pen.

Another 9 months have gone, which mean a new batch taking over the valueshop. It been a little late for update ever since we take over the shop two week ago. Our new team consist of Nathaniel (leader), Lyra (Assistant leader), Sandhya, Jocelyn and Zerene.

Customer Service Story.

Value Shop, Week 1.(Lyra)

Summary

There was a group of foreigners from Mongolia that visited our shop this week. Even though we did not understand them one little bit, and they, us, we tried our best to serve with a smile, as that’s what’s most important. It was Zerene, Sandhya, and I tending the shop and we were pretty panicky as it was the first time we had foreigners entering the shop by ourselves. We tried our best to tend to the customers’ needs and wants but I dare say it was difficult. At the end of it, even though I do not speak their language, I knew that they left the shop happy, due to the huge smiles on all their faces.

Solution to Issue

Although there was a language barrier, we served these foreigners wholeheartedly and brought them around the store using mostly hand signals and very simple English. It was tougher due to the fact that it was only Week 1, our first week alone, and there was no one there to help us with translation. But, we’ve realized, the best way to go around being lost in translation in the service industry, is with a smile.

Learning Point

1. Treating customers well, even though you have no idea what they’re saying is very important.

2. Even in retail outlets like our MSC, good customer service is a very crucial tool for all students to attend to the customers.

3. We must be vigilant and serve all customers as quickly and as promptly as possible with effectiveness and efficiency.

Value Shop, Week 2. (Nathaniel)

Summary

A couple of days ago during Week 2, we had a new team mate here in Value Shop, Jocelyn. Being new, she had to learn everything from scratch from us with our little knowledge, as we were also pretty new. We taught the best we could for the first few days. On Wednesday, during the afternoon shift, EMRS returned our unsold stock back to us. Just so happens that they had a few errors with their sales which resulted in us not being able to tally our stock. To dissolve this error, my other two more experienced team mates, Sandhya and Lyra, had to go see our supervisor. This meant that Jocelyn was left alone to tend the shop. At around 2 there were quite a few customers in the shop and being new, Jocelyn had a little difficulty attending to each of them. She called be back down and I returned to help her out until the rest of her shift mates returned.

Solution to Issue

This problem could have been avoided if for one, EMRS did not err with their sales of our products. But, since that is out of our control, we’ve found that we needed to have more experienced staff around to help those that were still learning. Also, there would not have been this problem if we had managed our staff tending to the store better.

Learning Points

1. We’ve learnt that it is important to manage staff tending to our shop so as to help service the customers to our fullest potential.

2. It is important to teach new staff much faster so they can handle the shop by themselves and be up to standard with the rest of the team.

3. This whole TEP is a crucial learning experience for us and it is up to us to attain as much knowledge of our products and get the hang of customer service, especially since we only have 9 weeks to make it or break it.

Week 5's Customer Service Story is brought to you by Xuan Hui

Background:
We would like to share this customer service experience which happened last Friday. One of our customers entered the store and approached us for a request to exchange a product. A few days ago, she purchased a bag worth $10 and requested for an exchange of another bag which costs $7.

The customer had the original receipt with her and it is within the seven days policy. In addition, the item that she brought back was in good condition with the price tag attached. Therefore, we agreed to do the exchange for her.

Problem:
However, the POS system does not allow us to perform a refund of $3. Therefore, we explained to the customer about our situation patiently. The customer was surprised and baffled as she thought we could refund the extra dollars as most of the external outlets have this policy in place.

In order to solve this problem, we decided to seek help from our supervisors. However, they were not at their desks. As such, we encouraged the customer to get another $3 item to top up for the difference. Another option for the customer was to exchange an item of a higher or equal value of the exchanged item.

Solution:
She looked around the shop and set her eyes upon the NIKE bag carried by the mannequin. Aftermuch thought, she decided to exchange for the NIKE bag instead and the exchange was done successfully and she was satisfied.

Learning points:
1. Do not always depend on the supervisor for help
2. Be flexible and try solving problems
3. React quickly to customers' demands

Weekly customer service story by Peiqi

Background:
This happened on the 4th week of the attachment in ValueShop. It occured on Tuesday, 8th of September 2009. A customer who is a staff in Nanyang Polytechnic visited our shop at 9.25am and wanted to get something. However, the shop had yet to be open and there was only one staff managing the store opening. As the customer was in a rush to get a gift for a visitor of NYP, I allowed her into the shop to browse around and get a suitable gift with the NYP logo. However, she spent quite a while deciding what she wanted. Finally, she decided to get the pen and laser pointer set.

Problem:
The pen and laser pointer set was out of stock and the display set was not functioning. Nevertheless, I introduced her to the other popular gifts. About ten minutes later, two of her colleagues arrived and they were deciding if they should get the chess set. While deciding, one of the NYP Hi-Density Black Jacket caught their sight. After much discussion, they concluded that this would be a much better gift as their visitor likes to wear jackets.

At this point in time, it was almost 9.45am and I was supposed to be down at Bazaar for our daily morning meeting. However, my partner Christopher was having a meeting with one of the supervisors and was not in the shop yet. Moreover, the customer wanted the jacket to be gift-wrapped and it further delayed my presence in the meeting. While I was wrapping the jacket for the customer, she decided to print a few photographs at our photo printing machine.

Solution:
Thankfully, Christopher came back on time and took over the wrapping from me. After which, I rushed down to Bazaar for my morning meeting.

Learning Points:
1. Service providers need to be more flexible and meet the expectation of the customers.
2. To notify the OPS team and inform them that I am going to be late for the morning meeting as I was alone in the shop serving customers.

Week 3 Customer Service Story brought to you by Xin Ni

This happend on the 2nd of September 2009. In the afternoon, a lady customer visited ValueShop. The lady was browsing the products in the shop and she looks like she was looking for a particular item. Therefore one of us approached her and offered assistance to her.

She spotted a bag and wanted to purchase it. However she told us that bag she wanted to purchase was a gift. Therefore, she asked if we provide wrapping service. We mentioned that we can help her to wrap the gift for her.

Since it is a bag and there is no base to support the shape, it was quite a challenging task. As we are not familiar with the wrapping of bags, we requested to her to come back in 5 minutes while we wrap the gift for her. The lady said she will then browse around the shopping arcade and come back later to collect her item.

We tried our best to wrap the gift but the outcome of the wrapping was not up to the standard she that she wanted. However, the customer saw that we tried our best to help her and said it is alright. Before she left the shop, we mentioned that we will improve on our wrapping skills.

Learning Points:
1. Know how to wrap the items in a nicely designed way so that we can provide good service for the customers.
2. When the customer comes in the shop, we must stop whatever we are doing and attend to the customer.

Week 2 Customer Service Story by Christopher

This happened on the 25th of August, Tuesday on Week 2 of our shift attachment. During that period, Xuan Hui and I were on morning shift. There was a huge group of China visitors who were led by Mr denis Ang, visited our store. The visitors browsed through every single item that was on display.

Problem:
The China visitor conversed in Mandarin and it was difficult for me to communicate with them as i am not fluent in speaking it.

Another problem was when the visitors wanted to make purchases, the POS machine's cash drawer was stuck. Although the receipt got printed as per normal and the POS machine reflected the correct change to be given but the cash drawer did not open. Moreover, the Open Cash drawer function was not functioning too. Thus, I was unable to give customer his change. as a result, there was a queue of customers waiting to purchase items.

Solution:
Though it might be challenging for me, I tried to communicate in simple Mandarin to the China visitors whil delivering the best customer service to him. In order to minimize customer waiting time, we used the cash box money to return change to the customers.

As I am not familiar in the process of how to handle the cash box, while the customers need to rush to the next programme, we lost some customers eventually. Furthermore, the transactions were slowed down drastically, thus a few of them in the queue did not purchase anything. But fortunately, I managed to pick up the skill fast and it helped to shorten the waiting time.

Learning Points:
1. I need to learn and understand in simple Mandarin. This would allow me to communicate with customers better.
2. Next, those who are tending the shop should be quick on their feet to think, yet calm, whenever a problem arises. Thus they will be able to find solutions to the problems.
3. One should also be flexible with the procedures, such as using the Cash Box money for change when the cash drawer is stuck.