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.