Amplified Breathingamplified breathing: July 2005

Monday, July 25, 2005

the weekend

I was going to write something about the SONA, but then I thought, who the hell cares about it anyway?!? My weekend is probably more exciting than that!!!

So, let me just recount what I did this weekend instead. Started off at Cable Car at midnight, right after shift. Sir Yul, me, b2, connie and donjun walked a whole kilometer stretch from RCBC Plaza to head back to our old office in standard chartered coz that's where b2 and sir yul parked their cars...and where sir bong was waiting for us! It was the first time the whole team went out drinking! It was good clean fun... We had a few rounds of beer, pizza, tokwat baboy and sisig (who says Italian and Pinoy dishes don't jive?!?) haha! By 4am, it was time to go home...I had a mild migraine and colds before we went to the bar and I can feel it acting up again...lack of booze you say?! hehe...

Actually, I had enough to knock me down for almost the entire saturday. I woke up a little past 1pm that afternoon when my hunee arrived (and Archie left for Butuan)... I felt a little tamad and had a slight fever so we ended up calling Gerry's for late lunch delivery. While waiting for our food, my hunee and I pitted for some quick races in NFS2...Man, WE ARE SOOOOO HOOKED! Airport Express does wonders to your home LAN! hehehe...see what it did to us!
Anyway, lazy couch potatoes that we are, we dragged ourselves up to eat our lunch, and went back to the room for another round of NFS2... Finally, we decided it was time to something "important" so we did some grocery shopping at puregold... headed back home to leave our purchases and drove all the way to greenhills to watch a movie. There was no interesting titles showing for this week but we were already there (and I wanted to try watching a movie at the Promenade!) so we ended up watching "The Island". The theatre interior design, seats and sounds, I would rate it 4 stars out of 5. For the movie itself, I would say around 3 out of 4 stars. The storyline was good...and it is always a compliment to any director if I don't fall asleep in the moviehouse...so this movie must be really good! I just can't understand why they had to kill the clones when they are not really defective, they just happen to have developed like their sponsor, in all aspects! Okay, okay, this is not meant to be a spoiler...you should go watch the movie. I would say it's worth the 140 bucks I spent at the Promenade! oh...one more thing: this movie does explain why there's lots of stupid people on earth...hehehe! Just kidding...

Later that evening, my perpetually hungry stomach was grumbling again... but when we came out of the theater, I just can't resist the newly opened Fully Booked. We went in and browsed for some interesting stuff... If I had all the money in the world, I would buy a copy of every book they have in that neat little store. Mind you, they're pretty expensive. Anyway, as I was scanning Paris Hilton's book entitled How to be an Heiress, I can't help but admire her for her staunch humor...I bet you, she does have a certain kind of humor that befits an heiress! Her book was quite funny and I would have wanted to read through it more if not for a snotty annoying old chinese punk of a girl behind me making all the nasty comments about Paris Hilton and how she is so stupid, stupid, stupid... She was like "Can she really write?...Does she have humor?...aaaah I don't care, she's stupid...she's an idiot.." blah blah blah... If my guardian angel had not taken the better of me I could have smacked her face with the hardbound book I was holding in my hand...I so wanted to howl at her and say...I DONT NEED YOUR OPINION, Bitch! But I didn't do that of course. I had to control my temper...WHOOOOOZAAAAH! So off we went with a few books in tow...Of course, I'd blog about them when I finish reading so watch out for my next blog posts...

Back to my hungry tummy...we went to have some dimsum dinner at Good Earth Roasts, still at the promenade. it was roundabout midnight when we drove back to Makati. We hurriedly rushed to the sack to start our careers in NFS2! :-) I was feeling a bit whoozy after taking some cold tabs... I just had to...I was feeling a bit sick again. I slept around 3AM and woke up mid day the next day...

I was already so engrossed building my career in NFS when the most unfortunate event happened on a Sunday...after a long time of not having really major on call disasters, we had one that sunday. Is it pure luck or is just testing my patience? I hope it's just one of those "once in a blue moon" cases....cross my fingers!

Anyway, Velle and family dropped by for a visit. They just came from their unit 2 floors below mine. They wanted to check out my unit and see my cute little puppy summer...oh by the way, she's an adorable yellow lab who is sometimes soooooooo annoying. But she's sweet and funny and uto-uto! hahahaha... I make her smell her poopoo sometimes...HAHAHAH!

By the time it was 8PM, we went to hear mass at Sacred Heart and promised to buy summer some dog food at shopwise. Then we drove off to the Fort for a nice sunday dinner...hey we're still celebrating our month long anniv! :-) We wanted to test how "well assessed" the reviews were for the book we bought on "Manila Restaurants" so we decided to have dinner at Zong. It's a fancy chinese resto at the Fort known for "Chinese food with no MSG". Interesting, huh? Truth be told, we had a really good fill that night. We had some spicy singaporean fish fillet, wanton noodle soup, siomai, seafood rice and for dessert Mark ordered his favorite Mango Pudding and I had some Banana Fritters with Peach and Honey sauce....aaaah, a lot of food and we had some doggy bag for take out! For the verdict, the food was by far one of the best chinese dinners I had. The Service? It sucks! They won't even give us back the change had we not asked for it!!!

Oh by the way, that was probably one of the quickest dinner dates we had... We drove home right away because I told the masahista to be there by 1130PM. I was soooo tired the whole week and I needed to de-stress myself. Had 2 hours of blissfully relaxing shiatsu-swedish combination massage. That was just what I needed to cap the night.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

What if you had 30 days to live, what would you do?

I'm watching Oprah right now and they had this search for the most romantic man. They had on the show real couples, leading ordinary lives, share their stories about how romantic and passionate their husbands/boyfriends are.

I was especially moved by a couple who had to deal with the trauma of breast cancer. The girl was telling the whole world how her husband took care of her and walked with her through the painful experience of chemotherapy, until she became well and cancer-free. What especially touched me was when he said "I admire her for being so brave and for her courage to live through it. I cannot imagine a life without her."

This made me think, what would it be like if I were in her shoes? Would I have the same strength to go through it? What if I had only 30 days to live, what would I do? Maybe I would start with a few things:

1. Pray.
2. Show all the people close to my heart how much I love them.
3. Make my last will.
4. Ride a roller coaster.
5. Forgive and make peace.
6. Say sorry to the people I have hurt.
7. Just live each day as if it were my last.

How about you, what would you do if you were given 30 days to live? I know I sound a little morbid... must be the weather!

take it easy y'all! *mwah*

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Handling difficult customers

This is not a response to my own post prior to this one (Getting around "customer service" crap). I am actually working on an assignment that I need to submit to the standards committee review.

In an ideal world, there should be no irate customers and everyone should be pleasant to deal with. But oftentimes misfortunes arise that could cause some customers to be stressed out and grumpy, to the point that they become unreasonable. Fortunately for these customers, customer service representatives are in line and available to help them sort out their issues.

Providing world class customer service not only stops with establishing rapport, hearing out client complaints and finding solutions for your customer's concerns. There are 3 key things you need, to be able to deliver high quality customer service:

Excellent communication skills. Difficult customers are often picky when speaking to someone on the phone. Excellent communication skills is the key to starting off on the right foot with a very unhappy customer. Proper command of English projects a person's confidence and thus, becomes a major factor in winning the customer's trust.

Strong customer service skills. In the customer service industry, oftentimes, solutions are canned and available to every customer service representative. But before one can provide solutions, he/she need to be able to work with his/her customer. That is when customer service skills becomes crucial, especially when handling already-irate customers. The opportunity to provide "high quality" customer service is often missed, despite the fact that the customer's issue has been solved. There are 2 basic needs of a customer that should be met 100% of the time: the need for head and heart service. While it is sometimes easy to meet the need for the head, it is more difficult to meet a customer's need for a heart. This can only be met when the customer service representative has the: ability to listen, provides re-assurance and delivers feedback. Customer's would want to feel that their issues are as equally important to any business, as it is to them.

Highly analytical and above average technical skills. This usually fulfills the "head" part of the total customer service picture. When the customer service profession is able to deliver tremendous results in a short span of tim, the client is usually happy. However, this should always go hand in hand with proper delivery and excellent service.

Customer service is always on both ends of the rope in the business model. This is where the partnership between the customer takes off during pre-sales and this is also where it ends - support and maintenance. The measure of true business success is evident on 2 things that any "customer support group" is responsble for: customer retention and satisfaction.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Getting your way around "customer service" crap

Hay naku, mga Pilipino talaga!!! No, I am not denouncing my being a Filipino. I am proud to be one. I am just enraged with the mediocrity of these so-called customer service people. I am in the service industry myself and I know from experience, how it's like to be on the other line, with an irate customer (like me). But hey, it's all part of the job. People don't get angry for nothing - there has to be a reason for that! For me personally, lousy service is one of my pet peeves.

I have some tips for you guys out there to avoid being given the run around and lame excuses from customer service helpdesks:

Get the person's full name and contact number at the start of the call. When you are told that they are not allowed to give out their names, this is not true. You can bring your concerns to DTI for this and the call center running the said operations can be reprimanded. As a consumer, you have the right to know who is handling your account and who is running with your complaints. That is a consumer right and you have to invoke that. Also, never let a call drop without getting a number from the other person on the other line. This may be a challenge when you speak with customer service folks on a hotline as they don't always have a number to call, nor do they have the ability to transfer calls. If you can't get a number to call, make sure to note the person's name so you can give it to the next agent the next time you call, in case you get dropped.

Be relentless. Sometimes, you just have to be firm and relentless. Don't always take no, next week, next month, tomorrow for an answer. This shouldn't be happening if the company has good customer care processes in place but that sadly, this is the usual case especially when dealing with: government agencies, insurance and assurance agencies, appliance centers and most especially local telephone companies. This may not hold true to all companies under the categories I mentioned but I have had a fair share of the same experience from those agencies under the categories mentioned.

Escalate if necessary. To avoid wasting yours and the agent's time, get the next person in the heirarchy to take your call if the person you are talking to is not very sure of what he/she is talking about. You are a customer and you are entitled to the right information. If you are not confident that you are given accurate information, make sure to get someone who knows.

Document your conversation whenever possible. When you fill out forms in a business center, always make sure you have a duplicate copy and that there is an indication that they have received your form. I have learned my lesson the hard way several times and I vow from this day forward I will be more particular with securing a copy of forms I have submitted and get the person who received it, to sign a receipt. Your form could get lost for all you know and you might be expecting for nothing! For telephone conversations, make sure that you have all the details like the date and time of your call, including the information about the agent like his/her name and agent number and etc.

Make the right connections. My last advise is usually a last recourse kind of thing and should only be used if and when you're tipping the scales of your patience. Although I hate to admit this, the Padrino mentality is still a very common trait among Filipinos and sometimes, you just have to learn to use this to the advantage. You are a victim of the system yourself. It may sound bad as it can lead to abusing the system, sometimes, you just have to do it. If you have the right connections, letting your fingers do the talking with a simple email or text message to get some help following up on your request, might do you some good.

So there goes your list of how-to's. Good luck and have a great weekend ahead!

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Anticipation is a killer

For the past few hours, my mind was on a roll. I know I should stay focused on what I'm doing but I just can't help it. The events of the day kept replaying on my mind as if it were winding an endless thread. If I were running on a 486, I would have crashed down completely within seconds.

I shouldn't be writing these thoughts down but the anticipation is just killing me. I feel like I'm about to burst.

All I'm hoping for is that God will enlighten the minds of all the people involved, let heaven hear my prayers and hopefully open the doors for me. I hope this is my big break!

What a shame!

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock at 6AM today. (Plug: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARCHIE!!!) I had to cook breakfast, hear mass and attend to something very important at 9AM. *wink* Do I have enough time to do all that? Yes, except that today is a hell day for Makati.

Another rally is scheduled to take place at the Ninoy Aquino monument along Paseo de Roxas and they are pegging the numbers to go up to a million. Quite interesting huh? If rumors are true that they are paying these rallyists to receive 100 Pesos just for expressing their support to oust Arroyo, that would mean they have a fat wallet to mobilize these people. Imagine that: Php100 x 1M = Php100M and that figure is exclusive of the food and water that they're giving out!!!

If they had used that 100M to pay off our debts and fix the substandard roads in CBD, a lot of people would have been spared from the horrendous traffic, noise pollution and litter all over the streets of makati. Hey that's my money too!!! A large chunk of my pay goes to taxes and it's a pity that it doesn't seem to be spent very wisely on this case... (or maybe a large part of it may not have been spent very wisely at all!)

This whole "take-it-to-the-street" mentality is really going to some people's heads. After weeks and weeks of barricading the streets and throwing litter everywhere, don't they still get the gist? Obviously, their requests have fallen on deaf ears. (Bilib din ako sa pagkamanhid ng ibang kababayan natin!) what a shame!!!

Don't get me wrong. I'm no pro-gloria, nor am I pro-susan. All I'm asking is a little consideration to the public and to the environment. These people are just throwing their flyers everywhere and the streets are so dirty. For a central business district, Ayala Ave. looks like the solid version of ilog pasig! I wouldn't be surprised if one day we'll see tin cans in glorietta and greenbelt for "Piso para sa Makati".

But then again, that's the Philippines to you!

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

A good start

Indeed, time flies so fast when you start your day right. I pretty much had a good kick out of bed with a phone call so loud it can drive the whole neighborhood crazy. I know, I'm exaggerating!

Anyway, a few minutes later I had another bout dragging myself out of bed to answer the door. Finally, they arrived! They installed my DSL line! Yipeee!!! 1 mbps connection from home!!! After almost 3 weeks of waiting and daily follow up calls, it felt like manna from heaven! I know I shouldn't be complaining but hey, for all it's worth, it does help to be with someone who knows someone up there. Thanks hunee! You are really my lucky charm!!!

So far, everything seems to pan out well for me these days. I keep wondering what's in store for me in the next few weeks, months, maybe? I dunno, really. Only time will tell...

Monday, July 11, 2005

Finally, my blogsite

I had been contemplating about setting up my own blogsite for the longest time. My hesitation stems from the fact that I don't have the luxury of time to update this on a regular basis. And yes, I have heard about people losing their jobs because of these things. But what the heck

Hopefully, in the next few days, I will be able to add some sensible entries here. For now, I gotta hit the sack... it's time to Zzzzz....

amplified breathing