Deal with it!

CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT


It’s common knowledge that I’m a very impatient person. I think I may even have the Attention Disorder Hyperactivity Syndrome, or the ADHS for adults. I’m not kidding! For as long as I could remember, I do not have the patience to stand or sit still for a long time. I cannot spend the whole day doing nothing and I’m always on the go. When I’m in church, if seated, I feel nauseated sitting still & just listening to the sermon. If I am standing, I keep twisting my half body or I do the step forward-sideways-backwards-but-still-on-the-same-spot thing. I do not have the patience to wait for a person, either for appointments or even for love. I get irritated if the people I talk to do not get what I’m explaining in one go. Well, you can just take a look at all of my relationships. They can explain everything I have stated above. I am a very impatient person.

But my present work, contradicts the person that I am. You see, I work for the Customer Management Group. I take and process all construction requests including complaints, actually mostly complaints. I get an average of 20 emails per day, 6 calls per day, 2 client meetings (with and without appointments) per day and 3 turnover clients on site per week. God, it can be so harassing sometimes. Clients, mostly OFW’s, are often very difficult to deal with. Especially those in very tight budgets, they are the ones who have the most complaints. I’m not talking about only the clients who complain but, there are also some who are very difficult to talk to. They do not know how to understand simple things!

I have an example. Let’s call her Mrs. X. Mrs. X called our office and looked for Engr. Rubio. When I got to the phone, she said, “I said I want to talk to Engr. Rubio, not his secretary!”. Well, I get that a lot so okay lang. I introduced myself to her then she said, “So, babae ka pala?” Umm, duh. Then she proceeded to her complaint. She said, “You sent me some files and told me to choose a color for my house. Where are the colors? This so stupid and such a waste of my time.”. I was surprised and immediately checked the file that I sent her but I saw that I included the Color Scheme. I told her that and she went, “Are you calling me a liar? I printed all the documents that you sent! They are all in front of me right now. It is not here. This is so stupid.” I was still confused then I ask her,”Ma’am, if you have the documents, do you see the page where there are pictures of the house?”. She said, “Yes, but there are no colors! How can I pick if it is not colored!? Engineer ka pa naman!”. Amp! Bwiset to a. I asked her back, “Ma’am when you printed the file, did you use a colored printer?”. Ayun tumahimik. Asus! At ako pa daw ang stupid? Eto na pambawi ni Mrs. X, “You should have indicated in your email that I should print this in a colored printer!” Ay, bobo.

There are some clients also na ang labo talaga kausap. One of our company’s policy is not to have expansion on the second floor to preserve the Californian image of the houses. During one of our meetings, she was insisting to expand her second floor. I said because of our company’s Deed of Restriction, it is not possible. Ang banat ng lola mo? “Asan ba yang Deed of Restriction niyo? Akin na, papapalitan ko.” Asus!

I also hate those clients who are very inconsiderate. Yung mga walk-in lang and magdedemand na makipagmeeting sakin tapos dadating lunch break. Kainis di ba?

There are also clients na para lang makalibre ng penalties nya, they would dig up anything bad about the project or make up stuff, and blackmail you. If you don’t mind them naman, they will say na di mo sila inaasikaso. Grabe.

Eto pa, may mga clients who go to the site where their house are being built and they make pakialam everything. Ang masama dyan, halos tinuturuan na nila yung mga laborers dun kung anong gagawin! MAMARU! And would go back to our office and would make reklamo to me, na mali daw mga ginagawa sa site. Parang gusto ko sabihin dun sa engineer namin, “Oist Steve, paki bigyan na nga to si lolo ng hard hat and shovel. Kaw na gumawa dun!” Kairita grabe.

Meron din mga linyang, “you know in the states, centralized ang gas.” Or “you know in the states it’s not like that.” Or “Sa States ganito, sa States ganyan.” E DI DYAN NA LANG KAYO BUMILI DUH!

But you can never say that! Kelangan friendly pa rin ang voice kahit na umuusok na yung tenga mo. Even if nasasabihan ka ng “Engineer ka ba?”. Yan yung mga gusto ko sagutin na, “Oo engineer ako, ikaw ano ka dyan sa ibang bansa?” Nakakpikon talaga e. Pero nga, because I’m with Customer Management, mahaba dapat ang patience mo. Just like what my boss said, bawal balat sibuyas.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some clients naman who are nice. And I realized, these are those na matagal na matagal na talaga sa ibang bansa, dun na lumaki or old rich na talaga. They do not talk to you as if utang na loob mo talaga na bumili sila sa kumpanya nyo ng bahay.

Sometimes sila pa nga nahihiya na may mga requests sila. They ask if you want to eat with them afterwards when the house inspection stretched past lunchtime. They give you thoughtful gifts after you have helped them. It’s not being materialistic naman pero it’s nice to feel you are appreciated. Yung may mga request sa phone na super sweet kausap? Parang nakakagana iprocess noh? Kaysa dun sa may mga request na sinisigawan ka pa, parang ang sarap i-pending hehehe. Pero ofcourse we don’t do that. I just hope there will be more considerate clients.