Romancing the Customers

Today, was just not my day.
Everyone seemed to be irritating and annoying. It started when my sister called me in the morning informing that all the souvenirs for our brother's wedding which we ordered in mangdu were all off-specs! Not even one souvenir conformed to the specification we required. Actually we have torn out our patience a couple of days ago when we found that the products were not ready on the date we agreed on. To make it worse, we were being informed about the delay when we were already in their store in mangdu which took us almost forever from our place. To make it even worse, they expressed an unbelivably innocent statement telling that we should have asked for more details about the product in the fisrt place, and not to blame them later on. I interpreted these silly lines as the most stupid and irrational excuses! Just who do you think we are, a bunch of jerks who were just bugging on your stupid busines??!! We are your goddamn CUSTOMERS for God's sake!

Next case...., just when I was beginning to pull myself together after the mangdu incident, I decided to stop by at the supermarket and did my weekly grocery shopping. I decided to buy some pieces of ayam kampung, minced meat and some beef. Everthing seemed to be ok with the ayam kampung and minced meat, but when I was ordering a half kilo of beef, the meat-corner attendant seemed to be a little bit distracted knowing that his supervisor was doing a kind of inspection. To my surprise it was the supervisor herself who suddenly cut in between the meat-corner attendant and myself. She did not seem to be aware that I was around. They kept discussing on things which I had no idea about and forced me to wait for a couple of minutes before my beef was ready! Just who do you think we are, a buch of jerks who were just bugging on your stupid business??!! I could not take it anymore and called out this guy and complained,"hello..... I'm still here, where do you think you're going?!" Innocently he said that he had some matters to settle with his boss so I would have to wait for a while!! ...????

My oh my.....what had happened to all those guys? Weren't they aware that customers is the number one stakeholder which has to be in their mind everytime they wake in the morning? Weren't they aware that how to romance the customers is becoming a new buzz word in marketing trend in order to compete in this highly competitive market place? This does not only apply to 'big' and global businesses. In fact we should start creating this habbit the minute we start our business, even if it is a small one.

I remember my recent visit to Spore, the city which always gives me an endless appeal. The serving attitude seems to be found everywhere, everyone lives with it . Just when I had some difficulties figuring out how to work with the ticketing machine in the MRT station, a very old guy approached me and assisted me on how to deal with the machine in a very polite manner. He even showed me which platform I had to take to go to the City Hall. The Singaporeans are fully aware of that in terms of natural resources they basically have nothing to brag about. What do you expect from a tiny island-country whose area is far less that the size of Jakarta? A gold mine? Crude oil? Palm plantation, rubber? Nothing...!! That's why they believe their human resources is the only resource they have, and they have spent billions of dollar in developing their human resources through the education. They've succesfully tranformed their people to become the society which has this strong service-oriented attitude. The surely know how to romance their customers. It is evident when we see many people from Indonesia are willing to fly to Spore only to be able to enjoy the peaceful, well-organised and 'human' side walks along the Orchad road or just enjoy a plate of nasi lemak at the Bugis junction, or..this is even 'worse'; just to enjoy shopping at Changi airport which is titled as the friendliest airport in the world! Moreover, people are still lining up for dolphin lagoon attraction in the Sentosa island, although compared to the one in Ancol, their show is far from sophisticated. To make the list longer, they proudly claim the dull and artificial beach in the Sentosa island as the perfect place to find a weekend leisure, while here in Indonesia there are countless of macnificent, natural beaches which in fact we can claim as the best beaches in the world.

With so many things to offer; from natural beauty to handicraft, from culture and traditions to local and exotic culinary, from natural resources to abundance of raw material for the industry, and many others, I think it's high time for us, the Indonesians, to retune our mindset. We should threat everyone who brings higher value to our business as our customers. Customers are not only the end users, but also includes our suppliers, investors, intermediaries and also our employees. Customer is the one we should provide an endless romance in order to bring higher value to our business. By continously romancing the customers, the customers are not just becoming satisfied but more on that, they would be loyal and delighted! That's why everytime I visit Spore I would never consider it as my las visit, there's always a strong desire to return as I know that they would always promise me an endless romance. So, either it is your early-start garment business, cookies and pastry business, internet business, embroidery business, any kind, any size of business, start ROMANCING and DELIGHTING your customers as they are your biggest asset.

Finally, she called it a day............

For many people, 32 years of marriage is a great achievement, but not the case with mbakTerri. For her 32 years it was nothing but an endless pain and sorrow. My first impression on her when we were together in the same group going for a hajj pilgrimage back in 2003 was, she was a very nice, patient and friendly lady who was accompanied by her loving, nice and dedicated husband. They seemed to be meant for each other. I even envied them for having the luxury of being together without kids bugging around since theirs are already in their teen ages, one of them is already a married woman.

It was last Thursday nite when some hajj friends and I got together for dinner found out that it was a hell of marriage she had been through for the last 32 years of her life. She finally declared that her husband and she have finally settled for a divorce! A divorce? That word came to me as thunder storm. This might be something ordinary for celebrities or many young couples of today's generation but certainly not with mbak Terri and her husband. The only thing I remember about last Thursday's dinner was that all of us ended up speechless listening to her unbelievable story. Her husband and his portfolio mistresses, the physical and verbal abuse were among the major pains she had to face and suffer. Even during the hajj pilgrimage she found out that her husband was still in intense communication with one of his mistresses through the sms!

I could not say a word but admiring her for her huge amount of patience and keikhlasan, two things that I still have to learn more and more. She really has the biggest capacity to carry and live with these two aspects. If this case ever come to me, amit..amit...tok..tok...I could not imagine what would happen to my husband, gue sunat kali ya..??

I truly believe in Allah's plan and also believe that He would provide the best and most proper one to each of us. That's why after being able to pull myself together listening to her horror story, my rational sense finally signaled that this might be the best thing for her and her children. I am glad that she was finally able to make up her mind and stood independently on her two feet and declared: " enough is enough, I finally called it day after 32 years!!!" Subhanallah! My prayers and heart go to you mbak Terri........ I am sure Allah really loves you and your kids, and He already got a bigger plan for you. I am quite sure she wouldn't have problem dealing with her new life. In fact she looks fresh, relieved and even more beautiful and we kind of giggled when she proudly declared " I'm a jomblo now!".

Life is always a mystery...