Friday, October 02, 2009

Matter of Being Professional ...



~  Dealing With Professionalism  ~



( Photo from "greensurvey" of Flickr )


I'd been attending Yoga classes for the last 10 months. My main purpose was not to loose weight but to avoid having water retention I'd been suffering lately on my legs and encourage more mobility for myself. Since I'd  been  sitting  most of the times doing my beading crafts and attending to my computer duties.



Anyway, most people loose weight doing Yoga but I don't ... I gained even more and at least a kilo ! But I don't mind coz loosing weight is not my goal in doing Yoga anyway. I'm more happy  to loose my water retention as well as the stress piling within me . Somehow Yoga Therapy / Gentle Yoga in particular help and strenghten my concentration mentally & emotionally.



 I have a few friends who started doing Yoga trial classes last week and had been with them certain times in other Yoga classes. They started to spread the word that Yoga classes in this place located inside Pacific Plaza was good and advised their other friends to join the group for more fun and encouragement. Julie , Nessy and I joined the Therapy class yesterday 1st of October. It was really fun doing such activity with friends around. But I left immediately after the class to do some errands. Julie & Nessy were left to pursue their membership applicatuion with the Yoga Staff while awaiting for 2 more friends ready to sign up for the classes too.

Somehow during the processing, Julie asked if the they could pay by cash or cheque instead of GIRO / Credit card auto debit . After few exchanges of views considering facts of what's the best mode of payment on both sides, the attending staff  had allowed them to pay by cheque ( Why not ? at least they're paying for God's sake ! ) . One more thing, Julie and her friend had asked if processing fee of SGD$150 per application be waived . After all they're a group of 4 people and maybe even more friends would join the group later on. Obviously, the male staff got no power to grant their request and courteously told them he'll ask the management first. Then off he went to the office & ask the higher personnel  if the " discount" is possible or not. He came back behind a Singaporean Chinese lady who straight forward & loudly introduced herself as the "GM" and without any further expalanation said "If you can't abide with our terms and policy , you all go somewhere else! " and marked all their signed applications VOID without any hesitations at all ! Things happened that fast like a flick of a finger !

All the 4 ladies were visibly stunned and shocked by the GM's treatment but nothing compared to the embarrassment and shame my friend Julie had encountered. She had invited her friends to join but they were all humiliated infront of each other. The last 2 ladies who just arrived don't even have any idea what's the argument all about. One of the ladies who's partly Chinese was able to argue back and with a Texan accent said  " You're such a very rude person . You pride yourself being called a professional ... a General Manager ... but you should act as one... Be One ! You don't have any idea of what customer service is ... We are not illiterate and you can just reply to us with either a "yes or no" to our request and whatever your reply  would be accepted & appreciated. You don't have to push us out . You have no respect for clients. You're nothing but a moron !" . The ladies left in disgust & angry while the male staff apologized continously while they were all leaving.

In this kind of situation was it fair that imposing a company's policy of:
 " We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone! "
 be taken in effect ? Where clients  requesting for a little consideration be treated harshly infront of everybody in public ? Was the immediate application of this policy necessary just because the GM was caught in a bad mood during that time ?



( Photo from Go Go Boy Go! flickr.com )


A policy like this doesn't offer any explicit or implicit implication of intention to discriminate. It only serves to state owner's right. Yes, under many conditions, the owner or any authorized personnel is legal to refuse service to anyone who may disrupt the business. Or they can even refuse services to someone who the owner doesn't like. Nothing like that is against law. We are so accustomed to the concept that "Customer is the King...".




Yes, What about the saying that " Customers are always right ! "  ?

But that concept is only a good business concept, it has nothing to do with legal system. Theoretically speaking, if the business is so good, the customer doesn't have to be the king. However, in order for a business to be good, the enterprise needs to treat customer well. This is only a good business conduct, but never a God endowed duty in any social system.

Despite of whatever, For me, it doesn't cost anything to be nice to people ! Material things don't last but the sentimental value surely does .

As we all know, First impression lasts !


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