Customers’ Satisfaction

At around 10 o’clock in the morning on 3 August , 2009, I went to a local bank at Bandar Perda, Bukit Mertajam to collect a new Visa credit card. I was told to see a Malay officer who was not wearing a name tag at Counter No.3 on the ground floor. After collecting the card, I produced my old credit card for cancellation and to give him a letter of standing order to request the bank to transfer all the unsettled bills and reward points from the old Visa credit card to the newly acquired card. In addition, I wished to make a standing order for my utility bills to be auto debited.

The Malay officer told me it was not within his scope of work and it had to be handled by another officer, Miss Jeya, on the First Floor of the building. I followed instruction to climb up the staircase to the first floor to look for Miss Jeya who again referred me to another officer, Encik. Fausir, on the ground floor. Again, I walked down the steps to see Encik.Fausir who brought me to see the officer-in-charge who was “none other than the very same Malay officer at Counter 3”.

Knowing that I was back to the square one; I was very disgusted and my temper nearly exploded to see the officer who had just fooled me and ‘had taken me for a ride up and down the building’. My blood was boiling. To avoid things blowing out of proportion, I took deep breaths to regain my composure so as to keep my emotion under control and to queue up afresh behind two other “valued customers”.

Eventually,it took me more than one hour to get my things settled. In fact it could have taken me at the most half an hour if I was not made a damn old fool to walk up and down the building.

Walking out from the bank, a thought flashed through my mind:

“If the bank officers like to kick me like a football, I would recommend them to play ‘TOTAL FOOTBALL’ like what the Dutch players had employed with great success in the early seventies. It was a tactical theory of association football in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team.

In Total Football, a player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the team's intended organisational structure. In this fluid system, no outfield player is fixed in a nominal role; anyone can be successively an attacker, a midfielder and a defender. The only player fixed in a nominal position is the goalkeeper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK3RUt7BZWI

If each bank officer could adapt comfortably in multiple roles,like the tactics employed in Total Football,then the customers would be better served with higher efficiency.”

I have yet another experience of customers’ satisfaction to share.

On 31 May, 2008, I bought a Japanese imported model of Panasonic refrigerator from Seng Hock, a dealer at Queensbay Mall in Penang with a two-year extended warranty expiring on 20 July , 2013.

Unfortunately, one year later after the purchase, on 17 August 2009, the refrigerator started to give trouble. One compartment failed to function and the fruit kept in it became rotten.

Immediately I called to the dealer to complain and at the same time I wrote an email to Panasonic (M) Sdn. Bhd. Customers’ Care Centre. A technician was summoned that evening ‘to troubleshoot’ the fridge. He checked and made some minor adjustment on the refrigerator. The refrigerator functioned as normal after that but the problem recurred four days later. In addition, the motor of the fridge became very noisy the day after.Mr.Danny, the service manager of Panasonic Sdn. Bhd. in Penang, was informed of this problem and he sent a technician to fit a specially acquired new timer which was sent from Kuala Lumpur.

Three years later, on 19 April,2011, we complaint to the dealer at Queensbay Mall about yet another defect to the refrigerator. This time around, my wife noticed that there was an unusual patch of bubbled-like flaw of paint work on the lower middle portion of the front door of the Bottom Case of the fridge.

The dealer said that in his opinion under normal circumstances paint work was not covered in any extended warranty and he was not sure Panasonic Malaysia would entertain my complaint. Nevertheless he promised to bring up this case to the attention of Panasonic Malaysia.

Meanwhile, I emailed a similar complaint to the Customers’ Care Centre of Panasonic Malaysia for due attention.

Within a few days,a technician was sent by Panasonic Malaysia to check the flaw of the paint work and to take a photograph which was sent back to the Customers’ Care Centre.

Panasonic Malaysia did not respond for a long time after that.

I started to remind myself that I had no grounds to pursue the matter any further as my extended warranty did not extend to warranty the defect on the paint work of my fridge.

Surprisingly, after a lapse of three months, I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement when the familiar technician appeared at my doorsteps in the evening of 18 July, 2011. He came to replace the front door cover of the Bottom Case of my fredge. According to the technician, the new set of the cover was specially ordered and imported from Taiwan.

My wife and I were very grateful and thankful to Panasonic Malaysia for their excellent after-sale service. I had specially emailed to thank Panasonic Malaysia and to assure them that I would not turn to other brands for my future purchases when it comes to home appliances as the Panasonic brand name would be choice.