Me thinks...

Gerri's fren, Jerome, said it's easier to write the story as though Gerri is not herself, hence she's trying it out now.

Well, just 1 or 2 weeks ago, Gerri received a compliment letter from a patient's feedback which went to the Quality Service department, CEO then to her head of department. Ever since that happened, she became a happier girl and was smiling even more to her patients!

Until this group of ppl came along... this group of FON ppl should all belong to the psychiatric ward. They drove Gerri and her colleagues nuts for many days and zapped up a lot of Gerri's energy (and saliva).

Now this group of FON ppl are gone and Gerri's a happy girl again! haha!

Such is life of a girl in a service industry. Her emotions and happiness are dependent on other ppl's actions and words.

(what the heck... i think it's easier to write in first-person la! hahaha!)

I think we all know being able to empathize is impt. It's always easy to say "when u feel a negative emotion from someone's actions, put urself in his shoes and understand why that person did what he did." But many times, before u tried thinking that way, the immediate reaction is why can't THAT person empathize with ME then? me, me, ME!

there lies the selfishness of the whole thing. most ppl want the best for ourselves... we all feel that we should be getting no less than the best.

Singaporean patients are a pampered lot. Colleagues who have been trained overseas have noticed the difference in behaviour of Singaporean patients as opposed to those elsewhere. (Generally-speaking that is). An example is the notorious pt who has had tummy discomfort for 1 MONTH and gets admitted on a Friday night (presumably cos she has no more work commitments over the weekend), demands to be scanned that night if not by Saturday. Harloww... try going to some other country where the waiting time for a scan is weeks/months!! Patients there THANK you and shake your hand when you tell them their scan is in 1 week's time!

The fact is we are the ones who pamper them! All they hafta do is say "I wanna speak to your service quality department!" or "I'll complain to your CEO!", everyone'll scamper around to arrange that scan or treat him/her like a king.

Complaints/feedback is good of course... i don't deny that. But when the system is such that there is always immediate bad repercussions on the staff even if the complaint is a nonsensical one, it becomes taxing for the staff to keep up with the service expectations, especially the outrageous ones. The saying "the Customer is always right" should not hold true for some customers can be quite ridiculous individuals who make unwarranted demands.

Every service industry needs a system to protect its staff! A system that is fair and just. A system that bravely tells the ridiculous customers "No. My staff did the right thing. If you are unhappy with our service, please go elsewhere." Is losing that one customer more impt than losing a staff (a good one tt is) who's taking care of your 100 other customers? You do the math...