Gifts From My Customer

One of my customers made my day today by giving me the gifts bought from Hong Kong and Macau you can see above.

It was after work at the end of the day and since I was traveling along the North-East train line, I figured it would be better to stop at Dhoby Ghaut to switch to the bus instead to avoid the bulk of the peak-hour dying-to-go-home crowd.

Besides, taking the double-decker bus that goes straight to my place means having a better chance for me to find a seat so that I can rest, listen to music and crash a bit to gain back some energy I'll use for the things I'll do when I get home, or wherever I'll end up in some place else.

And since the Dhoby Ghaut train station is just in front of Plaza Singapura, I decided to pop over there to visit my customer & friend Joshua who is working there. He just came back from his Hong Kong and Macau trip, which meant that I haven't seen him for some time, so paying him a visit would be nice.

It's not always that I'll manage to catch Joshua everytime I'm there but on this day, I did. So he told me all about his adventures during his trip and he handed me the gifts which he has wrapped so nicely himself. That made my day.

He also told me that he actually wanted to give me a nice beverage he bought from Taiwan but because it took me awhile to make my rounds to his store, he couldn't resist the temptation and drank the beverage himself. Despite that, I'm grateful for his kind thoughts that really count.

I've received other gifts from my other customer friends as well. Let's see: I've been given and shared sweets and tidbits with them, been given healthcare samples when they knew my loved ones were sick, been given a Ribena drink, a box of confectionary, haircare and beauty products and samples and Ann has given me a home-made Chinese dumpling made by her dad which she wrapped up so very nicely for me with her own hands. One of my customers has even passed me cute gifts for my Lioness.

I have really nice customers. They are the major reason why I love my job. Also, I have wonderful, fun-loving colleagues and I consider myself lucky that there are only just one or two assholes in my company. But still, they are not always asses. Thank God for my job and the folks associated with it.

What doesn't seem fair for my customers is that they take the brunt of abuses from some of their own customers, which are the consumers; the folks at the lowest or highest rung of the consumerism ladder depending on which end you're looking at from. My customers are working in the retail scene and that means they encounter all sorts of people; the crazies, the good, the bad, the ugly and the atrocious.

I've heard stories about their nasty encounters and I've even seen with my own eyes a few times my customers having to deal with such people whose verbal abuses and impatience were really quite uncalled for.

What strikes me as amazing is that despite all the crap my customers have to endure sometimes as victims of consumerism, they can still have the grace to treat us sales reps so kindly. I wish that their own customers will just return them their patience, spirit of service, professionalism and helpfulness in kind.

Too bad it just so happens that lots of ungrateful asses and spoiled brats are on the loose out there making life an unnecessary misery for service personnel. It's a societal disease; some people here are afraid to lose out and are always trying to one-up others by being the first in line in everything they do, throwing away social graces and courtesy to the winds in the process.

I wouldn't be surprised if we were to conduct a shit-eating contest here on a national level some day and people fall over one another to be the first in line without even the decency to find out what they are getting themselves into in the pursuit of becoming the head of a queue. Such mentality explains why queue-cutting is so prevalent here which my poor customers have to police often.

Cheap thrill.

Anyway, earlier in the day, one of my other Pharmacist customers working in Nex Mall (who will definitely win hands down if she enters a beauty contest) told me: "I remember sales reps from both ends of the spectrum; the nice ones and the bad nasty ones. Don't worry, you are one of the nicer ones."

You know what? I'm feeling good about that not because I need a boost in ego due to inferior complexity or whatever, but I'm feeling good about that because it makes me feel appreciated in my work.

God bless my kind customers, they are wonderful folks. The next time you visit a Pharmacist, please treat them kindly. You have my gratitude for that and God bless you too, dear gentle reader.

Besides, the way I see it, whether you are nasty or pleasant, you will still get your medicine dispensed to you. Might as well go through the experience in a pleasant manner if the Pharmacist and their staffs are nice to you. Trust me on this: the secret to attaining happiness sometimes is to give it to others.

And just for the record, I'm not saying my customers are nice because they give me gifts, which is an expression & extension of the fact that they are nice people already to begin with, which fact I've experienced even way before they started blessing me with their gifts.

I wouldn't have changed my perception of them even if they hadn't given me anything and I won't change my perception if they should stop giving me anything, since gifts are not an entitlement to begin with. In their case, it's an expression of their kind generosity.

And a good turn deserves another. So it pleases me to reciprocate & do something for them too in gratitude, be it gifts, giving them a listening ear whenever they need to get something off their chest, serving them as my customers to the best of my ability or just accompanying them and enjoying lunch together.

This is one of the secrets to happiness at work; when you keep the rapport, friendship, empathy & affection flowing with sincerity. There must be sincerity. Without it, everything is just for show and you will never attain the happiness that can only come with it.

And finally, the extra tidbit of the day is; our new dressing table for the master bedroom has arrived: