Niko's Bday

I think time flies so fast, it was Niko's 29th bday. I had not bought any bday present for him. It is still in pending. I guess he will ask me to buy him a new android phone that he has been talking about or a 7" samsung android tablet.

Niko's Mouth Guard

Finally, after more than 3 years nagging, he finally went to get his mouth guard at one of the dental clinic, River vale Mall.

It's a bit thick than I thought. I thought it was a silicon layer covering his teeth. It turned to be a thick plastic rubber chasing. But I believe this will last longer than the silicon one.

Hi-Beam from Etude House

I bought this Hi-Beam glitter from Etude House for $17.00, I thought it's like bronzer. In fact, it is just a glitter in a compact powder form.

When I applied this on my face, it's not so good. My face looked wet as if I'm perspiring. After so many times, I decided to use this as body glitter instead of face glitter. And I think it looks good on body for wedding dinner or going to cafe.

Yesterday, I realized that this product is actually a copy of Guerlain product in a simplified and cheaper version.

New Running Shoes

Niko bought a pair of running shoes for me last month. This is to motivate me to jog again like I used to do. At the moment, I've been jogging at least 10km a week for these 3 weeks. I hope I can do this frequently.

Ipoh Trip 23rd-25th September 2011

Listy, Yoon, Jason, Liana and I went to Ipoh to attend Siao Mun's wedding on 23rd September.

The trip began on 23rd morning. We had Mc.D breakfast in the morning at Budget Terminal.

How Green Building Should Look : Ken Yeang

Green building doesn't necessarily equal ugly. There's often a causallink between building's look and its sustainable credentials, if for no other reason than green architecture demands a certain set of materials, economy, and form. Now, this form-function relationship need not mean ugly, aesthetically uncomfortable.

According to Ken Yeang, good architecture is green architecture, but green architecture is not necessarily good.

The building should not look like a modernist, and should not be pristine; it should be a bit fuzzy and something new. The ideal green building is one which is ecomimetic and whichintegrates seamlessly and benignly with the natural environtment at 3 levels: physically, systemically, and temporally.

Handling Complaints

I realized when I was in Indonesia, I didn't bother to waste our time to complaint because no body will respond. It became a culture. We just need to learn our lesson and keep in mind not to go back to the place that have bad service or product.

It's a totally different story when I live in Singapore. Every time you are not satisfied with a thing or a product, you can make a complaint. Most of them will respond positively by giving discount, free give, or apologize to you.

The real test of client relations skill is the way we handle difficult situations. A Complaint is a warning sign that our product or service has a problem. Treat a complain is an opportunity to put things right.

For service company, good word of mouth is the best and most reliable source of marketing.

These steps may be a better procedure to respond a complaints :
- Keep calm and listen
- Thank the client for bringing the matter to your attention
- Apologise
- Never argue or disagree, even the client is wrong
- Ask question and note the facts
- Consider the some alternative of solutions, decide the best to do and take action
- Explain what you are doing and why
- Make a record of the complain and pass it to those responsible
- Follow up to ensure the matter was rectified

I will put "handling problems and difficult clients" on the same category.

These are the steps :
- Ask questions to clarify the problem.
- Solve it your self if possible or find some one who can
- Do not ignore or dismiss the problem
- Do not blame the client
- Do not laugh, even it's funny
- Do not avoid by saying "it's not my job" or "we can't help you"
- Try to understand the client
- Respond as quickly as possible

Beside those steps, I think our expression when we are talking to client has to be neutral or welcoming rather than black face :)