Language Barrier

The other day I had an old Japanese gentleman customer saying he cannot view his bill online. He has been at our website accordingly for several hours and he said the webpage is loading and loading.. and loading..  He has Windows 8 laptop connected to internet through WIFI. We were both struggling as he speaks little English. He agreed we do a screen sharing for me to know the cause of the trouble. 

OMG! I logged in to his computer and found out it was in Japanese language! I managed to explain we download Chrome as IE was causing the trouble. He struggled translating to me some of the dialog box on his computer from Japanese to English. True enough, after downloading Chrome, he was able to log in to our website and viewed his online bills.

He apologized for him not thinking straight as he had a bad day. I said not his fault but it was the browser, and that, he is smart as despite our language barrier he was able to guide me to resolve his trouble. I do hope I made him feel good by saying that, in addition to resolving the issue he called about.

We may have language barrier but the most important is we can communicate and be understood. If there is something I like in my job. Helping and sharing with customers what I knew. I may not see the happy expression on their faces. Yet the tone of the voice is enough to say I made a difference, even for just a brief moment in their lives. 

Day Off

Once, I was asked by an office mate what kept me busy during my day off? Well, first thing, keeping my home in order to make it a cool place to stay. Living in a small home, I have to make things organize. I have lots of things in my home. I tried to keep them in order to give room for space. There are pros and cons living in small home.  It is easy to clean and maintain, due to small space. Organizing is a bit of a challenge.  

Emptying the laundry basket is another activity that kept me busy on day off. I do not want to go laundry shop.  I have some friends who complained about declining the number of their clothes.  My clothes are not designers’ clothing but are precious to me. I do not want to give them away unless I am giving to charity.

Best of all, my day off is time for my computer and my television.  I thank my youngest bro and sister in law, for pushing me to learn computer.  I learned it on my own. I did not have formal education in a computer school.  When I learned it, I simply could not get this machine off my hobby.  My computer paved the way of getting me a job.  Internet is add-on to my computer knowledge.  It is my window to the world.

A Year After

My  living room a year after.

Wow! Time runs too fast. I had been at the condo I am sharing with my niece for a year now.  I remember I had a little difficulty looking for a place last year. I was determined to leave the previous apartment due to some repairs to be done. The owner is unable to provide me with time frame as to when the repairs could get done.  Uh, oh, I thought to myself, I cannot take chances.  The roof leaks when rain comes, too risky for my computer and my television.  No one so far had invented a water proof computer and water proof television.

My living room right after the move last year. 

Thanks goodness internet was invented. I searched for a place to move. I had to look for a place closer to the apartment to avoid exorbitant fees when I hire mover. The first apartment I found was walking distance. I called the number posted on website.   I was a day late. Someone called the owner, a day before I did. The new tenant paid the deposit and one month advance, signed the contract of lease. Moving is not easy. I had to look for a place I feel safe, accessible to rides, and not too costly. Finally, I found one and called for appointment. The accommodating agent was glad to tour me around.

Flashing Lights

Last Friday night, the 17^th I woke up late, I did not have time to eat dinner before I left home.  I was at work fifteen minutes before my log in time. I chose a night shift at work for some reasons. One, less traffic jam, second it is cooler, third, less time-consuming to get ready to work. I made sure to drop by at our pantry for a cup of black coffee before entering the work area.  I was at my station five minutes before my log in time.

It did not surprise me to get a call right away soon as I log in.  It was an irate lady customer who was visiting her old dad. She was watching the satellite television, pressed some buttons, now the television screen became blue. I knew it was an input issue. She was sort of giving me a hard time not following what I am telling her to do. Then all of a sudden, there came flashing light. I felt as the light continuously flashed I had a hard time focusing on my computer screen. 

Body Scrub

Last Saturday, 14^th of July, I was at the mall again with my niece. Nope, not to buy another shoes but for some toiletries and groceries.  It is nice to be with someone who could carry come of my grocery bags. My niece thought of buying a new card case. She showed me the new card from their office for their medical benefit. The card looks like an automated machine card. Once the holder is hospitalized or go to a clinic, the holder of the card should show the card. The admitting office of the hospital or clinic would swipe the card and the holder of the card gets the medical attention. 

Online Bills Payment

Finally, I was able to sort out all the info I needed, to change my online bills payment. Our salary is withdrawn from automated teller machine (ATM), from a designated bank by our office. We changed our bank due to some update in our HR computer system. Apparently the previous bank is unable to support some of our business requirements.

I had to re-enroll all the companies for my utility bills, such as electricity, water, phone and internet, etc. It took me a while. I had to save all confirmation transaction numbers. I had to check and recheck all the account numbers, billing numbers to make sure I do not enroll someone else account. I am glad I have fast internet connection.

Nine, Twenty Three, Twenty Eleven

After three months of my request for the transfer of service for my phone and internet. My service got transferred, finally. When was the date of transfer? Take a guess. But the phone had no dial tone for almost two weeks.

In my previous blog, I mentioned about subscribing to my previous internet provider. That one I had when I was in Makati City. I had a second thought, in view of too many months of service disconnects. When I transferred to Pasig City, I subscribed to Philippines main phone and internet provider PLDT. I requested to transfer the service in July to the new apartment, I am renting now. I was denied transfer for the reason the connection will be passing through private properties. PLDT was referring to the other apartment units.

Christmas Mission Accomplished

-->

We broke the tradition of opening the Christmas presents at Christmas Eve. At this time, when Manila is jammed with people, when roads are not travel friendly. It is nice to be seated inside a car with someone driving for me. I felt like I am a real princess. I was with my youngest brother and his family yesterday.  It was my youngest brother on the wheels for the three of us. The princesses are me, my sister in law and their precious daughter. My brother feels awkward to let my sis in law drives, despite her good driving skills. I am of course saved from the stressful traffic jammed driving. What a great excuse from someone who does not know how to maneuver the wheels!

My sis in law and my niece came to Manila around middle of Dec after their brief New York visit. My brother came from Singapore last 22^nd of Dec. It was our parents Wedding Anniversary, 22^nd of Dec. After a day rest and I guess after sorting out their Christmas presents for us.  My brother invited me to go with them to visit our parents at the Memorial Park in Novaliches Quezon City. I was kidding my companies our old folks are probably happily dancing tango in heaven on their Wedding Anniversary. Tango is the favorite dance of our parents. He headed to Sta. Rosa City in Laguna, Southern part of Manila after the brief visit. We were visitors of an older brother and his family. Our mission was overwhelmingly successful. Helpless gift wrappers piled on top of each. Empty plates and glasses with remnants of food particles were left to dry on top of the table. They became the mute witness of a happy get together.

The happiest guy is my nephew. My youngest bro bought a laptop in Singapore for him. My nephew will pay for his computer in twelve months without interest. He surely knows what to buy with his hard earned monies. His cousins from our side and the side of his mom were benefited with Ang Pao envelope with few pesos in them as his cash gifts. The young lad believes in giving as the true essence of Christmas. In return for his generosity, my nephew received a laptop backpack bag for his precious laptop from my youngest brother. A Christmas present I believed my nephew had never expected. I was home at around 10pm. Exhausted from lack of sleep, as I still had work Wednesday night, but happy for the events of the day. ♥)

Few Days of Silence

Hi folks … missed me? Sorry for my silence for the past few days. Quiet frankly when I got home I felt too sleepy and tired. I managed to visit few blogs then would fall asleep in front of my computer. Now, you know another talent from your Jolly Princess. I bet you can not do it, can you? I told you I have multitude of unique talents. Kidding aside, upon reporting for work after my vacation leave I missed several updates. I had to report for work at least half an hour early before my log in time. Stayed for another half hour after I logged out to read all those updates I missed. The updates are within the computer system we are using. Updates are being loaded to a computer program and we retrieve them by logging on to the program. It has username and password. Only authorized persons could access the program.

My computer, phone and headset

The log in to start accepting calls is done through the computer. Our headset is attached to Avaya phone through a removable cord. We key in our username and password to the computer assigned to each one of us to log in. The Avaya phone and the computer have to be in sync to property capture some calls that are recorded for quality assurance purposes. Our computers have screen captures. Anyone monitoring our calls could see where we move the computer mouse by seeing the cursor within the screen. We are barred from logging on to other websites except those websites that are work related. To make sure the barring is strictly followed our technical people disabled some applications that would prevent us from accessing prohibited websites. I am not aware of on how they do it exactly. We have highly trained techs that lavished our clients with much attention when it comes to security.

Our account deals with electricity. From time to time there are updates we need to read and study for the benefits of the customers of our client. Be it updates on company policies or the regulating bodies. These are also the bases used by our quality assurance people. To them ignorance to the rules and policies is no excuse. Whether you got sick of went on vacation leave they demand our full understanding of the knowledge about the account. Difficult you may say? At first, yes it was. However, after being in this line of work for quiet a number of years, I had adapted to these demands. Knowledge is Power after all. ☺

Just another Monday

Before we ended our work shift last Friday, the 30^th of July, our team captain informed us we are to have new work station. I do not know exactly what the lowdown is. Our work stations are being interchanged anytime our bosses feel like doing so. I was fussing about the possibility of getting the not so good computer, or a mouse or a headset that may not work properly at the new work area. I got lucky the cubicle assigned to me is just what I had wanted. Looks like our IT guys had anticipated we would have tons of complains. Everything was organized, meaning my computer and its partners are working alright.

"Houston,  I have a problem."

My problem was I was delayed logging in due to some technical issues. Our computer program was made a bit complicated. I had difficulty logging in to my profile. I was an hour delayed taking in calls. This kind of problem occurs sometimes, when we transfer from one work station to another. As the saying goes be careful what you wished for. Monday is always a queuing time. We are not allowed to go on vacation leave during Mondays unless extremely necessary. Adding salt to the wounds I got so many problematic calls. Like repeat calls from customers with unresolved issues.  Some of them, of course, are irate callers. 

Our team captain was complaining about our overall high average handling time (AHT). We just smiled at him as if to say why not make Monday an exemption to average handling time? Wooo! I told myself, this is the reality of being a customer care representative.  One thing I can say is, I am lucky to have team mates who not only exemplary dedicated to their work but are endows with natural talents. As we often say, when all things failed. It is our common sense we have to make to work. Ahhh! I am glad another Monday had passed when I logged out at six in the morning, albeit I survived the night still sane. ☺

“Yard by yard, life is hard. Inch by inch it is a cinch.”

Anonymous