The Differences

The difference between answering the calls in the office in KL and the one in Penang is that the calls volume is lower.

In KL, there’s only one hotline that gets pick up by us. Here, the hotline goes to every department. Everyone helps to pick up the phone when they are free.

The customers here are nicer than the ones in KL. At least, there were no screaming ones when I was here for two days.

The office is smaller here as compared to the one in KL. Small and cosy. Peaceful and quiet. Simple and uncomplicated. Sometimes it gets so quiet that you get to hear the sound of the music playing in the background, some easy listening songs. Very nice! Whereas in KL, all you hear is noise. No music allowed.

What I did in the office today was to conquer as much calls that I can because in the morning, everyone except for me was called in for a meeting. So I had to attend to the calls and served a customer over at the counter.

The bulk of call were mostly regarding export shipments which left me with a miserable 3 import calls in a total of one day. Unbelievable but true. So, most of the time, I had to help out with the export calls because the customer are complaining that they can’t get through the hotline that has been centralised to KL.

What’s left now is for me to learn about import shipment inside out and then I can answer just any calls that come my way. I kind of like the idea.

Since the hotline is shared among all departments and anyone can just answer the calls, there are times when it becomes like a “Siapa cepat dia dapat” phone answering competition. Judging from the scene in the morning, I knew I had to be a little more quicker than the rest or I’ll never get to answer any import calls. So, there were times when two or more people will be answering the phone but only one gets the line, the fastest one. The others would then hear an engage tone and to put down the phone again. At times, it can get pretty frustrated to pick up the phone a few times but to discover someone else is quicker than you. But it was fun!

After office, I took a cab back to the hotel and dressed down before I took a stroll along Gurney Drive. Took me about 20 minutes to reach Gurney Plaza, walk around for about 10 minutes before I walked back to the opposite direction for food.

Had prawn mee and iced herbal tea. Yummy!

But I wasn’t feeling that satisfied yet so I ‘ta pao’ 4 chicken wings back to the hotel to enjoy them while I catch up on Buletin Utama and a Korean drama.

Tomorrow’s my final day in Penang.