Patience.

Our everyday lives get us to be customers in various necessities and services we need. I'm pretty sure the "Customer is Always Right" thing is stuck in our heads as we demand nothing but the best customer service we deserve. And customer service starts in the queuing line. Studies have it that the Average Patience Time of customers (the time a customer is willing to wait) is 15 minutes.

Customer side in me:

1.) I usually pay our bills through online banking to save time, effort and transportation fare. But the procrastination queen in me got me again last week. I totally forgot that our electricity bill is already due kaya ayun I found myself yesterday hurrying to the Meralco Office near our place. Upon reaching their office, I wanted to backout upon seeing the various snaking lines on the payment counters. Sobrang daming tao! But then, I got no choice..I have to pay our overdue bill. So I stood and queued behind the shortest line (among 6) I saw and looked at my watch...1:30. Slowly I noticed that the line has moved a bit...time check: 1:40. I glanced towards the beginning of the line and attempted to count the heads in front of me, there were about 15. Great, my heels and legs were starting to ache and from where I was standing I wondered what time will I be finally served. To entertain me and eased my boredom, I brought out my mobile phone and played Christmas Trouble. Inch by inch, I felt moving closer until I finally saw the cashier and handed my bill. I wanted to check the cashier's exhaustion after serving a long line but he seemed okay naman. Well, I'm just not sure kasi medyo aged na mga cashiers sa Meralco..siguro sanay na. The processing was fairly fast naman though the cashier wasn't courteous. Final time check: 1:55. Whoaa...25 minutes of waiting time. They failed the Average Patience Time by 10 minutes.

2.) I proceeded right away to a nearby bank to deposit some savings. There were only two tellers as it is a relatively small branch. Again, I felt backing out upon seeing the line perhaps, this was due to the declared Special Non-Working Holiday last Monday. I quickly glanced on the depositors' documents on their hands. As I had worked as a teller for the same bank (but different branch) before, I was quite familiar with the nature of transaction they'd be having basing on their documents. There were mostly deposit single transactions and a few bill payments that would only take a few minutes to process. I decided to wait at the end of the line thinking it'd be fast naman. I glanced on their wall clock...it was 2:05. I counted the persons before me on the line and there were about 15 again. Oh great...bakit lagi akong pang-16th? As using mobile phones are prohibited inside banks, I just observed the people inside especially the bank's employees. I wallowed myself in thinking of and recalled my teller life before. I noticed they are now using a different tellering system...gone are ancient ABS system and green-colored uni-functioned monitor..as well as the noisy dot matrix printers. I was that buried in deep thoughts perhaps that I noticed na 20 minutes have passed but I only moved about 5 steps forward lang pala and there was a still long queue in front of me. Oh crap..still, I waited. I was distracted by one of the teller's powerful voice asking for the officer's override password. Then I laid my eyes on the other teller..they weren't smiling and worse, their eyebrows were meeting in the middle and their foreheads wrinkled seemingly pissed or angry. Whoa...that's a big no-no based on the Customer Service code. The code also states to observe the GMTY rule. This stands for the mandatory greeting a teller should do.."Good Morning/afternoon and Thank You". 2:40...I noticed my co-depositors were breathing out heavy sighs, stomping their feet on the floor obviously pissed off while letting out impatient remarks and were cursing the poor tellers. At 2:50, there were only 2 in front of me...but just the bad luck we needed, the teller's printer screwed up prolonging the waiting time even more. When it was my turn, the clock's hands were on 3:05....whoa! exactly one hour of waiting time...and guess what time was the teller finished my transaction? 3:06! I waited an hour for a minute transaction. Obviously, they failed the Average Patience Time.

The frontliner side in me:

As I had engaged with the customer service industry for the past four years (3 years being a frontliner), I feel for these cashiers who were doing their best, speeding up transactions, barely having time for a "wee-wee" break and shortened breaks and yet they are the ones absorbing all of the irate customers' rantings and curses. Physically exhausted na nga, emotionally stressed pa. But then, that's a frontliner's life. We get to meet different types of customers..from the most humble and considerate ones to the most conceited, mean and arrogant ones. No matter how hard you try to shrug it off, lagi kang talo..your pride always being stepped on and as a person nakakababa ng self-esteem talaga. You have to give in...as they say..customer service kasi eh. We need to treat these customers as if they are the kings and us, servants. They are the ones giving us business...in the first place, we exist because of them. In the end, tama nga naman, di ba?

Coming from these two POVs (being a customer and had been a frontliner myself), it has taught me to be considerate and value the virtue of patience. As a customer, it's okay for our patience to be tested once in a while. Also, I have to remember that the cashier or the frontliner is not a robot..we need to be considerate din naman dahil limited nga din naman ang powers nila. As a frontliner naman, one needs to be considerate din of the customer's waiting time. By nature, madali naman talaga tayong mainip. And yun nga, we get to be customers din naman on other services kaya the more na we should understand and empathize with them. Most importantly, if the customer has waited for so long na, dapat bumawi na lang by giving exceptional accommodation and service para mapawi yung inis at galit ng client.