Work's okay, but lately the stress has started to kick in. On Sunday, I had to rush to Pyramid right after church because my colleague needed help at work. Last week, I was having the time of my life.
But recently, I'm having second thoughts about this. I've been doing well at work, but I don't know if I really want to keep this up until the end of next month. Anyway, we'll just see how things go :)
Even as a part-timer, things can get rather hectic. I've met all sorts of people too.
I've faced customers who asked like a million questions even though they didn't intend on buying, but that's okay - it's my job as a promoter to provide them information about the products. My Mandarin was put to test plenty of times at work. I had to speak Mandarin and Cantonese to customers who didn't speak English - and truthfully even my 8-year-old cousin speaks better Mandarin than I do. But it was a great learning experience. I've learned so many new words and ways to attend to such customers; of course I don't go around telling them: "Sorry but I'm a banana so I apologize if I speak like a typical banana."
What I do is that I try my best, even if I'm not good at it.
There are times when I panicked when I was presented with questions I couldn't answer, and there were a few times when I couldn't find the barcode of the products in the barcode book. But thankfully, everything's under control so far.
Today, I was alone in the shop listening to my ipod and reading CLEO, when an elegant woman stepped in, clad stylishly in white with a designer bag hanging off her right arm. She talked to me nicely, and I treated her like how I treated the other customers; I talked politely, took her on a mini tour around the shop explaining to her the functions of various products, and then kindly replied her questions.
The funny thing about her was that she seemed to know the products more than I did. She kept asking me "What is this? What does it do?" on practically
every item in the shop. I was new and I didn't have the knowledge of every product on the back of my hand yet, so there were two items that I didn't clearly accentuate to her about. So she filled me in. She seemed to know so much about those products! She could even tell me their functions and their benefits. In my head, I was thinking:
Who is this woman? She knows more than I do!So I smiled and casually asked her, "Do you shop at Bloop often?"
She took a while to reply. When she did, she just shrugged nonchalantly. "Sort of."
There was something different about her. She was a very nice woman, but I felt like she was testing me on my knowledge of the products. And then I felt pressured because it suddenly hit me that she could be the boss.
I don't know what the boss looks like but I only heard of her through my colleagues. No pictures, no name, nada.
She purchased some items and asked for my name. After that, she asked "So what else do you have here?" I explained about a few more items to her, and then she said goodbye and left. On her way out, she added,
"Good luck!"I could feel my heart pounding against my chest. That's not something an ordinary customer would say.
That could've probably been the boss of Bloop - the one who owns the whole of Bloop in Malaysia - and I had no clue.
