New Skill Aquired!

Hello All,

Well It has been a good week, I feel as if I have contributed to the national productive capacity by learning something new! Yes, in these times of "skills shortages" I have fought back against this new monster by gaining a new piece of knowledge, Aristotle would be proud.

The Skills-Shortage Monster...beware.

Let me recollect...

It was Thursday night, a man came in, a man desperate to find something truly great inside a place overfilled by choice. A diamond in the rough, for under $2.75. He came to me, and sought advice kind of like an oblivious humble peasant seeking a holy man. He said to me "Oh, I have great woes in my heart and I seek remedy in this enlightened place! Oh Help humble service man!!" although perhaps his wording was a little more simple. So anyway, I for a moment thought "What could truly this man a new perspective on life and empowerment?" So he and I both stood aimlessly for a good 30 seconds just staring into the ceiling. Then the customer asked the question "Do you guys have Hot Chocolate?" I said "Indeed we do" and he was off to it...End of Story, I show him where the machine was and I thought "THE END"

...

But it didn't end there, because there was a new challenge that I had not anticipated. He said "BUT HOW DO-U MAEKE ITTTT!!?", although I do not think he had an accent...I was thinking of the Old Del Paso commercial.

I like that advertisement.

So I responded by saying in a monotonous robotic manner "Good question sir, all you have to do is get the satchel, empty contents into a "cup" and hot water when finished" He was somewhat disappointed in the sense that he was going to get the greatest warm liquid ever. But I decided that moment that I would be betraying my purpose of providing an amazing customer experience if I didn't intervene. So I swooped like a hawk saying to the customer in my heroic tone "Do not worry sir! For rescue is here!! I shall personally oversee the production of this hot chocolate so that we can replicate the experience that can be had as indicated by the satchel!!!!... !!!"

So the process was on, while the customer was right next to me he witnessed personalized service at work. I got the satchel, and I emptied the contents and preceded with filling it with hot water. Only while it was filling I used the power of a spoon to stir it in a clock-wise manner at a high automated speed. When the water reached the 3 quarter mark of the cup, an innovative thought came to my mind, I thought, "Why not also put hot milk inside to fill the last quarter and truly make this the greatest hot chocolate...ever?" So that is what I did, to the customer amazement who looked like he witnessed the theory of relativity being discovered. But it was amazing, it was an attainment of a new skill. It was truly great, and it became a special experience when I told the customer that he could have a free donut.

So all in all, I learnt something that was truly a rare skill that is not often sought, it was cool. I said to myself, if there was an occasion when it is quiet and customers needed hot chocolate, there was a way that it could be provided better than the satchel recommends.

Well that is the end of the story, many thanks off-course for taking your time for reading this piece. It is perhaps great, but also perhaps a little ordinary, for the trials and tribulations of customer services can sometimes be correlated with the same pitfalls and victories of heroism. Sometimes. Until next time. So long! Have a Kodak moment!

Yours sincerely,

Altug Kayi

Readers - Need your help!!!

Altugs gone a little shy.

Maybe he thinks his rants arnt worth reading (a complete self-deluding lie, but hey) or perhaps he thinks that noone bothers to read the blog. Perhaps its because i havent been staying up til 3am whipping him to write cool stuff for everyone, or perhaps hes turned into some sort of yellowish-purplish slime creature from space....

Anyway, somethings happened and altug hasnt been posting, and now heres where you guys come in. I want everyone whos reads this (and of course loves altug and wants him to continue posting) to post a reply comment expressing your desire for his blogging return. Hopefully he still checks the page like i know he checks his fanpage etc and will see the peoples support and return to share his stories with us.

Also, feel free to post opinions bout altug using voicemail on the blog, so he can record his stories for you to listen to, or you can freecall and leave voicemail msgs for altug, which may also get posted on the blog.
And finally, if we get enough support to get altug back into writing bout his zany activities ill get back to work on the Altug comic for everyone to enjoy...

So everyone, support Altug!! post a reply comment and help bring Altug back to the blog!

Click Here!

A not so Cordial affair over Cordial

Hello there All,

Saturdays are wonderful days, they really do bring the brightness back to the eyes of humanity. They allow many of us the freedom that we desire for the other 5 days of the week. On Saturdays I work during the very busy afternoon shift, my heart feels that it is unnatural but it is the good and sometimes awfully bad customers that sometimes bring me inspiration. This story relates more to the latter, and gee is it fun!

Please allow me to recollect...

Well it was another busy Saturday with various folks running in and out asking for Ice, Gas, Fuel, Cigarettes and Coke. It was a day always filled with queues and a degree of "Get me out of here!" But it is also my duty to empower customers and aide them in their enjoyment of their weekends. It was 3:45 PM, another queue of folks waiting graciously in the queue and then I came to serve this gentlemen, he had the gaze of a mass murderer, a man on his last steps of his sanity ready to bring out of his knife and the several mad followers he has acquired through his impractical delusion. He seemed that he knew my routine, he seemed like he was studying me like a mad scientist studies the movements and behaviors of insane congo gorillas from the film "Conga"

He came to the counter and said blatantly with what can be seen as a horrid angry tone. It started with me as always, "HELLO AND WELCOME DEAR SI..." and then "LOOK I DON'T WANT ANYTHING JUST THE PETROL AND THESE 2, THESE TWO ITEMS" I was surprised, having been interjected I thought perhaps the man was in a hurry, perhaps this was Melbourne's own post-modern gritty Batman or something. You know because good ol' Bats has this kind of "angry persona" against the evil criminals.

So I eagerly co-operated, but there were off-course the two items, these two items were the horrible, "cheap and nasty" and horrible excuse for a liquid "Disney Finding Nemo Pop Tops". Now this stuff is sold for $2.40 each, and the gentlemen having bought 2, well that is approximately a good, hard earned $5. So I said to the angry eyed gentlemen, "Sir! Here is a stark revelation! Those 2 bottles of the cheaply made and horrid pop tops are $5 together!! But you may recieve the great wonderfu..."

Before I could finish my great Obama-style speech that was meant to change his life he once again interjected me. "NO, JUST THE FUEL AND THESE """2""" " I thought to myself that perhaps he thought I was going to offer one these delicious and great chocolate bars so I will try and clarify. So I also said "Well sir, I was going to say that the two Daily Juices, which are real, freshly squeezed juice are much chea..." Once again with the interjection "NO I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR SPEAL, I ONLY WANT "THESE" Well there is so much you can do to help a mule but I suppose choice does reign supreme... So I said to the somewhat menacing madman, "Well Sir, If it is your objective to preference an expensive, glorified cordial with a cheap marquee over that of a product of supreme quality and a good price be my guest but remember humanity does not choose cheapskates for Kings" And so the Gentlemen went away, I was a little disappointed that I could not empower his day, but I will leave that for another day.

who could ever prefer a Pop Top to this?

For a moment, I thought to myself that perhaps I was the cause of such a negative demeanor by the gentlemen, that my presence as an aggressive advertiser for the great promotions can perhaps lead to agitation. But much to my relief the customers had similar thoughts of the Gentlemen as I, and merrily bought some of our wonderful and great promotions. I remember the next 3 customers buying a wonderful, inspiring "special" each. It was truly gratifying.

End of Recollection...

I must say that it was certainly a very interesting experience, I think perhaps if there was a better dialogue then greater outcomes would have been reached. Whether the Gentlemen is Batman or the next Charles Manson, I wonder whether his respective followers would follow him so passionately if he kept on interjecting so frequently. Can you imagine "Batman! The code to the Joker's Bomb is.." "Don't bother me I am trying to figure out this code to a Bomb". I guess you cannot win the hearts of everyone, if that 10 member group of acolytes will tell you.

Well thank you all for reading this story once more, I hope that when you go to bed tonight you would be wondering about the benefits of O.J. But thank you again for taking your precious time to read my, hopefully entertaining, sentences.

Kinds Regards to All and to All a Goodnight,

Altug Kayi