On a highway but ...

I read Nik's blog and had an urge to rant further on a statement that she made - "on a 110kmh highway, but going at 50kmh"

I can't help but wonder if that is the case for almost everything in Malaysia. I do have a point in saying so, and here are my thoughts to it:-

MSC - MSC status but when it comes to ecommerce facilities we are still lacking. Our internet is constantly down in the office - and it happens at least once if not twice in a week. When being queried at the appropriate department - the same reply was always given. "Oh we are doing some maintenance work around your area - it should be up in the next few hours". NEXT few hours?? Well, so here I have a 110kmh highway - but because of their maintenance work, I'm forced to drive at 50kmh or come to a complete halt for the next few hours. Great!

Online banking system - Being an online (ecommerce company) the efficiency of my online banking system is excruciatingly important. I need to constantly check for transfers and etc. Since 10th November till today (mind you, that is exactly 6 days) our online banking system is still down. I've made numerous calls to the bank - but they are constantly reassuring me that its fine - and they are going through a maintenance work (what? Another maintenance work? - What kind of maintenance work takes up to 6 days?)

Meeting - A lot of work can be done through the internet nowadays. I would prefer to get majority of my things to be done via email if possible. However, it is not the case in Malaysia. People simply loves to meet up - spend the whole 2 hours whiling away telling you a quarter of their life history and only 15 minutes listening to the reason for our proposed meeting. And you would assume after that 2 whole hours of bonding, a partnership would be successfully formed and we can proceed with whatever necessary to kick start the whole partnership. This is what went wrong after the 2 hours meeting. You bid your goodbyes, promised to send a recap email to them and will forward them all information they requested for during the meeting. We went back to the office, delighted with the meeting( though can't help to admit it was tiring) and had a good feeling that everything will go as planned. Then we started penning down the email, recapping on everything we discussed and you click that "send" button. Over the next couple of days, we waited for the reply email. Nothing. Another week passed. Nothing. We picked up the phone and make that phone call. Suddenly the person whom we sat down and had the 2 hours of interesting conversation turned out to be unavailable, extremely busy with work that he/she forgot about the email, they had to revert to management about the meeting, and they don't seem to be that friendly anymore!

My point here is - the 2 hours (excluding traveling time) could be saved if only the other party is susceptible to reading our email and try to comprehend what we are looking for from them, rather than insisting on a meeting and not able to give us a positive reply thereafter. On the same note, not all meetings are pointless - there are cases whereby fruitful partnership were formed, serious discussion took place and prompt and straight forward replies given almost immediately if not after a day or two. I recalled this very particular person we met over a year plus ago - he was the most sympathetic and nice guy we thought (at the time of the meeting). He was so enthusiastic about what we were proposing, offered us the most outlandish ideas that he wants to work with us, telling us all sorts of mumbo-jumbo about us being very strong, young entrepreneur and how much he respect that (bollocks!). In short, he offered everything we could ask for from a business meeting. He was positive and the meeting ended very well, with him assuring us on the partnership and how much he look forward to hearing from us again (he requested for a detailed list of what we discussed and new ideas). A day passed after we sent the email - it then turned to 2, 3 ,a week and so forth. Calls were replied but he was always giving us the same unoriginal reply - Oh, I'm so sorry, I've been busy .. will get back to you soon. Weeks turned to months and now, it has turned into almost a cold case.

So here is someone who gave us an opportunity to be driving at 110kmh (during meeting) but because of his inefficiency in responding to us, we were held back at 50kmh - just emailing him, calling him every now and then and waiting for his reply that never came.

So, is a meeting really necessary ? I've formed many business partnership via email, tele-conferencing and phone calls. And these have saved me hours and hours of traveling, meeting time and other mumbo jumbo.

I could seriously go on and on about this but I'm on a 110kmh highway today so I'm ending it abruptly right here.

The Reviews

Every end of the year, I take a day off to evaluate RedRibbon Days - I read back reviews, feedback from our customers and of course, the overall performance of the business. RedRibbon Days is almost two (come July 2010) and like a mother to a new born baby, I watched RedRibbon Days grow by the day. I love reading reviews and feedback from customers. I like it when my customers tell me how happy and how much fun they had with their RedRibbon Day experience. But I like it better when they give me suggestions on how to improve their experience and the negative side of their experience, if any.

So here I was going through the stack of reviews when just for fun, I segregated out each reviews and assigned them to each partners. What caught my eye was this stack of reviews which I successfully singled it out to one particular partner. The reviews towards this particular experience was always a one-liner sentence and miraculously - they always well, convey the same meaning to me.

"We had fun. It was great."

That's it ?? There should be more to it. Tell me more about how it went - what happened, did you scream your lungs out, did you yell, did you turn green and purple? See, when I come across reviews like that I'm extremely tempted to contact the customers to dwell deeper. How was it REALLY like for you? Was it really fun? See, for me, I will only give that kind of one sentence review if I reckon that the experience was just so-so and nothing really spectacular about it. So here are a whole stack of my customers who gave that kind of reviews.

So I picked up the phone and call our business partner.

Here's the conversation:-

S: Hi, is this X ? I'm Sherin from RedRibbon Days. How are you ?

X: yes. speaking. Ya?

S: (pause and clear throats) Oh, I'm just calling to say hi, and see how are things going on your end and also to follow up on the last few customers.

X : ya.

S: How did it all went? Did the experience went well?

X: YA. Everthing OK.

S: (that's it?) Hmm..everything OK. Great! Well, if there's anything we could do on our end to improve the experience, do let me know.

X: OK. Don't worry. We take good of your customers.

S: Thanks X, let's catch up soon for a drink or two when I'm in town.

X: ok .. no problem. U buy me lunch ah...

conversation continues ....

I'm wondering why is it so hard to get people to rave about their experience ? I love it when my customers tell me about their experience regardless of positive or negative. Personally, I love giving my feedback to service I received whether they are positive or negative. If they don't tell me the truth, there's no way I can find out about it unless of course we send our 'mystery tester' to seek the truth. In this particular case, we do not have a choice but to do so. If the review comes back negative, we may have to let it go.

What are you thoughts on a review that is a flat one liner sentence?

The End of An Era

Come this 26th December 2009, one of my favorite hotel in Malaysia - The Carcosa Seri Negara will be closed down indefinitely for a redevelopment project. How long the curtains will be drawn down and close - no one knows. What I know is - it is still operating as usual now - though some of the experiences we previously sold in our RedRibbon Days is no longer available.

For those who was born and bred in KL, Carcosa Seri Negara is not a uncommon name. It is renown for its historical and beautifully arched colonial buildings and to me, the perfect and ideal place to sit down, relax and indulge myself with a traditional English Afternoon Tea.



This charming boutique hotel is built in the 1904 - the official residence of the highest British representatives of the Malay states. Carcosa Seri Negara is the hallmark of Malaysia’s national heritage and the Victorian-styled building is set amidst four acres of lush landscaping.

I can simply while away my Sunday afternoon doing nothing, but kick back, relax and sip my favorite cup of tea, indulge in scones and delicacies and fully embrace the serenity of the surroundings. Who can resist such a tempting way of spending a lazy Sunday afternoon? Certainly not me.

Carcosa Seri Negara and the renown Traditional English Afternoon Tea will be dearly missed.

The Christmas List

Since young, I've enjoyed the pleasure of gifting and of course, receiving gifts. I simply love wrapping up gifts in lovely boxes and embellished them with a big red ribbon. Christmas is a time of gifting - a time to tell your family and friends how much we love them, thank them for everything and of course, wishing them well for the new year!

There is no exception to this as I grew older. And normally, by the time of this year, I would have a long list of christmas presents assigned for each of my family members and friends. This year, it has completely slipped my mind and struck me this morning when I was flipping through my diary! Well, yes, it is more than a month away - but I hate to do this chore at the eleventh hour. I simply hate going to the mall when its packed with people - everyone is pushing and literally rubbing shoulders to grab 'something'. Let's not forget too that traffic in KL is just horrendous during rush hour like this. Then I'll have problems like not being able to find the 'perfect gift', and most importantly - I have to recall if I have purchased this previously for that particular someone. Yes.. it does happen. Before the convenience of experiential gift - I'm always buying albums, photo frames, mugs, ties, wallets, diaries, perfumes and the list goes on and on. After 12 years of gifting - I'm simply clueless. When I pick up a diary, questions like this will run through my mind :


"What did I get for J last year? Did I get her a diary, or did I get a perfume? Or wait...perfume was last last year, and diary was well, the year before the last last year. See, this is what I meant when I mentioned above that I hate to leave this to the last minute. Doing so, will end me up with bad presents, bad wrapping and of course, where is the thought behind the whole reason of gifting?

This year, I have decided to give my family and friends a "gift of memory". It will be something that they will remember forever - be it something that they have always wanted to do or something that they will truly experienced once in their lifetime. See I'm very fortunate because since the birth of RedRibbon Days , most of my family and friends have always mentioned to me what they like to do, how nice if they get to experience it, and it would be the most perfect gift for them if someone gave them an experience! So, I took the liberty to pen down their thoughts and all I need to do now is simply flip through my diary - and I will be getting them their dream gift for Christmas!

So here's my final list:-

Dad - Age 66 : Never fly a plane before - Pilot for A Day
Mum - Age 55 : Loves massages but never had a full-day pampering experience
Sis - Age 33 : Stress with work lately and she did say something about flying free like a bird in the sky ! - Paramotor
Bro - Age 25 : Loves food and wine !
MN - Age 28 : We did a sky tour back in Queensland together - so this time round, we will be doing it in KL !
Nik - Age 28 : I overworked her whenever I travel - loves nature !
K1 : Age 8 : Loves food & movies
K2 : Age 6 : Favorite disney character - Princess
Nana : Age 68 - loves photos !
Staffs at RRD : theme party with lots of food & drinks!
20 x :Range vouchers

Delivery : Courier

Date to order : 18th Dec 2009
Date of delivery : 22nd Dec 2009