A Girl’s Notebook :)

I will be saying good morning sunshine next week. We had a schedule rotation and our team will be on the morning shift. I have been in the graveyard shift for more than a year and I kinda got used to it.

It was a mixed emotion when I learned that our team would be in the morning shift already. I’m kinda sad because I will not be able to take advantage of the night differential for more than two months. And, I will not be able to see my other friends very often anymore because we’ll be in “scattered” schedules. I would definitely miss my previous team. My boss Oneil then asked me to join their team building. I said, I do not want to go. To be honest, I wanted to join and have fun with them because I miss them so much. I miss my friends and the “singing voice” of my boss then. But since we’ll be in different shifts and different rest days, I cannot join them anymore. So sad.

Well, there is always a positive side in every situation. Since I will be reporting to work at 5AM, I will be able to take advantage of sleeping at night. How healthy! I can minimize drinking coffee (I hope! :P). I will be able to spend more quality time with my daughter and I will be able to do more things than when I’m in the evening shift.

I am excited of reporting to work next Tuesday since our new off would be Sunday and Monday. Yet, starting that week, I have to be more thrift, because I know that there would be a cut in my salary since the hours allotted to get the night differential would be less. That’s fine.

And, I would definitely be able to update you guys with different things since I will have more time in my hands!

Ciao!

Last Monday was my first day with my new team. Well, I wasn’t able to complete the week yet due to some personal reasons. (Oh, yeah I was absent for 2 days this week ). In one of my posts I mentioned what I felt when my previous manager told me that I will be transfered to a new team. Oh I really felt bad about it. I got so attached to my team that I felt so sad when I learned about the transfer. My tl though explained that it is for my career growth. I knew that and I thanked him for that opportunity.

Two Fridays ago was my last day of training. While I was in the training room my tl ping me and asked me to join him in lunch. I told him sure but only if he’ll treat me.. hehehe!!! Well, he’s generous enough to treat me in one of the burger cafes inside Eastwood City. I thought that my good friend Mishie told him about what I felt that’s why he asked me to join him over lunch.

We ate at Stackers Cafe in Eastwood. We talked and laughed with each other. I really enjoyed the company of my tl. I ate chicken strips and fries. I really had a good time with him.

On my first day in my new support, he dropped by my station to check on us and I really appreciate the gesture. He may not say it aloud but he made an assurance that he will always be there for me and for his team. He’s really a pro-employee manager. No wonder he’s a good father and husband, too. I am blessed for having him as my manager during my first months in Dell.

Thanks tl oneil for everything. I will do my best for you to be proud of me. I’ll make up for all my outages.

God bless you..

Ciao!

Our trainer Kat allowed us to take an hour and a half lunch break (so nice!). I’m taking advantage of this time as I wait for my colleague Judy to eat our lunch. Well, it’s 12:41 AM as I write this article. I mentioned in my team building post that it was my last team building as part of Oneil’s team. About 2 Mondays ago, my TSM was asking other tenured agents to be part of the company’s CSQ team. Agents in that team will handle both technical and customer care issues of the customer. It will be like an 2 in 1 agent. My other teammates then declined the position. When my tsm asked me to be part of it, of course I declined, too. It’s too early for me to be part of the said team. He told me that I have been getting customer commendations and SAT CEs, and so I am fit to be part of it. I tried to decline, but he keeps on asking me. To my irritation, I said yes. I never realize that he will take it seriously.

I was absent the following days because my sister, Patty was hospitalized due to bleeding. I informed my team manager that I will not be able to report for work due to her hospitalization. He said ok and told me that, I was one of the agents who will be on training for CSQ. I really felt sad about it. I felt like my tsm is driving me away from the team because of my outages. I was really hurt. I even cry. I replied to his text and said Ok. I didn’t try to decline anymore, because I already felt that he wanted me out of the team. I really felt bad about it. I have nothing against my tsm because he is really nice. He is a very kind person. But, he also needs to protect his team.

I attended our first training day with a heavy heart. I really felt unwanted. Unwanted because, there were other agents who should be in my position instead. But, I need to concentrate and listen attentively to my trainer because I need to perform well in my new team.

I was able to share this feeling with my friends in the office, and Mishie told me that my tsm taught that I wanted to be part of CSQ. She said that Oneil felt that I do not want him to be my tsm anymore. Well, I guess there had been misunderstanding there. I prayed and I believe that God has a purpose, why this happened. I trust God and I believe that He has better plans for me.

Today is our 5th day of training. Two more days and I will be back on the floor, this time as a Technical and Care representative all rolled into one. There are a lot of Care tools that we need to learn. In due time, I know that I will be able to master those tools.

At this point, I have already “moved on” (Hehehe!!!) from the sadness I went through because of the transfer. I am preparing myself to a new challenge. I believe I can do it. I know that I will be an effective Customer Care agent. God is there to help me.

I guess, time will come that I would thank Oneil for this opportunity.

Ciao!

At long last, our team building will now push through on the 17th of this month. After weeks of search and planning the date and place has been set. I hope everything is well in the office. I wasn’t able to go to work for two days because of my daughter’s hospitalization. The last update I know is that we’re looking for a van that will carry at least 12 persons. I hope to find one before the said date. I hope that we’ll be lucky enough to get a good one. I believe it is a must that car owners get an insurance for their vehicles. Anyway, there are many companies that offer affordable car insurance today. Well, it is for their security, too.

I am really looking forward in our team building.

Ciao!

Well, last weeks misfortune didn’t end up with a dissat. I came in late to work last Thursday because of a road accident along the fly ove C5. It’s a good thing that there was a 24 hour towing near the area and the affected vehicles have been moved to safety. The traffic though wasn’t as heavy as C5 traffic but I was still late.

That was actually my second time being late since I work at Dell. The first time was after the typhoon Ondoy, where I needed to walk from Rosario to Eastwood. That was sometime in September. The second time was last Thursday.

Well, at the end of the week, God still blessed me with a good sale which made me met total solution’s weekly target. He blessed me a system sale! Thanks be to God!

My week just started and so far everything has been good. I hope and I pray that the good fortune will continue to come. Amen.

Ciao!

Last week has not been that good for me. Well, I have been worrying about my sales revenue but I somehow overlooked the most important thing of all in my work. My manager told me last Friday that I received a survey with a neutral score. I really felt bad about it. I have been in the production floor almost 5 months now and this is the first time that I received a neutral score. We checked on the comment and the factors that affects customer’s dissatisfaction was the delay in shipping the parts and incomplete parts sent. I talked about this with my manager and he said that I can still catch up with my CE score since the month is just starting.

With that incident, I realized that the customer satisfaction is still the number priority in my work. I may not be a good seller though, but I know that I will be able to give our customer’s the best service that I can.

I hope and I pray that I would still be able to catch up with my CE score. I know that I can give an excellent customer service to our customers. Bless me God..Amen.

Ciao!

If my memory is right, last Wednesday night was my fifth one on one meeting with my Team Manager. I am glad that I was able to meet the metrics as a dependable technical support. I am happy with my CE score and I know that I am doing my job as a technical support. Although, there are still areas for improvement and I am really doing my best to meet my those targets. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately and weighing things out. Should I stay or should I go? I don’t know yet.  I am happy with my job as a technical support. I am learning a lot of things and I feel fulfilled whenever I hear my customer’s happy voices and laughter when I fix their technical problems. It’s just that the sales part of our metrics is giving me second thought of staying. I feel happy whenever I make a sale, because it will help me meet my sales target. But sometimes, it really makes me feel sad that we tend to sacrifice customer’s satisfaction just to meet the target. Even though my boss and my coaches always, imply that CE is still the number 1 focus, that doesn’t sound right when start hearing them shouting and pinging “BENTA BENTA BENTA” or PUSH FOR MORE SALES! Oh my, that really makes me sad. 

I understand the reason behind this. I know that the site’s goal is to be self-funded site. I also understand why our coaches put pressure on us because they too are getting pressures from their bosses.  Our coaches are very very helpful and patient especially when we are closing a sale (Thanks so much Mishie! :)).

I am happy with Dell because I am happy with the people around me. I have gained a lot of friends in the company and they are one reason why I am still there.  I am praying so hard everyday to God that He will bless me with good sales to meet my daily target. I am praying too that He will always grant me strength and patience. I hope that sooner or later I would be more comfortable creating a need for the customer without sacrificing their good experience with the company.

Well, I should be more diligent in closing sales, otherwise my dear TM will be forced to put me on a “program”. When that happens, then that would be the end of my Dell Story.

Ciao!

It was last Tuesday when my TM Oneil asked to go on aux meeting. I have prepared myself on this day. I have arranged my things. I have kept those unnecessary things as well into my locker. I know where I stand as per my stats is concerned but unless, I signed a paper then I would be safe. I have prayed about this matter many times. I know that the Lord will not fail me. He gave me this job and I believe that He would want me to keep it.

As my team manager and I walked through the meeting room, I started joking around and asked him if I would need to log out from the phone. He was just laughing and told me that I can log out after we speak, anyway I would still be paid in full. I told myself that if I will be escorted out that night, then I will be able to accompany my friend who will need to bring her car to rv repair.

When we sat in the meeting room, I started feeling comfortable already. For if I would be escorted out of the office that night, then our area manager would be with us in the meeting. My TM started discussing my stats; the positive traits and the areas for improvements. So far, everything in the meeting went well.

I resigned from my previous job in August last year. I applied into different companies. As per Dell, I just dropped my resume into their data bank. I have not been successful with other companies due to salary reasons. Their offer is much lower than what I was receiving. I need to resign from my previous work because I am not happy anymore.

One day, I received a text message from one of Dell’s HR officer inviting me for an interview. Honey was here then so I replied and asked if I can re-schedule the interview the following day. Gladly, they were able to approve it. To cut the long story short, I get hired and successfully pass the training and was sent to the production area. Oneil happened to be the RS of the team when I become part of the operations. When our team manager then went on maternity leave, eventually Oneil got promoted and took over the team officially. The whole team actually has no clue about his promotions. Prior to his promotion, I prayed then that I would not quit the job if ever he will be our official team manager. When he broke the news, about his promotions, I was very happy because he is very approachable and sensitive manager.

He handed me my regularization paper and I signed on it. I thank and praise the Lord for the blessing I just received. :) I am happy yet I am nervous. I know that they would expect a lot from me starting that day. I don’t want to fail my team manager as well. My prayer now is that, I hope I will be able to meet and exceed all my targets. It is quite challenging especially the sales part.

I pray that the Lord will continue to bless me.

Ciao!

I resigned in my previous company because of Sales. I never thought that I would end up another job that requires good selling skills as well. I received this email from my friend and hopefully you’ll be able to get some tips like I did. Read on..

Becoming excellent in closing sales is an inside job. It begins within you. In sales, your personality is more important than your product knowledge. It is more important than your sales skills. It is more important than the product or service that you are selling. In fact, your personality determines fully 80 percent of your sales success.

Take Charge of Your Life
The biggest mistake you can make is to ever think that you work for anyone but yourself. From the time you take your first job until the day you retire, you are self employed. You are the president of your own entrepreneurial corporation, selling your services into the marketplace at the highest price possible. You have only one employee—yourself. Your job is to sell the highest quality and quantity of your services throughout your working life.

View Yourself as Self-Employed
In a study done in New York some years ago, researchers found that the top 3 percent of people in every field looked upon themselves as self-employed. They treated the company as if it belonged to them personally. They saw themselves as being in charge of every aspect of their lives. They took everything that happened to their company personally, exactly as if they owned 100 percent of the stock.

Winners Versus Losers
The difference between winners and losers is quite clear. Winners always accept responsibility for their actions. Losers never do but instead always have some kind of explanation for why they are doing poorly.

Don’t Waste Time
The average salesperson today wastes a fully 50 percent of his or her working time. According to research, he comes in a little later, works a little slower, and leaves a little earlier. He spends most of his working time in idle chitchat with coworkers, personal business, reading the paper, drinking coffee, and surfing the internet. Winners arrive a little earlier, work a little harder, and stay a little later.

Develop Empathy and Understanding
Top salespeople have high levels of empathy, i.e., they really care about their customers. Ambition, the desires to achieve, combined with empathy, the genuine caring for the well-being of your customers, are the twin keys to top sales performance. A person with empathy makes every effort to get inside the mind and heart of the customer and to understand his situation and needs.

Keep Your Word
Top-selling salespeople are impeccably honest with themselves and with others. There is no substitute for honesty in selling. Earl Nightingale once said, “If honesty did not exist, it would have to be invented as the surest way of getting rich.”

Do What you Love to Do
One of the secrets of success in selling is for you to do what you love to do. Top salespeople love what they are selling. They believe in it passionately. They will defend it and argue over it. They will talk about it day and night. When they go to bed, they think about their product. When they wake up in the morning, they can hardly wait to talk to prospects about it. Look at the top salespeople in the very best companies, and you’ll find that these people are fanatical, about their products and services.

Action Exercise
Resolve today, that you are going to become one of the hardest-working professional salespeople in your team; start earlier; work harder; stay later.

I hope that these “tips” will help up develop the sales person within us. On a personal note, I believe that empathy would make us a good seller. We should always put ourselves into our customer’s shoes and feel what they feel. Thanks Ime for this email.

Ciao!

Tonight is the start of the week for selling for our total solutions in the office. Total solutions is part of our metrics and we are asked to sell certain computer parts, extend the warranty or even offer a computer system for the customers. It’s sad to think to that the company focuses more on selling than troubleshooting and resolving customer’s computer problems. If you will not be able to meet your total solutions goal, then you will be placed in what they call performance enhancement camp. It does sound unfair, though; especially in our case, wherein we applied as technical support and not a sales agent.

Different agents have their own lucky charms placed on the station. I have a string of Chinese coins hanging on my station. One of my teammates has Buddha on his station. You would find the Chinese cat (I don’t know how to call it) and the green frog with coin on its mouth on other stations. My team manager’s desktop wallpaper is different denominations of money.

Well, we are Free People living in a free country and we have different beliefs on how to meet our sales target and perform well in our chosen career.

The greatest charm that I have (aside from the Chinese coin and the new 5-pesos coin on my keyboard) is God. I never forget to pray before Him to bless me a good sales and a productive shift. I just hope that He will never get tired of listening to my prayers; even if I always pray the same thing when going to work. I feel safe and secured whenever I pray especially when I live the house. I believe that praying is still our best armor and charm.

Ciao!

My teammates Pam, Paolo, Enrico and Paul received a good news from our team manager last Friday. They are now regular employees of Dell. Congratulations!!! With this, they treated the whole team to a luscious meal and drinking session at Seafood Island, which is just across our building in Eastwood. We had our team building on an instant!

We had lots of food, drinks and fun. Oh my! I will be needing one of the best weight loss supplements out there! My mother said, I need to cut down on my carbs.

Well! Kudos to my teammates. Hopefully, I will also receive a good news as such, two weeks from now!

Ciao!

Last Saturday, we had our team building at Red Box in Trinoma. Our acting team manager, Oneil, took advantage of the 12NN-3PM schedule with unlimited food. I arrived at around 1:25PM for I attended to other personal things. Anyway, they are already singing and eating when I came.

The fun is just starting at around 3PM and so we decided to extend up until 7PM! :). Of course, I took advantage of the videoke. Hehehe!!! I never seen our tm and rs so “kulit”. I was laughing my heart out! I really enjoyed last Saturday’s team building. It was my first team building at Dell and hopefully not the last.

We had 2 bottles of Jose Cuervo and 4 buckets of beer! Oh yeah, I was drunk! Hihihi! Nevertheless, I was able to go home safely. Thank God!

After out time is up at Red Box, we had coffee at the nearby Starbucks. Oh I really needed coffee then. I was leaning to kuya Ron already for I was sleepy, tipsy and tired. Kuya Ron has always been so nice to me. He is the brother I’ve always wanted to have. God bless him and his family.

I am really hoping and praying that this would not be the last team building I will be attending at Dell. I really enjoyed the company of my teammates and was able to get to know them better. That was really a team building!

Ciao!