ITP @ IKEA: A Month Later

Ok, so a month and a week has passed since the start of our ITP, and the company that I sought out was IKEA (Tampines branch)!

My job at the company is to basically serve customers at the Exchange & Returns counters. Along the way, I was also taught how to complete other tasks, such as taking care of the Merchandise Pick-Up (MPU) counter.

It has been a rather fun (so to say) month, and all my colleagues have been very welcoming and friendly towards a new staff like me.

They are also all very patient with me, always slowly teaching me the correct procedures and steps for getting the job done. Although some times I'm quite unsure as to what to do in certain situations, they always step in quickly to assist me, and for that I am very thankful to them.

I must say that being at the frontline is not easy. There are some customers who are exceedingly demanding, insisting that they should not have to queue for their turn while others are also waiting, or wanting to be given extra privileges.

I remember for the first 2 weeks, I was made in-charge of the promotion counter. The promotion that IKEA was having that month was that when a customer spent at least $128 in a single receipt, they were entitled to $20 dining vouchers. Multiple receipts were not allowed.

Some customers misunderstood the details and thought it was for every $128, they would get an additional $20 voucher and after being corrected, they would become frustrated and even angry at me for not giving them more vouchers. At first I was rather timid and would give in to their demands, but I slowly learnt to be more firm and to be able to handle the situation on a case-by-case basis. I have also had very friendly customers who are very understanding or who joke with me.

After the promotion ended, I was mainly back to the Exchange & Returns counters. I admit that in the beginning, I was easily agitated by some customer demands and felt very unwilling to go the extra mile. But after going for the Home Furnnishing Training and the HEARTS Training held by the company, I slowly started to understand more about customer service and the company's vision, goals and ideas. After these 2 training sessions, I was more willing to serve customers, and to go the extra mile to help them feel satisfied with the store. I always make sure to greet them with a smile no matter how tired I am and to thank them when they leave, and also to help them with any other requests they may have. Even demanding customers do not get me down anymore.

All in all, I feel that customer service is not just a one-way interaction; from staff to customer. The customer plays a very important role as well. For example, there are customers who come to us looking to buy spare parts or replacements. However, they do not give us the name of the product, or the product code and only give us vague descriptions of what they need (an example of this would be when a lady came to me looking for spare parts for her wardrobe and described her wardrobe to me as "tall and wide"). We are not mind readers, and therefore will need more information to be able to fully assit you. For cases such as these, we will ask the customer to enter the store, find the product and obtain the production information on the boxes or labels and to return to us again. It is as my supervisor said: "Help us to help you."