although I've always known working in a community pharmacy involves loads of customer service and interaction, it never crosses my mind that this would drain out every single bit of my energy for every single day.
Nope, i'm not complaining. In fact, it's a discovery and experience. Everyone told me it is a bad place for placement, indeed it is not the best place to improve and practise my drug knowledge, but I find that I'm always learning. Most of all, learn to deal with grumpy, rude customer and some difficult staff.
Learn to smile when customers are scolding me, learn to apologise for others' mistake, learn to swallow up dissatisfaction and curse while at work lol
I have so many stories about customers to share with everyone, some happy ones, sad ones, frustrating ones and annoying ones. I guess I can write it one at a time to keep this blog alive =p
Not trying to be racist here, today I'm just gonna talk about two major conclusions I can make out of my 5 weeks observation in pharmacy.
1. Australian takes anti depressant like candy. Most popular brands eleva, concorz, esitalo etc. I can say for every 5 australians who come into the pharmacy with a prescription, one of them is here for anti depressant drug. It really surprises me a lot when I first started working a few weeks ago.
Pardon my ignorance but I really have no freaking idea how stressful their life is. I mean.... in my whole life I don't even have any recollection of any people that I know of, who is on any anti depressant (unless they keep it as secret from me lah). I mean... well yea life is hard we all get emo and depressed sometimes but we will eventually get over it and now we are stronger than a tiger! I've always thought depression is a HUGE thing, for people who experience ugly divorce/break up, domestic violence, traumatic experience, disabled from accident etc. But yea I may be wrong. I'm not being judgmental but I'm curious what would make so many of them take this everyday. Just hope that they can have a happier life soon and do not have to rely on antidepressant too much anymore.
2. Indian customers are rude, well, most of them. No I'm not kidding. I have lost count of how many times I got scolded with fingers pointing at my nose when I did absolutely nothing wrong and I didn't have any chance to explain myself. Sigh.
Customers like to come in to compare price for a few different drugs, which take me forever to find out bcoz I'm freaking new and our pharmacy has special discount when customer buys in bulk etc. And when I finally got everything done for them, they would give me a "can-u-be-anymore-slower?" look and told me they have no interest in buying =.=
Or they come in and ask for some product with mega thick accent and pardon my blocked ear due to 3 inches thick of ear wax, they would go crazy when I asked them to repeat the product name that they request. By crazy I mean raising their voice "I MEAN IRON I-R-O-N NOT IODINE COME ON!" or give me the "you are so dumb it's ridiculous" look or "I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE PHARMACIST, NOW!" crazy. and all I can do is to rise my patience threshold to another sky-high level and put on the sweetest smile and do whatever they want me to do or listen.
and I don't say "have a nice day" to them, hng, yes I purposely miss saying that, esp to mean customers. I certainly don't wish u have a nice day, I just hope u can go straight back to ur house and rot inside and let others (me!) have a nice day
Labels: 1+, bcoz sharing is caring., lalala-ish random
