Working as a part-time promoter for a brand in Parkson, tHe Spring, I am constricted to the strict rules of Parkson. From the first day I started working, I was reminded by my colleague to memorise ‘ The P Experience’. The P Experience; P stands for Parkson; was a guideline for staffs and promoters to provide warm and quality services to customers. The guideline starts from ‘ready for service’ to ‘customer approach’ all the way to ‘last impression’. I was giving a ‘pop quiz’ about ‘The P Experience’ by the Parkson Floor Supervisor about it. I just played along to the rhythm of the whole scenario.
Well, since ‘The P Experience’ is for Parkson customers, let me tell about ‘My P Experience’ with is one of an example of daily to daily situation for Parkson staffs and promoters. If following to ‘The P Experience’ guideline, I am supposed to greet every customer that went into my Brand’s corner. And I am supposed to ask what I can do for them and etc. But in Sarawak, we can’t do that, especially to Chinese customers. If I start greeting, they will give me a cold stare, or a weird stare. Some would just ignore. Some would actually got freak out and run away. Not every customer has a need when they walk into Parkson. I think the best way to sell a product is to let the product sell itself. Let them walk around the Brand corner and when they look at the promotions and products, it will build a desire to buy in them. And the best way for promoters to provide good P experience is to just stand, look and response only when customers ask.
Handphones. I thought handphones only have to be hidden from school authorities only. But in Parkson, it has to be hidden from Parkson authorities and CCTVs. Parkson has the rule of ‘No Handphones in Selling Ground’. I get it. You don’t want your promoters neglecting their jobs because of handphones. But your promoters need handphones to call their supervisors or receive calls from supervisors that is important to give your customer a very good P experience. You don’t want your customer to tell them ‘I don’t know’. Certainly, Parkson supervisor will not know details about the products because they are not Brand supervisors. If I am the big man in Parkson, I will rule out that handphones will be confiscated when they are seen using it in public. Handphones will be aloud if the user use it in hidden, and for work purpose only. Books and any reading materials are also not allowed inside. Don’t ask why.
Spot Checks. Yes, Parkson have spot checks too. And the think they confiscated in spot checks are stationeries and price tags. They confiscate stationeries that are not ‘declared’. Declare here means to stick a stupid sticker to say that this stationery so and so is Parkson’s and not stolen. My counter’s calculator was taken. I will take a very long time to calculate the figures for customers now. So much for ‘The P Experience’ for the customers. We promoters joke that if you accidently left your branded underwear inside the drawer, they will take it for declaration too. Price tags? I don’t know why they want to take away price tags. It’s theirs anyway. The reason, they said is, quoted, “counters cannot have too many price tags”. All my price tags were taken. So, my brand’s promotion cannot be done because we have to stick a new price tag on the old one every time customer buys according to the promotion. So, it’s harder for us to sell now. Thus, I have to go request for new stacks for stickers. Guess who will pay for those new orders? Parkson. They are wasting their own money actually, by confiscating their own price tags from counters.
Well, I can’t say working there is not all together bad. There are times when you have nothing to do at all there. If you can withstand boredom, working at Parkson is no problem for you. It’s just that those rules are annoying. My paycheck is from my Brand’s company and not by Parkson but I have to follow Parkson’s rules. Its really like ‘di mana bumi dipijak, di sana langit dijunjung’. It means at where you are, you have to abide the law of that place. If there are no customers, you can talk to your colleagues, or make yourself busy with stock checking. And you will be morbidly obsess with lunchtime, dinnertime, and go home time.
