making my day

It was an activity filled Saturday with me shuttling between 3-4 places and meeting many, and I mean MANY ppl cos I was covering the Singapore Hit Awards. BUT the saddest thing is I did not manage to take any photo at all cos while the artistes were in the Media Centre, my main concern is getting soundbites from them and I had no extra pair of hands to be taking photos.

And I did not even get to watch any of the performances by the singers, except the opening performance, cos we were all stuck in at backstage, in the Media Centre, afraid that we might miss out when any of the singers pop by.

While my first reaction when I knew that I was going to cover SHA was "yeah!".. now I'd rather be in the audience seat, enjoying the performances and not worrying about what to be filing back to the station from the backstage. Luckily there were journalist frens that I met which made the wait backstage a lot less boring and also gave me a peace of mind cos at least I know someone else will be helping me keep a lookout, or giving me a helping hand while I'm busy running in and out.

Still, there was something that made my day that day. It had nothing to do with SHA. It was my contact lenses purchasing experience. All about good service.

It started out with me having some discount coupons to buy contact lenses at specific optical outlets. And cos the coupons were going to expire soon, I decided to make my way to the Suntec outlet and expected an ordinary contact lens buying trip.

But the moment I stepped into the store, the staff greeted me with a great smile and asked what I wanted. After I expressed my wish to buy contact lenses, she immediately ushered me to the machine and offer to test my eyes for me. (I remember previous buying trips only asking me what lens I want to buy and did not offer eye testing service unless you ask for it).

And I thought that was it, and she was going to sell me lenses already, but no, she ushered me into the room for more accurate consultation on my eyesight, to determine if I need astig corrective contact lenses since I'm not currently using them altho I do have astig.

After consultation, she told me I'm doing fine without having to wear lenses with astig and proceeded to sell me lenses. She even told me something no one ever told me before - that due to the curvature of my eyeballs, I'm more suited to use smaller lenses, but they do not stock them, so I'll have to wait for them to make the order, which of cos I said ok. (Wow.. I've been wearing and buying contact lenses for 4 years now and no optician had told me that before!)

And cos I decided to change the brand of contact lenses I'm currently using, she decided to throw in a trial pair, which also made me quite happy. (I think they were all supposed to do that when u change brands but not all opticians I go to voluntarily gives me that)

I know it does not seem like anything out of the ordinary or great but it just felt like a really good shopping experience for me. I felt the sincerity in her service attitude and it's been a looong time since I encountered that in shops in Singapore.