Winners for DCXB Logo Design

 

Congratulations to winners Jonathan Lee and Sunny Goh for each winning aSony Xperia M4 Aqua!



Winner Sunny Goh with Mr Chris Thomas



Check out our new DCXB logo and look out for news on how to get your hands on some goodies with DCXB logo!

 

 

IIP Diaries @ Yves Saint Laurent Beauté : Kiss with Love

By Gabriel Liang Jia Hao, DCRSM Student

Hey shopaholics! Being “paparazzi ready” is a necessity these days. With current social media tools such as Instagram and Facebook, it has become a need to document our looks for the public and no look is complete without a pop of colour on your face.

As for my internship, I am honoured to be representing one of the edgiest, subversive Parisian couture brand, Yves Saint Laurent Beauté as a makeup artist intern. Our makeup is inspired by Lloyd Simmonds, the Creative Director of Yves Saint Laurent Beauté which features our iconic products to die for such as Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils, Rouge Pur Couture and our best seller, Touche Éclat highlighting pen.

What caught my attention was the preview of YSL Beaute's Holiday Collection on Oct 15 where 12 lucky Female magazine readers were invited for a preview before the actual launch of the product.

These are the actual YSL Beaute’s Kiss & Love collection which includes a makeup palette (shaped like a smartphone), 4 lipsticks of our iconic shades which has a lip shape engraved on it as well as 2 limited edition nail polish shades and our iconic Touché Éclat, all covered in a “lip imprint” motif.

Female’s associate beauty editor Moh Shuying (right) shares her love for the Kiss & Love makeup palette not only due to its trendy and chic packaging, but most importantly, its travel –friendly and it the shades are pretty versatile and wearable for all occasions.

Our latest Encre De Peau Fusion Ink foundation, the hugely hyped Holy Grail foundation is the iPhone equivalent of the makeup industry, holding a 12,000 pre-sale waiting list at London’s Selfridges makes it the makeup of legend.

On the day of the official launch, before we even officially open the store at 10 in the morning, there were already customers outside the store waiting to purchase the limited edition Kiss and Love range.

Within 2 days, the Kiss and Love edition were sold out. Of course, disappointed fans left with regrets for not arriving earlier as reservations of limited edition products are not allowed.

Other than this launch, being in YSL as an intern has been a fruitful experience for me as I get to meet people from all walks of life and of course, taking my makeup skills to the next level.

Just remember, no amount of makeup can mask an ugly heart!

YSL Beaute makeup artist Marsha (right) demonstrated on using the Kiss and Love makeup pallete to create a perfect look. But of course, no look is achievable without a perfect canvas. Marsha is holding our latest Encre De Peau Fusion Ink foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IIP Diaries @ Courts

By Mohd Shyaifuddin Bin Suhmi, DCRSM Student

Whenever I tell someone that I’m having my internship at Courts, people will be like “What do you actually do?” “You mean you are selling electronic products for 6 months?”

I will always proudly tell them that I am part of the ‘invisible’ workforce who works behind the scene to support the sales of the company.  Behind every successful brand, a lot of meticulous planning and excellent management is involved.

My name is Shyai, a Year 3 Student from DCRSM/DCXB and I’m currently attached to the Human Resource Department - Learning & Development.

What do I do here? Well, I am involved in trainings, corporate social responsibility events, trainings, award ceremonies and more TRAININGS!

I am responsible for sourcing appropriate workshops, courses, in-house training classes to meet the training needs of the various departments. In addition, I am also assigned to coordinate the training dates, venues and other logistics to ensure that the training programmes can be properly conducted.

As part of my duty, I am required to be present at all the in-house training programmes. As such, I have gained so much knowledge from these courses that I am confident that I can be deployed to any departments within Courts, including on the sales floor.

One of my tasks, taking pictures from the back of the training room.

So some of you will be like ‘Don’t you get bored of it?’ Honestly, I don’t. I’d rather go for trainings and events than get stuck in the office doing loads of paperwork.

Besides training programmes, I also had the opportunity to co-ordinate the annual EXSA award. This award is for staff who has provided excellent service and is a good role model in the organisation.

The winners of EXSA awards 2015

Before this internship, I’ve always thought that interns are not entitled to any incentives and we would probably be at the lowest in the hierarchy. But that is not the case in Courts. Here, the interns are treated just like the others… Well at least for me in this case.

Courts organises events in the office regularly and most of these events come with catered lunch. The best part is that we are always invited to such luncheons. Who wouldn’t want free food? We would all rush for the free food. Don’t lie to me. We all love food. Oh, did I mention that there is a vending machine that is totally free for staff? That’s probably my best friend at work.

My best friend at Courts

During one of the lunch events, the company even brought in a F1 simulator for the staff to try. Everyone was very excited about it. However, I didn’t try that as I do not want to embarrass myself with my bad driving skill.

The F1 simulator at the lunch event.

Besides all the in-house activities, Courts are also actively involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) events as well. If you don’t know what CSR is, it’s like Service Learning where we do good deeds to people. I attended one of such CSR where we serve food and entertain elderly people for about 2 hours. It was fun and the food there was good. I was even forced to sing in front of them but I didn’t mind as it was for a good cause.

Singer Shyai at a CSR event

So basically that’s it from me so far. I’m only about 50% through this internship programme while writing this and there is so much more for me to learn and experience. For my fellow DCRSM/DCXB friends who will be going for internship soon, don’t worry about your choice of company as the most unexpected choice may lead to a greater and interesting experience.

IIP Diaries @ Singtel

Ever thought of working at a contact centre?  If YES, I welcome you to join me in my journey! If NO, you’re highly recommended to join me too! Contact centres are not just about managing customers, you actually get to learn and discover all sorts of different personalities the customers have and you will never be able to predict what kind of customers will call in everyday! Before I forget, I am Isaac, one of the Customer Experience Cadets interning at Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel). I am currently working for the Singapore Contact Centre – Consumer Operations Fibre Premium Technical Helpdesk at Pickering Operations Complex.

 

Working at a contact centre has never been easy. It was pretty challenging and the majority of us initially had a hard time during the trainings. Who would have thought we would be assigned to the Fibre Technical Helpdesk? Hah! That is something exactly not related to our course but all of us managed to graduate from our mock calls with flying colours! All thanks to our trainers Faris and Khoi.

 

 

(Here’s a picture with our Team Leader aka Trainer Faris (on the left), posing with the Magnum ice-cream our Manager, Fanny (not pictured) got for us!)

A common misconception of contact centres jobs is that they have the worse jobs available in the market. Yes, it is extremely stressful as you have SOPs to follow while having to manage customers on the other end of the call. It is also true that agents are often the first people to take the scolding when the company performs badly or below expectations but it is also very fulfilling when customers are thankful to have you around. As we are the pioneering batch of Cadets cum Interns, we sit in for meetings twice a month with our Senior Manager, Frederick to raise concerns and suggestions.

 

Additionally, the management is very concerned on our wellbeing and progress. We often go for meetings with our Managers, Directors and even our Vice-President to raise our concerns and share our learnings for improvements. Networking sessions are also organised to provide us with opportunities to get to know Singtel’s business better and also to interact with our senior leaders. Below are some pictures that we took during our recent networking session!  



 

(Front Row: Ms Darrell Leong (far left), Director of Consumer Operations; Ms Candy Chua (middle), Vice-President of Consumer Operations; Mr Frederick Choy (far right), Senior Manager)

 

Two things that I learnt from RP and have put into good use here at Singtel are Multi-tasking and Time Management. When we are talking to the customers on the phone, we are also expected to type and record the entire call conversation at the same time. Similarly in RP, we have to take down our notes while lecturers are talking. As for time management, we have to complete our After-Call-Work (ACW) within three minutes! Starting work and coming back from our breaks on time also affects our overall adherence performance. Challenging huh?

 

Over here at Singtel, our calls are not only audited by our Quality Assurance (QA) team, customers are also given the chance to rate our services. If customers were to call in using their mobile phone, they will receive a SMS Poll to rate us, 1 being Very Poor and 5 being Excellent. And of course, we all strive to achieve Excellent! Every morning when we logon to our work stations, as we check our email, we will receive an email notification if customer(s) rated us Excellent. The first time I saw this email, the feeling inside me felt really good and I totally felt a great sense of achievement.

 Recently, one of my customers called in and was very distressed because her home telephone was down. Without the house telephone, she could not contact her elderly parents and young kids at home which left her very worried. I had to calm the customer down and gave her assurance that I will definitely do my best to help her restore her home telephone as soon as possible. She needed to rush out for her work and everything was done in a rush which means I had to think quickly! Thankfully, her services were restored quickly thanks to the comprehensive training that Singtel has provided us with. She was very grateful and what shocked me was when I came back to the office the next morning, I received an email notification stating that I received the “Excellent” rating and after checking, it was from this same customer! The sense of achievement felt really great!

 

(Here is an example of the email that we will receive for our “Excellent” ratings)

 

In order to keep us all motivated and in the perfect mood, the management actually decorated the whole floor with smiley balloons! Very thankful of that as it brightened up the whole place and always reminded us to smile even when we are facing challenging customers! Not to feel worried that you’ll be alone here! Although not familiar faces, but there are quite a few RP graduates in the same department too! No, they are not from our DCRSM family but from STA & SOI. See, a contact centre is so diverse that anyone from any courses or professions can work in! 

(One of the Smiley Balloons that were used to decorate the work floor)

(Here is a picture of our work floor and work stations)

“It takes six seconds to manage anger. It takes six seconds to create compassion. It takes six seconds to change the world.” – 6seconds.org

 

Customers normally call in only when they really needed to speak to someone. As for the next three months here, in order to endure the stress, I will practice what I learnt from Contact Centre Operations module which includes relaxation and self-care strategies. We are given breaks in between our shifts so we can take a rest from the long day of calls. As for self-care, I will need to ensure that I seek help when needed to in order to not over-stress myself.

 

After three months of training and working together, it is time to say goodbye to three of our cadets, Dhabitha, Eunice and Liang Yu. From December onwards, they will be transferred to the Serangoon Contact Centre to work for the Home Premium General Enquiries. Our Manager, Fanny and TL Faris organised a farewell party cum advanced Christmas celebrations for them and everyone. Everyone was treated to 4Fingers and Domino’s Pizza! They even got us a Christmas log cake to celebrate Christmas and also the December babies’ birthday!

(Here is a group picture of all of us with TL Faris. Fanny and Frederick couldn’t join us due to last minute work commitments)

xoxo

Yours truly,

Isaac Chiang

Customer Care Officer

Fibre Premium Technical Helpdesk

Singapore Telecommunications Limited