Getting To Know: Mr Abdul Aziz Jafar, Service Engineer
A Feature of Canon’s After-Market Support Team
Any seasoned employer will tell you that a good attitude goes a long way, yet it remains a soft skill that’s often brushed aside. Great employees tend to handle adverse situations a lot better as well – possessing a positive mindset allows them to tackle challenges in a positive manner and take bad experiences in their stride.
Meet Mr. Abdul Aziz Jafar, a dedicated Service Engineer who has been awarded numerous Service awards ever since joining Canon 17 years ago. He certainly may be a maestro with the machines, but when it comes to the art of customer relationship, Mr Jafar has mastered it down pat.
We sit down with Mr Jafar to find out just what it takes to keep a positive attitude, and what it means to provide service with a smile.
Tell us about your job scope and what it entails.
As a technician, my job is to troubleshoot and provide preventive maintenance for my customers. I’m in charge of Orchard, and the areas surrounding town, so at any point of the day I’ll be running around town checking up on the machines under our care.
What is a typical day at work like for you?
On most mornings, my team will gather at a stipulated meeting point, collect any spare parts if required then proceed with a short discussion. We’ll discuss maintenance issues, handle customer requests or address queries if the team has any. Following the discussion, my team leader will consolidate and distribute the workload amongst us and we’ll disperse from there.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I like meeting and interacting with customers. But more importantly, I enjoy travelling around instead of being stuck in an office all day long. Usually, when customers are very pleased with your work, they tend to let their guard down and we’ll have very pleasant conversation, sometimes they’ll show me around their office or share interesting stories with me. It’s an eye-opening experience because I get a chance to interact with people of various industries, and catch a glimpse of offices or spaces I’d never get a chance to even know about if I was doing something else.
What are some of the challenges you have faced at work? How do you overcome them?
Besides the day-to-day hardware or maintenance issues, I would say managing customers expectations. In our line of work, you’ll definitely come across customers who can be impatient — they think since we’re technicians we’ll be able to solve any problem immediately. But that’s not the case, sometimes we encounter trickier problems and we might even have to dismantle the entire equipment, and we’ll take a longer time.
When I meet customers like that, ones who are too demanding or rude, I’ll just take it in my stride. The way I see it, I just want to get the job done to the best of my ability so I tend not to take things too personally. That being said, we have our limits too! Thankfully, most of our customers are very nice people and I’ve yet to encounter anyone who’s made me lose my cool.
What are some of your career highlights?
Back in 2006, I was nominated as a Service Hero! Canon Singapore introduced this award in 2007 to applaud quality customer service at every touch point, and I am honoured to be one of its recipients. I even got a chance to have dinner with my CEO at Mount Faber (laughs). I was also selected as Best Technician in 2001, 2012 and 2013! This award takes customer feedback into account and is recognition of my hardware skills and knowledge, so that’s something I’m quite proud of.
How do you go the extra mile for your customers?
Just like I’ve mentioned previously, I always make sure I finish the task I have at hand. This one time, I was on half-day leave in the afternoon, but I got a call in the morning from my customer requesting for an urgent repair, so while I was working on that I completely forgot I was on half-day leave! I only realised what time it was when the customer asked if I wanted to break for lunch. But yes, I had to make sure the machine was up-and-running and the customer was satisfied.
What has kept you working at Canon after all these years?
I’ve been with Canon for 17 years already, and being a technician is all I know. I have to say, I continue working for Canon because I’m always challenged, there’s always something new to learn. Whenever new models come in, we’ll have a chance to be trained accordingly. Now I can even fix computers.
What would you be doing if not this?
I really love fishing. I’ve always dreamt of buying a boat one day, and maybe I’ll do that when I retire!
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