In The Service Of The Tsa Wa Sum, Customer Service Is Expendable

Hey Yeshey,

“What junk have you sent me?"

The “junk” my friend referred to in his email to me was the piece of paper I prefer to call Druk Air’s Reservation Slip, which I had scanned and mailed to him, as proof that he is confirmed to fly on the date, time and airport indicated on the slip. Unfortunately, it would appear that the man is unable to read what is printed on the slip. Quite understandable.

When you go to the national flag carrier’s reservation counter at the Changlam Plaza to make a reservation, and if you are able to secure a seat on their flight of your choice, they hand you a paper printout that is slightly smaller than A5. The print out is churned out by a laser printer, the size of a home bread toaster.

In all fairness, the process is pretty efficient – atleast for their walk-in customers (they have a separate row of counters for the tour operators and ticketing agents). What is NOT efficient is the piece of paper – the Reservation Slip – that is handed to you as proof of confirmation of your reservation.

This is how the Druk Air's original Reservation Slip print out looks like

The print out is hazy, smeared with close to a thousand strands of vertical lines in differing shades of black that run across the length and breadth of the paper. It takes humongous amount of effort to make sense of what is printed on the paper. I have given up trying. Instead, I have come up with an ingenious way of making things easier for myself and my friends and clients who have to read the blasted thing.

Upon handing the reservation slip, I place it on the tabletop and take a photo of it with my mobile phone’s camera. I then email the image to myself. I go to my office and download the image and enlarge it on the computer screen which makes is easier to read the texts and the numbers.

Enlarged image of the Reservation Slip which makes it easier to read and type out

I then type the whole thing as a word document and save it as a .PDF file that I can send to friends and clients. This way I have been able to avoid people sending me mails asking what junk I was sending them.

Typed version of the Druk Air's Reservation Slip - simpler to read and understand - that which I mail out

One time I did ask one of the Druk Air’s reservation staff why they couldn't change the print cartridge or the printer’s drum that is obviously scarred. He informed me that the company’s ADM was of the view that as long the printer was printing out something, there was nothing wrong with it.

Obviously, the Druk Air thinks that their “valuable” customers having to suffer some bit of inconvenience is an acceptable fallout of their drive towards cost savings. In the service of the Tsa Wa Sum, customer service is expendable.