Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Visiting the Office of 88DB.com and JobsDB.com

Yesterday I was summoned by one of Nuffnang's clients to pay a visit to their office.

Now let me explain the concept of the word CLIENT.

A client is a customer.

A customer is someone who pays money so that a company like Nuffnang can survive.

Ever heard of the phrase
"Customer is King?"

Well, it can be almost directly translated to
"Client is KING".

What does that phrase mean?

It means, when the client says to you
"JUMP!"

You DON'T say
"What?"

You DON'T say
"Huh?"

And you SURE AS HELL BETTER NOT SAY
"Why?"

No... you say...

"How High?"

Similarly, when a client says
"Come to our office".
You DON'T say
"Why?"

But you say
"WHEN?"

and if your client says
"RIGHT NOW"

You DON'T say
"But but... I can't right now... my grandma is not well and I'm taking her to the clinic".

You say
"YES SIR WILL BE THERE IN TEN MINUTES! PO PO CAN WAIT!"

and if your client says
"Make it FIVE!"

You DON'T say
"But but... that's impossible! I'm in Subang right now and your office is in KL".

You say
"SIR YES SIR!"

Anyway, this client is 88db.com which coincidentally is owned by and shares the same office with JobsDB.com, a dotcom in Malaysia that requires no introduction.
You will see some of their ads running around the Nuffnang Community this week.

88db.com is one website that you just can't ignore unless you're a fool.

I feel stupid enough for not knowing it exists until they approached Nuffnang for a campaign.

I mean here is a wonderful website that has everything you can ever look for, a huge directory of user posted content that can find you everything from weddings to pets to even home-made cookies for Hari Raya!

There is even this little eBay-like trading area where you can sell your junk and buy other people's junk (Eh! One man's meat is another man's poison).

So anyway, back to my story.

I paid a visit to 88DB (JobsDB)'s office today at Menara UOA and was greeted by a very nice and polite receptionist.

Then my client came out of the back and greeted me with a smile.

Everyone!

Say Hello to Christine!

Christine is the Marketing Manager at 88db and one of the people responsible for giving you your ads!

Christine is among the nicest of our clients at Nuffnang.

Upon greeting me today she asked
"Are you still having a hangover from the other night? Do you want some water?"

In which I replied
"No... I'm okay now thanks" (with my face turning redder than a red tomato).

We sat in a meeting room and chatted while waiting for her Boss, the General Manager of JobsDB Malaysia to step into the room.

And before you know it, Steven opened the door, stepped into the room gave me a handshake so firm I couldn't feel my fingers.

With a smile on his face he said
"Why don't we do this in my office?"

So he brought me through the workstations of the other people at 88DB (and JobsDB) and straight to his office at the back.

Then he sat down on the chair and we started talking away.Steven shared with me his inspirations on 88db.com
"Where do you find a website today that provides a service of helping people find what they need and yet does not charge both users and advertisers for using it?"

And he was right.

In a website like eBay, typically if you were to sell something, eBay will take a transaction fee off your sale but on 88DB.com, it's completely free.

If you're a freelance designer and want to post your services there, you can do so for FREE...

WITHOUT paying a single cent... on a website that is viewed by so many people each day it's almost like putting an ad up in the field of the World Cup Finals. (Okay I kinda exaggerated there, but you get my point).

Why do they do it?

My guess is just like the Founders of Google, they believed in building something that added value FIRST, before trying to earn money off it, and that is the mindset of a rare breed of new generation dotcoms.

After our long chat, I asked Steven and Christine if they would humour me and let me take a picture of them and putting it on my blog since I don't often get to blog about visiting our clients' offices.

They agreed.


Then I asked Steven if he would let me take a picture with him.

And .... he..... AGREED!!!


Now that's not all there is to this blog entry.

I mean sure, I just kinda explained how a typical day for me at work goes... and where I go... but let me tell you something else I happened to see today.

You remember the chair that Steven was sitting on?

Does it look familiar to you?

No?

Ok let me remind you.

Remember this picture?

THAT IS THE VERY SAME CHAIR I SO WANTED TO BUY WHEN I WENT SHOPPING FOR OFFICE FURNITURE A MONTH AGO BUT HAD TO HAVE A PARTICULAR SOMEONE TALK ME OUT OF!!!

AUGGHHH!!!!!

AUGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

&(*#$&*(#&(*$#&(*$#&(*$&*(#$&*(

And here's the joke.

When I first noticed the chair and started drooling over it... Steven said
"Oh yeah.. this chair... I don't like it... made a mistake buying it.. piece of junk!"

My heart broke into so many pieces, it would take miles of scotch tape to mend it back together.

*sigh*

One man's meat, is another man's poison.

PS: Check out 88db when you guys have the time. There's seriously a lot of stuff going on there.

14 comments:

KY said...

I guess you can buy his chair when he put it up on sale on 88db.com!

Boss Stewie said...

ky: hahaha!!! yah... even then .. how cheap can i possibly be

JacJac said...

what's the material of the chair?

it looks like steel mesh


comfortable meh boss?.. besides it being super airy...looks like quite hard and uncomfy (if the seat and the back rest are made of steel mesh...cos very see through)


but it is one nice looking chair

i wish to be called: No one said...

hi,
i am a stranger to you, i know..But i did noticed your face from "The Star".And then my mind sort of doing "recalling" work called facts re-collecting..Actually few years back in Penang, we met before. You were friends of Chi Ying and Eric Gooi. I think i said Hi to you b4. Anyway, let me introduce myself,i am Melinda, further introducing at dadaooi.blogspot...i started off my own blog after i read abt ur company Naffnag..And felt proud of Malaysia (1st time) to have such an inspirational young man. i also set up a website but that is for trading purposes..sort of business making (some thing like e-bay) ..But you really deserve a credit to have such an innovative ideas~all the time!!Oh ya, one good recommendation from me, do read up the book "why Entrepreneurs should eat Banana" by Simon Tupman. Good Book!!it gives u 101 ways on how to grow ur business...Because of this book inspired me to start of my business in Singapore..Young Entrepreneur?haha..don't know..perhaps should take a lot of advice from you..since you study economics and got A in your A-level sumore!!haha
If you don't mind to have a new friend, just drop a hi in my e-mail:dadaooi@hotmail.com

Unknown said...

who knows? dun use ur real name la.. can oneeeee...

so is christine's the one u got high with then? you little devil..

and boss, ur handshake aint too shabby yourself.

p/s: having trouble posting comments on blogger these days

Stan said...

Servus Boss Stevie :)
your opening lines to this blog post definitely struck a similar chord in me. Although I'm not in the marketing or in any customer-related industry, i definitely relate to what you wrote.

Glad to read about another sucessful deal closed. Do keep on writing, enjoy reading your posts. :)

Horny Ang Moh said...

Hi Bossy! Don't worry I am sure u will find a nice & big ( can have other 'activities' beside seating ) CEO chair real soon! Have a nice day!

Dc said...

boss, bangsar village II got haagen daaz promo, i posted the promo in my blog :) all you can eat boss

TheBeerCrusader said...

LOL ~ A man's meat is another man's poison ..

HAHA !!

Pretty true !!

MikeM said...

boss... i signed up 88db too...

MikeM said...

and i forgot to mention, christine is cute... :P

Chili Padi Porky Queen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chili Padi Porky Queen said...

Hiya Tim.. am christine's friend. Wow, she really made you make you do extra work huh - advertising her company on your blog as well. tsk tsk.. i know how u feel haha

Weird Dan said...

Christine >< i think this post I was stucked to it due to Christine being there.. hehehe..