Her customer relationship methods may be more
modern, but Madam Linda Ang and her team still use traditional methods to
choose their durians.TNP PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
Combat Durian boss Linda Ang uses social media to reach out to
customers
At
times, Madam Linda Ang seems less like a durian seller than a stockbroker. More
than 10 times during our hour-long interview, one of her two phones buzzed.
Once, both rang at the same time.
As the 52-year-old boss
of Combat Durian furiously scribbled the orders coming in, her booming voice
kept its friendly tone. The calls often end in discussions about children, jobs
and family.
She explained to The New
Paper: "My customers and I are so close. It's like being friends for a
very long time - these relationships are the best thing."
For the past seven
years, Madam Ang has been the owner of Combat. Her 80-year-old father started
the stall in Balestier five decades ago at the spot where it still stands
today.
He handed operations
over to her when he retired.
She had a spell as a
sales coordinator, but much of her life has been spent in the stall.
"All my life I have
been helping out with durian selling and I've learnt so much, from how to
choose a proper durian to how to do sales," she said.
When she took the reins,
Madam Ang knew she had to make her own mark.
She started using social
media and messaging apps to reach her customers. She sends mass messages
whenever new stocks of durian arrive, or when the prices drop.
Beaming, she said:
"We even have Instagram, Facebook, all these things for our
customers."
Most things however,
remain the same. She and her staff of five select durians using the same
methods her father and his team did.
Madam Ang declined to
describe these "trade secrets", except to say that all the senses are
used.
"Knocking the
durian to hear how it sounds, smelling it, seeing how it looks... all these
determine how it tastes," she said.
The importance of
customer relations is something her father taught her as well - based on the
pictures of personalities, including Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam
- adorning the humble stall.
The quality of the fruit
sold by Combat is important to Madam Ang.
She colour codes each
supplier's durians by spraying some paint on the shells, which helps her find
out which durians are more popular. The ones that people buy less of, she buys
less too.
Over the years, Madam
Ang said that customers have become more discerning. This is because many
varieties of durians have popped up, and some less scrupulous dealers have
sought to take advantage of this.
She said:
"Sometimes when people sell durians, they pass off the cheaper ones for
the more expensive ones. Some they say come from Malaysia, but are actually
from Thailand, and are of a different quality."
Retaining customers is
the most important thing to her. After all, it is in her shop's name. Combat
Durian's moniker comes from her father's mispronunciation of the phrase
"come back".
"We call ourselves Combat because we want
our customers to come back," she said, laughing.
Three secrets of the
trade
·
Expect
long hours. When in season, stocks arrive at all times of the day and customers
come in full force, so be prepared for long days.
·
Be ready for cuts on
your hands - that goes without saying for handling such a thorny fruit.
·
Being a durian seller
does not just mean knowing how to choose the fruit. It is important to have
good people skills to manage the team and build lasting relationships with
customers.
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