[Customer Service]... in Singapore
It has been bugging me for some time now that... personally i feel that Singaporean in general have a great problem with Customer Service. In short, they do not understand the term. This together with the "cannot loose" attitude in-built in most Singaporeans is a disasterous combo. To top it all the word RESPECT seem to be missing in their dictionary as well. btw I AM a SINGAPOREAN as well and I do have these short comings but I try to understand them and also react to them with full awareness.
Summary:
- No idea WHAT is CUSTOMER SERVICE
- "CANNOT LOOSE" attitude
- Do Not understand the word "RESPECT.
- we are all customers one way or another.(get this in your head)
... continue later... need to "work" :D
ok i am back...let's see where was I....
ok..Customer Service is not just selling the product to the customer with a good price. Do think about it, with Singapore standards when you buy something like S$1000 reducing S$5 is not gonna make a whole lot of difference to the buyer. It is also not about bending over backwards for the Customer but much more..... a very famous line I once heard from a very reputable 5-STAR Hotel Asist. Director or Manager (cannot rememeber which position he was in) of F&B once said: "When the customer ask you to jump!? You ask how higher and how Far." and the best thing IS, he was telling it to 2 Management Trainee.... 1 a "president scholar" calibre and the other an exchange student from Switzerland....by now I am sure both of them are either F&B manager or Assis Director. :-D
You see, most Serivce Providers only hear but do not listen. They only hear the Customer complain and bitch but do not ask the question of "how Far/High???". Well, I suppose when you are faced with a rough neck crude drowning you with his raging storm of saliva, IT IS a bit of a PIA to have a clear mind to react. :-D And most will probably fight fire with fire, thus creating a bigger fire.... now whereis the punchline here?.... They are all engulfed in flame but they do not know the TRUE reason for this flaming....CONCLUSION??? = STUPID.
tbc...:D
after lunch and ready to roll :D
After hearing that line, the initial feeling was WTF?!?!??!
but when you really know what he meant was to KNOW what exactly did the customer wanted and then giving it to the customer. THAT IS TRUE CUSTOMER SERVICE. But of-course a lot of factors contributes into what is TRULY Customer Service. This is just the begining.
There is a difference between afraid of Loosing and CANNOT Loose. Bascially afriad to loose is being careful but the later is a far more catastrophy. There are many a times that we get mixed up with certain facts and this is but of the ordinaire. In the current life style of the "hip" Singapore... stress also builds up. I am sure this happens to many,... a lot of individual are not "professional" but more of a "jack of All". We are being push to multi-tasked. We DO like the Multi-tasking and Hyper threading in our PC but Humans are just not that good in this area. Simpily put... we only have 1 head a pair of hands and 2 feet :D or rather most people are not good in time management.
Before I stray too far......the CANNOT LOOSE syndrome kicks in together with our defense mechanism whenever we "KNOW" the "FACTS" because we deal with this everyday. But PLEASSSSEEEEE... QUOTE" We forget we are humans." (a famous sig of HWZoner "nichoo"). This is esp so when you are become older. IT becomes a "FACE" issue. AND we just created the CANNOT LOOSE Syndrome....
in short we are not professional enough.
--The word RESPECT is a very shor word and a very easy word to "explain" but to truly understand is a whole new ball game. So here is my version of the some how /some way i think and hope you the reader will some how/ someway understand or coem to terms to knowing.:D (confusing???? me too:D)
- RESPECT the Customer
- RESPECT the people around you.
- RESPECT yourself.
Like what they say, "Do what you would to others, like others would do to you." ???? get it? this is more of a general life lesson than anything. The seller need to respect the buyer as much as the Buyer ALSO have to respect the Seller.... the famous line that my boss uses is "THE WORLD IS ROUND!"....
But the thing about respect is it is not given/titled/self-declared but it is earned.
MY LIMTED EXPERIENCE:
In Thailand, I had this feeling that the Service is very good but only until the money is paid... after which anymore service seems to be a bother....
They seem to give you the world with sweets and chocolates but once the money is paid...... the dark side blackens!
In Singapore, the PRE-Sale service faces a character ceiling... if sales pulls through, and a quick bye! and hope not to see your face again...and it woild be almost impossible to find help for POST-Sales service. Some how they do not really believe in repeat business.... funny.
This may vary as more and more new generations idea is surfacing.
There is another thing that I wanna bitch about... Ang Moh always much better...
It used to be this way as Ang moh get very highly paid if they're stationed in Singapore. Thus most of the time they do not mind paying more. But now.. any TOM/DICK/HARRY can work here and they become cost sensitive like us. But since it has been like that for some time..... the habit is a bit hard to break.
But hey! the Ang Moh ARE better in the RESPECT area. They have that in them. That is most probably why they get better serice as well.
dat's all for now...
next... probably a few more Singapore issue again.
Cheers!
