When it comes to customer service, I have to say, that over the years of travel, has shown me that countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Jakarta and Burma have some of the most superb examples you could come across, and it isn’t just based on cheap labour.
At the dress material shop we were redirected to Mr. Wong, the most brilliant tailor. He and others like him, are so superb they even delivered the 6 shirts a friend of mine had had made for him, to the airport!
When I was in Bangkok, I was standing in the ladies lavatory, rubbing an aching shoulder after a long flight, when the lavatory attendant indicated she would give me a quick massage on my arm and aching shoulder. She rubbed some cream on to my arm and after a fantastic 10 minute massage, I felt infinitely better. Have you ever had that experience in a ladies lavatory at a UK airport? – mm; not me.
Over the years I have run training and development sessions on Coaching, Performance Management and Talent Management. These programmes include identifying business critical roles, establishing the criteria for the perfect candidate, and then exploring how to attract and retain those individuals, starting with some very basic cultural values.
The Dubai Islamic Bank believes that all their employees should be treated equally, regardless of race, level of job or country they operate in; the Telecoms business in the Philippines (some 32,000 staff) all receive a bonus equivalent to 3 months salary every year, based upon service and performance delivery. If you are part of IBM, they encourage individuals to seek career development and enhancement by applying for jobs in any part of the business. These businesses have adapted to not only hold on to excellent staff, but to also encourage an environment of contribution, and some very genuine personal service.
Western businesses can learn a great deal from the Asean culture, and maybe it stems from their religious rather than material start point which focuses on a complete way of life (rather than religion) and successfully pervades the way they behave. Now clearly this is not everybody and it is not everywhere however it was a very startling contrast to our return to Heathrow airport.
A few years ago we decided to enrol for Iris Recognition for Passport Control – to avoid the long queues – especially after long transatlantic flights. Unfortunately the Iris Recognition passport system wasn’t working at 5.30 am that morning. The man sitting at the imposing desk that was part of the Iris Recognition passport control desk just said: “It’s not my job”, put his pen down and walked away from us, his customers.
• Do you know whether your staff behave like that?
• Can you trust them to behave in a way that is successfully endemic and contagious within your business to provide superb and excellent customer service at any and all times to your customers?
• Do you develop and reward a culture of “Can do” attitudes?
Or do your staff just walk away from the problem?
Patricia