Customer Service in Singapore

Recent hot topic again in our ST Forums. Discussion about the poor service levels of our retail and front-line workers. There are 2 camps, basically :

(1) The ones that blame the service-staff for treating "amg-moh" better than locals.
(2) The ones that blame customers themselves for being "high and mighty", unfriendly and not being responsive to the greetings of service-staff and putting them off.

And today, I read another view, that due to cost cutting, employers are employing foreigners who cannot speak proper English, thus lowering the standard. Ok. Let me try to quote a few lines :

In their foolish attempt to cut costs, they employ foreigners who are cheap with no sense of connection to this country.

Huh ? So what has loyalty got to do with customer service ? They are here to do a job. So what if you employ a loyal Singaporean. Is he/she going do be a better service-oriented staff just because he is working in homeland ?

Anyway, we are all the hype of "outsourcing". So what is wrong with employing foreigners with no connection to Singapore ?

If we are to be a tourist hub, I think visitors will come to Singapore from many countries besides China.

And English is an international language, not Mandarin.

Well, it is in the employer's interest to get staff who can communicate with customers. And if customers are put off by the poor English, I am sure they will feel the pinch in their revenue.

On the other hand, Singaporeans do not like to be in the service industry. Why ? Because they will be looked down upon by fellow Singaporeans. And god-forbid I be seen as a waiter.. Ooooh. So mahlu !



My take on this matter ? Sinply the government's fault. No, don't laugh, really.

All the while, our focus is Productivity, Efficiency, Hardworking. No where is social gracefulness part of what we teach our young. So we become impatient with people who are slow and hinders our productivity. We do not waste time with courtesy. And every second is money to us.

Only in recent years, the government sees that social graces are important. That the arts and culture are just as complementary to social development as academic results and financial knowledge.

So what does our government do ? Spend millions of dollars on the "durian" and call it a day. It doesn't matter that their policies are contradicting. It doesn't matter that you can't put OB markers on "arts". And it doesn't matter that things do not get changed overnight.

So what are we to do about it ? (1) Wait for society to develop and change by themselves. (2) Wait for the government to do something about it. (3) Do our own part and try to perpetuate a more graceful society.