You call this service?

Been seeing a lot of bad service recently, like almost 1 case everyday? And that's bad cos i'm seldom out for long, a couple of hours at most. Yeah, I'm not really irritated by it, just disappointed. You know, what people used to say about hongkong having bad service? Guess what? It's a fallacy. a lie. an untruth. as i've learnt in marketing, service cannot be standardised. You can issue guidelines but service has that human factor involved and you just can't standardise it. When i was in hongkong, almost all the shops i went to had terrific salespeople. yeah i mean it. Coming from me, the one who gets really irritated with bad service.

One incident that really stood out was at this giordano outlet in Hongkong. It was almost 1am and there were these 2 salesgirls doing some stock-taking, preparing to close the shop. Along came 4 ladies, excitedly looking at all the clothes. the salesgirls smiled and welcomed them to look around freely despite the late hour. No grumbles, no dirty looks, no sign of discontent, dissatisfaction.

So what do we have in singapore? Today, I was at takashimaya with a friend. she bought gelato from Venezia. It so happened that there was a power outage then and the electricity to that stall was cut off. The cashier was evidently very flustered. My friend paid and was collecting her gelato, when suddenly, "EXCUSE ME, HAVE YOU PAID?" The cashier had the cheek to say that very loudly to my friend. And she was the one who had collected the money, what was she doing? Apparently not paying attention and she had the audacity to be so rude? Guess what happened next? She did not even bother to apologise after my friend said that she had paid and the cashier recalled that she had indeed, collected the money earlier.

Cold storage fair at compass point. This is a very common sight, I must say. As the closing time edges closer, the salespeople will start covering their goods, even if there are people still browsing. They will just ignore the people still browsing. Ok, I understand you want to get home. but I feel that it could have been done in a much more gracious manner, perhaps inform the customers that it is near closing time? Of course it would have been nice if you could just wait for the customers to finish browsing but it's ok, this being singapore, I shall not expect so much.

An incident that really incurred my wrath badly was at cityhall interchange. Seriously, I feel quite ill justified about it. It was during the yokohama exchange, Syah and i were merrily talking and walking and we just tapped our ez-link cards and then we realised, opps, we'd left our japanese friends out there without cards. We were momentarily lost as to what to do. Cityhall being a very busy interchange, we did not want to obstruct anyone. so we just stretched over and tapped our cards to close the gates. Then while Syah went to buy the cards for them, i tried to get a refund. "Hi, can i get a refund? Because I just accidentally tapped in and then tapped out again.." "No, we cannot refund you once you tap the card." So I was like huh, ok..

Syah felt that I shouldn't have to pay again cos I already had the money deducted once. so he sugggested that I just follow one of them in, which I did and then the woman at the control station started shouting. Yes, shouting. it was embarrassing, especially with so many people around and the japanese students. But I find it very puzzling. Why shout at me when I had already paid for the ride?

After some more of such ugly shouting, the guy in the control station finally decided that yes, he's able to refund me the money after all. My point is how come? You mean I make a big scene and a fuss then you will return me my money? cos you realise that I am right after all?

My point is simple - Why is it so difficult to return that $0.63 to me? Why make things difficult when you could have simply returned the money in the 1st place and avoided a very ugly scene? Why is that after such an ugly scene that you deigned to return the money to me - what does it say about you? Does this mean that you are cheating other consumers who might not pursued their case as strongly? You know, sometimes the money is not all the important, it's how you treat people.

I do understand that the service industry in singapore is underrated and many people are not in the job by choice. But I feel that since you decided to take up the job, no one forced you to take it up, perhaps you should understand that your job is to serve. By that I don't mean that customers can humiliate you or treat you badly but that you should provide an acceptable level of service, preferably one that you would hope to receive as a customer.

It is indeed very disappointing to be treated so shabbily in one's own country.

Seriously, maybe I've got an idea for streamlining the business and saving some money - do away with the sales people. Why have them if they are aggravating the customers instead of providing a better experience?