Recently, I ordered something at a foodcourt stall which manned by a lady whom I was quite certain was from China.
To cut the long story short, I was kinda wishy-washy about my order and while she was halfway through preparing my order, I wanted to add something onto the order…which made things slightly inconvenient for her.
I shan’t describe the actual sequence of events, but the bottomline is that I inconvenienced her to a certain extent with my wishy-washiness (which is so unlike me!).
What surprised me most was the manner in which she handled it.
She gave no hint of dissatisfaction whatsoever and just went about preparing what I wanted.
And at the end of it all, she still maintained her amiable disposition. And I could sense that she was genuine about it.
(Of course, I showed my appreciation as best I could.)
Now this is something which I’m certainly not used to, cos anybody who’s lived in Singapore long enough would know that the consequence of causing inconvenience to someone else would be to receive a stare, a frown, a sigh of frustration, or a black face.
This is Singapore-style service which I’m sure we’re all familiar with and accustomed to.
Are we normal and others abnormal? Or are the others normal and we abnormal?
That’s something which I’ve always wondered.
And this is not the only instance.
I’ve been to many establishments, and have had encounters with many service staff who are non-Singaporean…and my general impression is that they are always genuinely (and the key word here is “genuinely”) eager to please, and have a much greater level of patience and tolerance for inconvenience than Singaporean service staff.
Sometimes the disparity between attitudes really astounds me.
There has been so much debate lately of Singapore service standards and how it needs to be improved and all that, and my take on all that is: We are far, far behind in terms of our service standards.
Yes, for all our advances in wealth, infrastructure, education and all that…we are shockingly deficient in service standards.
But you have to understand something – Most people in Singapore were never brought up to be good at service.
That’s the reality of it all.
Most people in Singapore have lived in relative comfort all their lives, without really having to worry about where their next meal is coming from.
Many have lived very sheltered and pampered lives, being “served” by a maid from the moment they’re born, and having a maid at their beck and call throughout their growing years.
Plus the fact that we’re living in such an affluent but competitive, fast-paced, and unforgiving society…it’s hard to see how we can develop anything other than a “me first” and a “why should I do anything for you” and a “don’t you dare waste my time” mentality.
Some people might use the argument that “Ah…it’s the poorer countries that are better at service. They are much better at serving customers. The richer the country (like Singapore), the less adept the people are at serving others.”
To that, I just have one word to counter the argument perfectly: Japan.
I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this, but I’ll just leave things at here for now.
Bottomline is this: I believe that we’re light years behind our fellow Asian counterparts when it comes to service standards. I have found them to be much more helpful, sincere and genuine than we can ever hope to be. Much of it has to do with our society and our upbringing.
I think sometimes it’s also how the shops train the staff, not just about where the people come from. There must be some captain or something.
I still can’t forget the 2 instances at J.Co and I know the people serving were not Singaporeans. It has made me not want to return to J.Co again.
And most importantly, they must feel happy to serve.
Anyway, sometimes it’s a sense of intimidation coz I believe customers are also at fault at times. I think we know of many demanding customers who are very unreasonable.