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Courtesy
of Melissa Cheah |
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In Singapore, the service sector is set to grow
with the development of the Integrated Resort. The
Integrated Resort is one that will offer world-class
entertainment and leisure facilities for the young
and old. The success of the resorts lie not in the
hardware (the building, the facilities, etc.), but
in the people, its service culture, as pointed out
in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s recent
National Day Rally speech.
PM Lee pointed out that “in Singapore, we
don’t have a natural service culture”.
No welcoming phrases equivalent to “Sawadika”,
“Irrashaimasse” or “Nemeste”
greet you at the shops here.
What then is the essence of good service? Is the
public sector delivering good service to its customers?
I think delivering good service can be as simple
as putting yourself in the shoes of the customers,
and treating others as you would like to be treated.
When you had to fill up a form required by a government
agency, were you frustrated by the amount of seemingly
irrelevant information required? Were you frustrated
by the complexity of the language used? Or the length
of the form?
If you put yourself in the shoes of businesses,
how would you like it if you had to run from agency
to agency to satisfy the different requirements?
And what about museum visitors? If you put yourself
in their shoes, would you think the museum is stuffy,
boring and unappealing? Would you visit our museums?
In this issue of Challenge, we look at
initiatives to raise service levels – from
thinking about customer-friendly forms to meeting
the needs of businesses to transform our museums
to move with the times. These initiatives and agencies
have shown that it is indeed very possible to raise
the level of service in the public sector. But all
these are possible because someone decided to step
into the shoes of his customers and ask himself
how he would like to be treated.
Would you step into the shoes of your customers
today?
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Courtesy
of Melissa Cheah |
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Melissa Cheah Editor, Challenge |
