Monday, August 29, 2005

Personal opinions abt Singapore's customer service quality

I watched the news a few days ago, and found out that a few years back Singapore was ranked among the top 10 for its customer service quality, but now it deteriorated termendously and was kicked back to 21st in rank.

This, however, does come with a reason for it. A shopping trip yesterday already confirmed my doubts abt whether Singapore is really that lousy in providing customers satisfaction. Let me fill you in on the details, and of the "friendly" staffs we have here in Singapore.

Firstly, I went to the "Orange" (guys who are not sure, just think of how many mobile service providers we have in sg, and the color that represents them) shop in Bugis to trade-in my phone. I was happily queueing up to get a number (just like in banks, and I think it's stupid, bcos it makes everything more slow), and when it's my turn, the stupid staff called out to the person behind me instead, saying "Hello Sir, can I help?". I wanted to shout at him that I am right in front of him, and why did he ignore me and call out to someone behind me instead, when the guy behind me told the damn guy that I came first. N the response from that staff was "Oh, u came first ah?". I mean, hello, don't you have eyes to see? The queue was only so short, and since I'm already standing right in front of him, what makes him think I'm not in the queue? Well, just to add on, the guy standing behind me was in a business suit. So, does that mean he should attend to the guy first just bcos he seems more like a prospective customer than I? Does that mean he should ignore my presence? I seriously dun understand what's wrong with him, or whether there really is something wrong with his eyes, to the extent of not knowing I'm in front of the business suit guy.

Secondly, after getting the number, and waiting for the digital LED board to display the dreaded number (I waited for like 45 mins at least, for God's sake), we shopped ard 1st, den when we came back the number jumps to 4000+ but my number tag is 3000+, so my mum went and asked the same stupid guy why is it showing 4000+ now, when just now it's only at 3000+. The guy just told my mum that the number will anyhow jump one, and then didn't make an effort to actually tell her to wait patiently or whatever. He just brushed past my mum to attend to another customer. The guy's attitude really suck loh, he just end the conversation with a few words and so abruptly without actually trying to appease the customer, or saying some comforting words. He could have explained something like weekends there'll be more ppl, and to ask my mum to wait awhile more rite? I wonder how they train their staffs man..And to think at one point when I was too bored, I kept track of what the digital LED board was displaying. The scrolling text at the bottom wrote "Pls approach our friendly staffs for assistance". C'mon, stop decieving ppl, your staffs all suck ok?

After that, I accompanied my mum to a jewellery shop, cos she wanted to buy a pair of earrings at $29. When we got to the shop, she had problems finding the earrings she saw last wk, so she asked one of the staff there. N you know what he did? He just pointed over to the cabinet displaying the earrings, without even a word coming out of his mouth. What's worse, he didn't even look at my mum, and after the pointing ritual, he fled off to do his own stuffs. Hey, what's this man? Aren't you supposed to at least tell my mum that it's over there or something? Are your lips glued together by some anonymous force that you can't open your mouth to talk? There wasn't even a single customer in the shop then, so why can't you attend to us? $29 also money ok, even though not alot, but if 10 ppl buy that earring it's alot liao ok? So what if we don't buy something that's worth hundred over dollars? Those so-called "customer-oriented" ppl are all money-faced de loh, they'll only attend to you and treat u nicely if u get something expensive.

Looks like Singapore's customer service leaves much to be desired. I hope they do something abt it, or they'll only become a laughing stock of other countries, or even by their own countrymen. Even a single trip can reveal all the flaws of Singaporeans, I dunno what else is worse than this. I dun wanna put the shops' name right here, in order to preserve what little pride they still have.

::~Memories~::

April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
January 2007
May 2007

^* Links ^*

Regina
Shermin

::~Crap~::

When the going
gets tough,
just remember,
perseverance
is the key
to success.