To be truly customer focus, the source of that motivation inevitably ties to spirituality…
if we are concerned about creating an aura of humility, or a sense of harmony ie those are priorities in our lives, it might have conflict of interest to selflessly serving the customer.
Is it possible to selflessly serve?
On my trips to India and more recently through Kuala Lumpur [KL, Malaysia], I experienced the total lack of customer service in several situations….details in following paras…
The chaos at the budget airport in KL
I guess using a budget airline / airport for lower fares, I should not be too demanding in expectations. Being able to get on flight on time; being able to do it without any stress – would that count as excessive demand?
The processes /procedures are as disorganised as the layout of the budget airport departure hall [does not help that it was a public holiday and loads of domestic passengers].
The people did not make it any better. A ‘tidak apa’ [don’t care] attitude – the immigration staff do not seem to care if you miss your flight, even though it is the inefficiency of the airline / airport that caused it.
I guess we, the passengers, do not have much of a choice but to go along with the status quo.
Then there is the retail shop experience.
Today, I asked at several shops to try to locate a kitchen item for a friend. The lack of knowledge of English did not help and the Chinese staff refused to speak to me unless I spoke to him in Cantonese. This guy responded as if I had caused him grave inconvenience. He walked, more like shuffled his feet with such pain, and dragged himself to the shelf where i just came from and when I said I did not see any, he replied nonchalantly ‘so we don’t have’. I could not get myself to say ‘thank you’.
At another shop, the sales girl was alone and i was the only customer, when I asked about getting 200gm, she said ‘self service’. I was trying to figure out what 200gm would be. She reluctantly came and scooped for me. In the process, she spilled, and while she did not touch the items in my packet, she certainly fingered the items within the scoop, which I knew will go back to the bin.
When she gave me the change, she overpaid me 10 Ringgit. I tried to tell her that, and it took me so long to explain that I was returning the 10 ringgit.
Had a chat with a friend in KL and he was remarking about the reality of people who do not / will not serve. He said that most large organisations are not too concerned about instilling values in their staff since they ‘jump ship’ so frequently.
The question is will we ever come to a point where we, the people, do not expect value or service from retail or service industries. I mean seriously, will there be a time where it is ok not be served and yet have to pay for service staff salaries, or that they do not exist at all. Like in Japan, served by robots?
So, no more smiles, no more ‘may i help you?’, no more ‘glad to serve you…’
It is a reality hard to swallow….
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