This is why Singapore's service standards are so screwed!

I was pretty shocked after I read Tabitha Wang's latest "Budget Tai Tai" column.

Bad service can drive you Nuts

Some days, it's apathetic service at every turn

Budget Tai Tai • By Tabitha Wang

The other morning, I tried to get something sent overseas at a convenience shop. An international courier company had signed on the shop as one of their drop-off points.

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What an innovative idea — or so I thought, until I went to the counter.

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"Cannot," the shop assistant said. "We don't do such things."

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"But your shop is on the courier company's website," I protested.

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"No, don't have. Never heard before."

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When I insisted, she gave a theatrical sigh, then said she'd phone her supervisor when she had finished serving all her "legitimate" customers (who wanted nothing more mentally taxing than a can of soft drink or a packet of crisps).

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After giving me a few hard stares to will me to leave, she finally called her supervisor, reluctance written all over her. Thirty seconds later, she turned to me and then said: "Ya, got such thing. Give me your parcel."

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I wish I could say that this was an isolated incident but I've encountered many sales people just like her.

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Their motto: If in doubt, just say no.

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Is it possible to get free alteration? No.

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Can I have mashed potato instead of fries? No.

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It's as if they've been programmed with a set script — greet customer, give product, get money. Heaven forbid if there's a deviation because their brains just shut down.

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Now I understand what Creative boss Sim Wong Hoo meant when he said in his book, Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium, that Singaporeans are Nuts. He coined the phrase, No U-Turn Syndrome, to describe how we need someone in authority to tell us what to do before we can proceed. To describe this, he compared local traffic rules to those found overseas.

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Here, drivers can't U-turn unless a sign allows them to do so, while in other countries, drivers can U-turn unless a sign forbids them to.

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"When there is no rule, we cannot do anything. We become paralysed," he noted.

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You see this problem most with service staff here, mainly because they're lowest in the pecking order in any shop or restaurant. They don't dare to deviate from the rule book because they know it might incur the wrath of someone higher up in the organisation.

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And in most hierarchical Singapore companies, that's not an exception, it's a given.

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If there are no rules specifically allowing them to do something (for example, offer rice instead of baked potato), they will err on the side of caution and say no.

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This apathy may serve them well but it sure doesn't serve me, as a customer, at all. While I may sympathise with them, that doesn't stop me from feeling irritated just the same.

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Given the Nuts around, it will be impossible to ask them to change by themselves. If we want better service all round, sales managers should be trained to give their underlings more control.

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A good example of this was in a restaurant I recently visited. Because they were having an a la carte buffet promotion, the place was packed and the two waitresses there had their hands full trying to get the orders right. Inevitably, orders went missing and tempers were frayed. What I expected to be a quiet half-hour meal turned into a long-drawn two-hour affair.

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At the end of the meal, I told a waitress that it was the worst dining experience I'd ever had. I was prepared never to step foot in the place again. But she totally disarmed me by apologising and, without applying to her manager, gave me a $10 voucher.

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"Please come again. I promise we'll do better," she encouraged.

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I was impressed. By trusting her with the vouchers, her bosses had allowed her to use her initiative, wow customers with good service — and drum up more business.

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There's no prizes for guessing which place I'd be going to again. I'm never going into that (in)convenience store again, not even for a pack of crisps.

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The shopaholic writer has no qualms dealing with shop assistants, as long as the first word that comes out of their mouth is not "no".

Hello? But will somebody please tell the Budget Tai Tai that this IS exactly why Singapore's service standard are so screwed up!

A restaurant hires 2 waitresses for a busy packed restaurant offering a buffet! Vastly understaffed if you ask me. Service has to be atrocious and Tabitha herself said it was the "worst dining experience I'd ever had"

And all of a sudden it becomes no prizes for guessing which place I'd be going to again?

All because of what? A $10 voucher!

So you see. The restaurants and service staff know what is it that Singaporeans want. It's not good service. It's cheap food and good prices with freebie vouchers to give away. Your service can be the worst in the world, but just give a $10 voucher and you become a place they'd go back to!

Actually I'm not surprised by this fact, because it is true about Singapore and Singaporeans. Tabitha Wang proves she is a typical Singaporean. No problems with that.

However the tone of this article seemed to be an attempt to "fix" Singapore's problem with bad service. Hardly a solution. In fact it's a stab at perpetuating or worsening the problem!

Shocking. Absolutely shocking.