Sunday, October 09, 2011

Service Standards in Singapore is falling

Yesterday, I went to a convenience store and raised a question to the counter staff in plain English related to newspapers. To my astonishment, the counter staff did not understand at all and instead asked in his native language, what I wanted. Apparently, the counter staff wanted me to repeat my question in a native language common to both of us, however I left after making my purchase. This is like turning the table: the counter staff should serve me but instead I am serving him by acceding to his request to speak in his native language.
This is not the first time that I experience bad service standards of foreign service staff who do not understand English and ask me to speak in their native language. At a fast food restaurant some days earlier book, I told another foreign staff to pack in Salt and Pepper to my take-away but in the end, I was sad to see no such items on arriving home.

Companies should train their foreign staff to speak English. However not all foreign staff lack a customer-centric attitude: Filippino staff impress me with their wow atitude.

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