FEELINGS: QUALITY SERVICE...FIRST TIME, EVERY TIME (1 DAY) AT BUKIT KIARA RESORT - 21 JULY 2009

Don't miss this 1 Day customer service training - FEELINGS: Quality Service...First Time, Every Time....RM250 / person...now everyone has no excuse not to attend! Owners and Managers, you come too with your frontline staff. Just spend 1 day with me...

SO MUCH $$$$$$ LOST DUE TO UNTRAINED STAFF

If you were to pass by Bandar Menjalara, you come across a D'Fortune Western Cuisine Restaurant and if it is on a weekend, it will be pretty packed. Good business eh and I bet the boss is also pretty happy with the $$$$$$$$$. Sad to say, if he is making RM1 million, he could be making RM2 million with better service.

However, I still feel sad for him because he is losing business everyday and I think he doesn't even know that or how much business he has lost every month. But let's do some counting for him, shall we.

My family and I went last night for dinner, sat down and we were given menus. We saw many people waiting for their orders to arrive, and that gave us the impression that we will have to wait very long. We asked the waitress (possibly Myanmar, Cambodian, Indonesia...can't really tell) how long it will take and whether we will have to wait very long. She just looked around, gave us a puzzled look and just stood there...smiling....smiling ...smiling..(what's she smiling about when we are still uncertain whether to eat there or not). She could have spotted our uncertainty and assure us...but she did not. So.....we left and ate next door...Teochew Fishball noodles....and they have fantastic curry laksa....no need to wait and better service.

Back to this Western Restaurant, our bill that night could have been let's say RM40. If there were 10 cases like mine in 1 day X 30 days, that will a lost revenue of 40 x 10 x 30 = RM12,000...that amount could have been used to pay for their rental. Sigh!!!!!! Not mentioning the fact that we went and tell many friends and contacts about this sour experience, and they in turn tell their friends.....the damage will be more than RM12,000.


DIAGNOSIS

1. The blame goes back to the owner. Lack of training for staff. Employing staff who can't communicate and possibly illegal foreign workers.

PRECRIPTION

1. Ensure all staff are properly selected and trained well in serving customers. Money and time spent to hire the right people and train them is never a cost but an investment. If they spent RM12,000 on this staff development, they will be able to reap back the benefits in 1 month, due to customer retention and +ve word-of-mouth advertising.

MCDONALD'S:

Lately, McDonald's has this fantastic "stimulus package" and some sets were priced at RM5.95..not too bad and quite a good deal, I should say. So far so good....

Knowing that, I took my family to Sri Damansara McDonald's last Sunday for lunch. We ordered 2 sets and 2 burgers. I had a feeling that the total sum was more than I thought and tried to check the receipt (attached) and I just couldn't make sense of the figures. Reason is that the way the figures are stated in the receipt make it so difficult to check to see if you have been over and under-charged. Why can't the receipt be more straight forward, stating how sets x 5.95 and so on so that customers can check easily. In fact, with this current receipt, no customers will ever know if they have over-charged. So BETTER CHECK next time you are in McDonald's.

DIAGNOSIS

McDonald's has lost focus on the customer, and has failed to ensure that their receipts are user-friendly and easily understood by customers. This is another example of lack of customer-focus. Just wonder if they have a proper system in place to channel all customer feedback for further improvement. I complained to one crew member on the floor (with tie) but I am not sure if he sees this as a potential problem and convey this issue to higher authorities.

PRESCRIPTION

1. Reprogramme the receipts that is understandable by customers
2. Ensure that crew member who receive comments/complaints quickly channel the issues to authority and make sure they let the customer know that they will do so...this will surely impress customers and will get alot of free word-of-mouth publicity.
   

SERVICE RECOVERY: THE ART OF BOUNCING BACK AND HIGHER

The acid test of service quality is how you solve customers’ problems

In a perfect world of perfect products and performances, service recovery would be a nonsensical idea. But ours is not a perfect world, as we very well know. And whether you are serving customers face to face, over the phone, or via the Internet, these customers expect - and demand - redress when things go wrong. To the customer, the true test of an organization's commitment to service quality is not the stylishness of the pledges in its marketing literature nor the SMILEY badge that is worn on the uniform, but it is the way the organization responds when things go wrong.

Service recovery is a focused effort by a service provider to return aggrieved customers to a state of satisfaction with the institution after a service or product breakdown. Note carefully the phrase "to a state of satisfaction with the institution." Any customer contact person worth his or her salt can mollify an annoyed customer and calm a screaming, ranting, and raving one in short order. You have no doubt heard some version of this refrain from a self-preservation savvy service representative, "Oh, I know, it's just terrible. If it was up to me, I'd give you your money back right now, but they've got this policy and if I break it, well-you know!" That gets the service rep off the hook with the customer but does little to endear or retain the customer for the organization.

Service recovery is about keeping customers coming back after disaster strikes or even if just something annoying happens. In simple terms, recovery is the special effort customers expect you to put forward when things have gone a little-or a lot-wrong for them.

Effective service recovery that saves at-risk customers for the organization and becomes a competitive distinguisher is not an accident or a random act of will. It is, rather, a planned, systematic process. An effective service recovery system is more than an elaborate apology and monetary make-good effort designed to mollify upset customers, curry their favor, and, if necessary, buy back their business. The core attributes of an effective service recovery system are a clear problem-resolution process, a complaint and problem capture and analysis subsystem, and a way of feeding information on systematic problems back into the system to help reduce their occurrence. At the same time, effective recovery is a set of skillful, real-time actions taken by carefully selected individuals who are trained in the tact and diplomacy necessary to successfully manage an upset, disappointed or frightened customer. Successful recovery is the perfect blend of carefully thought-out processes and procedures and skillful, often spontaneous, actions. When done well, it can help right even the most grievous wrongs and save customers who already are the one step out the door towards your competitors.
Someone did say this: “

GREAT SERVICE RECOVERY LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE MAGIC…MEMORABLE AND WOW!”

By: Dr Allen Teh

Ritz-Carlton’s Team, Kuala Lumpur (HIRE THE BEST AND RETAIN ONLY THE BEST!)

The Centre for Customer Care (CCC) Malaysia, being the champion for service excellence in Malaysia and Asia, has been randomly visiting service/hospitality outlets for the last 3 years and our objective was to spot employees delivering excellent service to their customers. As a recognition for their excellent service rendered, CCC will accord them the Service Hero of the month award. This month’s award goes to the Ritz-Carlton’s Team, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I conducted a Training programme on Multicultural Management for a client recently at Ritz-Carlton and I remembered asking my client why she chose Ritz-Carlton. My client replied: “It’s their service that brings us back everytime!. We may pay a bit more compared to other hotels but we have no problem with that.” I told my client that I have done much research on Ritz-Carlton for my Best-Practice benchmarking project in Pricewaterhouse Malaysia and Ritz-Carlton is definitely renowned as a service leader in the hotel industry. However, being a “doubting Thomas” as usual, I said I need to checkout their service in Kuala Lumpur before I can agree with her. To me, hotels within the same chain may have differing levels of service.

Well, I did my 1 Day workshop at Ritz-Carlton and all I can say is: “ I WAS CONVERTED”. The Ritz-Carlton team really lived up to their international fame for service excellence. There is something special about Ritz-Carlton. The building is magnificent, the interiors are sumptuous and classy, and there are plenty of Ritz-Carlton employees to help you. What stands out is that the employees are also so well-trained and friendly. There are a few things which I found Ritz-Carlton KL doing differently compared to other hotels. They changed their selection of sweets for participants at every breaktime, even an extra chocolate bar for the 3pm teabreak. The lady Captain Istiqlawaty even remembered the kind of tea I liked – peppermint tea – and brought me a cup when I was too busy to make one for myself. What was their secret? Was I just being lucky that day?

When I got back to my office, I retrieved my research folders on Ritz-Carlton and got my answers there. Nothing in Ritz-Carlton happens as an accident or chance. The Ritz-Carlton is designed to provide personalised services to their guests and they focus intensely on the interactions between their employees and guests. The culture, training and quality processes all contribute to the atmosphere – but it all starts with SELECTION. The Ritz-Carlton has experimented with a number of different ways to select employees. They found that, using the “eleven talents” method, they consistently employ staff who have the necessary attitudes and approaches that underpin the delivery of good service and good teamwork. There are two groups of “talents; one for employees within the hotel and the other for people in leadership positions.

To ensure that Ritz-Carlton hires the most qualified and suitable employees, they adopt a very structured approach. There are five questions for each talent area and there is a tightly defined response for each of those questions. An applicant needs to exactly match that response to be able to score points. These points are allocated for each question, and in this way the total point score can be developed. A Talent Intensity Index, a chart showing the scores for each talent, is then created for the applicant and the scores achieved are benchmarked with the top performer in Ritz-Carlton and a Contrast Group. Shortlisted candidates then goes for a second interview with the manager who will then ask 22 specific questions which follow up the information which has been gathered using the talent model. These 22 questions will further probe some of the key areas that will underpin successful delivery of service customers. If the candidate performs well on these further 22 questions, then they are hired. Ritz-Carlton does pay serious attention to the selection and recruitment.

What am I getting at here? What can we learn from Ritz-Carlton? One of the most important Key Success Factor, if not the most important, to becoming a High Performance Service Organisation is SELECTION! Hire Right and Hire the BEST! No amount of training and no culture can overcome the characteristics that people bring with them. Selection is critically important but remarkably complicated – it is one of the most complex tasks an organisation needs to perform and that is the very reason why so many organisations fail in service delivery. The People Factor has not been addressed. Sad to say, many organisations still do not realise their error and continue to hire “any warm bodies with hands and legs”. Where do you stand?

MCDONALD'S KLIA TEAM (GIVING CUSTOMERS A “MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE”)

The Centre for Customer Care (CCC) Malaysia, being the champion for service excellence in Malaysia and Asia, has been randomly visiting service/hospitality outlets for the last 2 years and our objective was to spot employees delivering excellent service to their customers. As a recognition for their excellent service rendered, CCC will accord them the Service Hero of the month award. This month’s award goes to the McDonald’s Team at KL International Airport Malaysia.

I went to McDonald’s KLIA for my breakfast on the morning of 18th Jan 2006. I was greeted by Shantini with a very welcoming smile. Upon reaching the counter, I was greeted again by the Floor Manager Hisham and Hisham was not behind the counter but on the floor. I noticed the Restaurant Manager Syed Ismail was also on the floor, helping to clear tables That to me was another plus point, because the managers were leading the team and acting as a good role model. This is a simple illustration of “leadership by example”. Sometimes we wonder why our people are not serving customers as enthusiastically as they should. More often than not, the answer is “LEADERSHIP”.

Fatimah served me from behind the counter and again she had a wonderful smile. The thing that really shocked me and surprised me into convulsion was when Fatimah offered to send the food to my table as she noticed that I was holding a piece of luggage. WOW! But….the KLIA Team did not stop there. Hisham sent the food to my table and then offered to take chilli and tomato sauce for me. DOUBLE WOW!

Of course the décor at McDonald’s was very nice and the ambience was conducive. But….I will definitely return to McDonald’s KLIA because of the “magical” experience that I had encountered and will definitely tell all my friends about this experience. Giving customers a wonderful and memorable experience is definitely the answer to our quest for customer loyalty. What more, since my web-blog and newsletter goes out to thousands of members, McDonald’s do not have to pay a cent for this FREE ADVERTISEMENT but the benefits will come. Say “thank you” McDonald’s.

As usual, after much observation, I introduced myself to Syed Ismail and I do have to say that he was pretty nervous and I suspected that he thinks he is in for a severe lashing by another unhappy customer. To his surprise, I did the opposite and you can practically see Syed smile from ear to ear. He told me that he has never been complimented by customers before and that really made his day. I believe that with this morning encouragement and compliment for their service, the KLIA team will most definitely serve their customers even better and feel much better about themselves. What a booster for self-image and positive attitude. That my dear friends is the KEY that we have always been looking for – INTERNAL MOTIVATION does wonders to a person and his performance.

Here are some tips to ensure that McDonald’s Malaysia evolve into a SERVICE LEADER in Malaysia:-

1. Maintain service consistency throughout all outlets and not just a few like KLIA.
   The crew clearing tables and mopping floors need also to be courteous and friendly to all customers and not just busy doing their jobs and leaving “service” to those at the frontline.


2. A service culture must permeate the entire outlet and all crew members regardless of their function or position must deliver the same level of excellent service, and love that at the same time.


3. Employees need to be recognised and rewarded for their performance and their service orientation. Mystery shopping programmes conducted always lack that element and instead, uses a punitive approach based on fear to get their staff to perform and even to “smile”. Instead, Mystery Shopping programmes, like CUSTOMEREYES, must utilise the motivation approach and the message that goes out to all staff “Get Caught Giving WOW! Service” and once they are “caught”, then recognise and reward them with much celebration.

It is not really the product or price, but the customer experience that will bring them back every time!

AIR ASIA MOTTO: LOWER FARE LOWER SERVICE???????

To The Star Editor:
Name of writer: Sam Loh
Email: samloh@brandtinternational.com
Tel: +628121066289 or +6012 2861289
Address: 7 Jalan Muda Musa, Kampung Bahru, 50300 KL

Air Asia Service Sucks :

What is the point of cheap ticket when your service level sucks. If you add up all the nonsense and bad encounters that we have to go through with Air Asia, Air Asia is not cheap after all. Does anyone care to add up what it cost you in terms of the following:
a) Frequent flight delays;
b) food crumps on the plane’s seats and floor;
c) stinky and dirty toilet;
d) basin with dirty clogged water/sputum;
e) inconsistent boarding and checking instructions
f) wild rush by passengers before boarding
g) unreliable bus service/logistics to KLIA Main terminal
h) Air Asia is always proud to announce it earlier than scheduled arrival time – yes it did
arrive 25 minutes ahead of schedule but the luggage took another 35 minutes to arrive.
i) Because it took Air Asia 35 minutes extra to deliver the luggage to you and/or due to long
waiting time/ inconsistent bus service to KLIA Main terminal, you ended missing your
connecting flight;
j) If you think coughing up another RM18.20 by taking the taxi will speed you to KLIA
terminal, wait till you experience the long journey that the taxi has to route you through.
k) because you miss the connecting flight, you spend another RM70 taking the train to and fro
KL because you now have to spend a night at your in-laws’house (only if you have your in-
laws in KL)

More nonsense from the crews:

l) bad grooming -- inconsistent hair color/hair-do. This is a service industry, not some wild
wild west show case;
m) you can’t even get rested because air crews hawker and peddle loudly their in-flight food;
n) we are consistently not communicated when the flight is on the run way and for some
reasons it is not taking off. Can you not manage the expectations of the passengers?

Intangible cost -- it will come a time when even it is for free from Air Asia, we can't even afford to do business with you. Funny thing is that it is not about the product, its feature, and price that are issue here. These would be normal things we hurl our complaints against the service provider. Air Asia is too inward focus to care about Customers who pays the CEO,and Air Asia's employee wages/salary. They make it very painful for people to get the basic service. Do we have to tolerate their nonsense just because they are cheap and just because we have no choice at the moment in terms of budget airline substitute? Air Asia is only selling its brand but no intrinsic value in terms of its service; it has no respect for travellers. Mind you, the air ticket may be cheap but when the service becomes overwhemingly poor, problematic, intriguing (that is, the whole service sucks) and airplane is filthy, it becomes a Pariah airline. They have failed to live up to their brand name and promises as the experiences that follow the brand are not in congruent with each other. They choose not to hear the voice of the people / travellers. Maybe, a larger segment of the travellers are the very low income group -- maids, construction workers -- who just want to go home or get from one point to another. Life is already tough enough for them and if air ticket is cheap what is there to complaint.

This should not be the case. We are all human beings and deserve to be treated with respect and Air Asia should listen to the voice of the customer on how they should care to improve -- simple things from allocating seat numbers (to avoid the unnecessary mad rush), sensitive enough to provide immediate and consistent service recovery when flights are delayed to providing reliable and clean logistics linking LCCT to KLIA Main terminal.

Air Asia must take cognizant that their business is everyone's concern. Its business is NOT just about their profit and loss, stocks and share, of buying and selling. Their business pervades the life of others and the community and that all stakeholders in their business equation include the Customer, suppliers, nation, community and not just shareholders and venture-capitalist. Business is not just about productive economic activities but it is also about providing services that is of value to others.

SERVICE EXCELLENCE THE JAPANESE WAY!

I have just returned from a business trip to Honolulu for the HAWAIIAN INTER ISLAND DRUM FESTIVAL and I travelled by JAL (JAPAN AIRLINES). It has been almost 15 years since I last travelled by JAL (JAPAN AIRLINES). All throughout, whether it was on the plane, at the airport or in the hotel (where I had to stay 1 night in Narita), I have to say that it has been refreshing as far as service excellence is concerned, especially when I get so much bad service nowadays in Malaysia.

In contrast, the Japanese always had a smile for everyone, always acknowledged everyone with a greeting or thank you even at the Immigration checkpoints. While on the shuttle bus from Nikko Hotel Narita to airport, the bus stopped for awhile and immigration officers boarded the bus to check passports. The first officer who stepped onto the bus stood in front, bowed and wished everyone good morning and then informed everyone that they will be coming around to check our documents and they had a wonderful smile, greeting people, thanking people and that was just wonderful for me and for the rest on the bus. What actually happened there and then was another brand reinforcement for Japan and when tourist and businessmen go back to their own countries, they will be talking about Japan, good things of course. And....who says that Immigration officers must put on a stern face and act tough??

At Narita airport, while queuing up to check in, a JAL staff approached me and asked if have no bags to check in. When I said “yes”, she asked me to go to a special no-baggage check-in counter. That saved me from having to wait behind that long queue. What surprises me is that JAL ensures that there is someone who goes around spotting whoever they can assist. At the check-in counter, I was again pleasantly surprised when the JAL staff asked me where I like to sit and then showed me a seats chart. I was truly shocked because I was travelling economy on my journey back to Malaysia and my many experiences tell me not to expect any good service. But I was proven wrong because every single JAL ground staff was well trained to observe and make sure JAL passengers have a wonderful service experience anywhere.

On my way back from Honolulu to Tokyo via JL073, I was travelling economy and the service level was equally wonderful. I noticed that more than half of the entire crew was Thai stewardesses and I do have to recognise them here for their efficiency and utmost courtesy. Those Thai girls really gave a great boost to JAL’s service delivery, and JAL made a good decision to hire them. The crew understood that all customers are equally precious, even though flying economy.

On behalf of the Centre for Customer Care (CCC) Malaysia, I like to nominate the Thai air stewardesses on board JL073 (Kay/Bee Su/Num Phuang) and also Japanese air stewardess Mochizuki as our Service Heroes for the month of September. These girls are really outstanding. I was captivated by the smiles. They never stopped smiling and always there to assist. Just to share one incident. As I had a headache, I asked for a pill and was given promptly by Kay. To my surprise, Num Phuang came and asked me later whether I was alright. Somehow Num saw and knew that detail and worked as a team and showed care for the passenger. She came over later and asked how I was. Then Kay came over and checked on me. That felt really good and I guess my loyalty towards JAL shot up to the roof. My trip from Osaka to Honolulu on JLO78 was equally good and I like to recognise the Thai air stewardesses namely Phinx and Pat.

However, I do have to confess before I end this blog, is that I did not really had a good impression of JAL when I travelled from KL to Osaka. I was travelling on Business Class and I was told that there isn’t any JAL BUSINESS CLASS LOUNGE at KLIA. That was a BIG disappointment for an international carrier. What more when a business class airticket costs so much more. When I transited at Kansai airport for 14 hours, I spent most of my time at JAL SAKURA BUSINESS CLASS LOUNGE. Again, I was totally disappointed. I have been a frequent flyer and have been into many business class lounges and I hate to say that JAL's is the worst I have ever seen. Besides some beverages, the lounge only served some cookies and peanuts to Business Class travellers. I was shocked. Nevertheless, my displeasure with JAL now has been nullified by the good service experience that I encountered later on. Yet, JAL needs to address those issues that I highlighted. What a powerful branding for JAL and Japan through service excellence.

WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISEMENT AND FREE TOO!

I have just finished reading the email sent to me by my good friend John Tschohl, a fellow customer service trainer and consultant, and I can't help but putting his personally story in my blog for everyone to read. I don't know about you but I felt great elation and joy, as if I was with John at Kings Pool Camp, Africa and experiencing all these myself.

What I want to say is brief and is this: Your organisation's BEST ADVERTISEMENT is your people and the service experience they give to your customers at every point of interaction...what Jan Calzon calls it "MOMENT OF TRUTHS". It not the expensive media advertisements (which many CEOs and senior management approve and enjoy spending) and neither are frantic product innovations nor price wars (which all costs $$$$$$$). Dear Top Management and Leaders, please reallocate your resources to areas that are more important, that can enhance customer loyalty and give every customer a wonderful experience each time. And...I don't mean having to spend millions. Not everything that thrills customers costs millions. In fact, customers are highly appreciative of little little things that we do to show how much we respect and care for them as a paying customer. Spend more of your resources to hire to right people with right attitude and customer service orientation and pay them well. Initiate incentive schemes to motivate them (sad to say, people are still very much motivated by $$$$). Recognise them and reward them when they deliver WOW service! Make a big HOO HAA everytime. There are so many things that we can do to create a WOW service culture but it all starts from the TOP. So, are you ready to walk the talk and put the money where the mouth is?

p/s: Oh...by the way, I am booking my tour to Kings Pool Camp this December...anybody want to follow? There you go......your people who deliver excellent service will start creating satisfied and surprised customers, who will then go out and tell all their friends and everybody and THAT IS FREE ADVERTISEMENT AND MORE POWERFUL TOO than any media.

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Heaven in Africa (experienced personally by John Tschohl and told to thousands by now!)

We have a new Distributor in Botswana, Botswana National Productivity Centre, who invited me to Botswana and arranged a 5 day safari for me while in the country. This is the 4th safari in the last 2 years. I need a little time for rest and relation while I travel to Africa.

Wilderness Safari is a firm with 25 lodges which they call camps that we selected.
Three levels, Premier, Classic and Explorations. www.wilderness-safaris.com
If you want a firm to benchmark yourself against and want an incredible time this is the place to go. The BEST SERVICE I have ever experienced. Better than any firm in the US or anywhere else in the world. Botswana is a country about the size of Texas but with only 1.8 million people. The vast majority are very quiet, shy and soft spoken people.

I will explain what I observed and hopefully give you some principles you can learn from. I suggest you spend 2 days at each camp, visiting at least 3 camps. This way you can see if they are consistent and walk their talk at each location.

The first lodge I went to was Kings Pool Camp. www.kingspool.com
A premier camp, really deluxe. They had 3 key things going for them;

1. The service was the best I have ever seen. I felt it was a 12 out of 10
As you get picked up at the private airstrip the staff uses your name, introduces themselves to you and makes you feel special. When you get to the camp the staff greats you by name, and then EACH person introduces themselves to you with their name and calls you by name. -I mean everyone-. The kitchen staff, housekeeping, management and each and every person you touch. Constantly. Whatever you wanted, they did. No rules (Except not standing up in the Land Rover when on the safari. It scares the wild animals and puts your life at risk)

2. The ambiance was incredible. The nicest room I have ever stayed in. Food was superior. We had 6 meals a day. Light breakfast at 6:30 AM. Lunch at 11 AM, afternoon break at 3:30 PM, Tea Break at sunset about 6 PM and dinner at 8 PM. Unfortunately, the food was exceptionally good and I was gaining weight fast! Nothing like great food. The room was huge and plush. Elephants and hippos were about 50 feet from the room. Free laundry each day. The shampoo, hand lotion and body wash soap were in large bottles. Bigger than I have ever seen before. Free drinks, Everything you could ever want with staff that ALL called you by name.

3. The experience with the wilderness, animals and guiding was superior. The elephants, baboons, hippos, impalas were all around the camp. I have great photos while on the safari from a guide who always used everyone's name and really cared about you. For most people the experience is what they think about the most. I was keeping my eye on the entire operation, thinking I had just arrived in heaven.

The entire management team was awesome. Innes and his leadership were the best of the best
NO weak links. No staff that didn't smile or call you by name. Everyone recognizes you throughout the stay and immediately does whatever you wanted.
At lunch and dinner the guides and management team all sat with you at a very large dinner table. Not by themselves but mixed with all the guests. Every guide and employee knew each customer by name.

After two days in heaven I was wondering how the next camp would measure up. Would the service be the same? Keep in mind I had just spent 4 days in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana where service was weak and government had just received a rating of 2.5 out of 10. As mentioned, the employees in these organizations are very quiet, rarely smile and speak real softly. In Kings Pool the employees were the exact opposite. None of the previous safaris or lodges I've ever stayed at were in the same league as Kings Pool Camp.

A private plane picks you up around noon and flies you to the next camp which was Kvetsani Camp. www.kvetsani.com They greet you by name at the airstrip and begin the same process of treating you like royalty. When I arrived at the lodge they had their staff greet me at the entrance with a welcoming song. The second night the entire staff put on a 20 minute dance and show with singing for all the customers. Wow. The maid was the lead person.

The camp was not as upscale. The rooms were not as plush. Awesome, just not as plush. Animals were all over. They walked you to your room each night so the wild animals did not have a late night snack. I had left some clothes outside early in the morning to dry but the monkeys had a little fun with them. ( I had not listened) Ian and Alida were exceptional.
No hotel in the world could match the service at these first two camps. I was wondering if the service would stay a "10" or start to go downhill. The next camp was going to be even less upscale.

Again I was taken to the dirt airstrip for a private plane to take me to Little Vumbura Camp, the next and last one on my 5 day safari www.littlevumbura.com This is a 6 room tented camp, for a maximum of 12 guests. When being picked up by the guide he uses my name and takes me to the camp. When I arrived at the camp by boat they also had their staff at the dock greeting me with a nice song. I was not expecting this and did not have my video camera. This is not a group of customers entering the camp. Just me.
Each camp has the managers greet you as you get off the Land Rover, a staff member hands you a wet hand towel and then takes you into the lobby and offers you a welcome drink. Your luggage is taken to the room. Each cabin, room or tent is different. All very nice. All give you free laundry, large amounts of shampoo and any other amenity you may want. I was getting used to no phones, no TV, no newspapers and no Internet. They want you to experience the wilderness with the wild animals. They call each room a tent. Each is very large, very spacious, very plush and really nice. Not what you think of when you think of a tent. Ian was telling the guests at night how he mastered using every guests names, always. Very impressive.
I had an early flight to Gaborne. They had another Land Rover take my luggage to meet up with me at about 9:30 am to take me to the plane. No policies or rules preventing you from taking care of the customer. Whatever I wanted I could have.

The plane was 15 minutes late. It turned out the company plane has a problem so they chartered another plane and in 30 minutes I was at Maun to take my Air Botswana flight back to Gaborne for another day of work. Very sad. I had just experienced heaven.
I would encourage each reader of this newsletter to experience heaven at least once before you really die. Wilderness Safari would be a great company to benchmark yourself against. This firm is the best of the best. Why come to the US when in Botswana (just north of South Africa) you can be on a safari, have your company fund the trip and use it to benchmark yourself against.

THE POWER OF "WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISEMENT"

I happen to read this email from Steph and I am attaching below for all to read. Notice her last sentence and highlighted in RED and BOLD -

Please warn all your friends and relatives NOT to catch any movie at the Cine-Leisure at The Curve. For your safety and spare yourself from the stress of losing your belongings.

What can we learn from Steph? It's the POWER OF WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISEMENT. Surveys tell us that an unhappy customer tells 8 - 10 people (that's before the era of internet, email and sms) and a happy customer tells 4 - 5 people and of course we cannot stop those people from telling their other friends and the domino effect starts. Word of mouth advertisement, whether good or bad, has fantastic effect and influence on people. From my evaluation, at the end of the day, Steph was not as disturbed or angered by the "cinema robbery" as compared to the "couldn't careless" attitude of the Cineplex Management. If they had handled Steph's case with more empathy and sympathy, that incident could have become a very positive one whereby Steph would be telling all her friends how wonderfully Cine-Leisure handled her predicament and her misery would have been transformed to delight and excitement. Guess how much free publicity that would have gone to CineLeisure. But.....unfortunately, it did not happen that way and CineLeisure has lost a golden opportunity to create a unique brand for themselves. I do hope that businesses can train their staff on necessary skills and mindsets to handle problems when they occur.

By: Dr. Allen Teh

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Dear All, (by Steph)
This really happened to me. Never thought it would though. Day in day out, you get forwarded emails from friends and family how people get robbed and how their belongings were stolen away from them.
Last Thursday I was watching a movie in Cine-leisure (in Curve). Due to the fact that I was sitted next to the wall, I left my bag by the side on the ground. I didn't realised that my bag was taken away from me and placed back at the original place. I lost my mobile phone, wallet, car keys, digital camera, and my name card case. Definitely these culprits have "baca ayat" another word, jampi me. Not only was I the only victim. In the same Cineplex hall, there was another couple which lost their belongings. A guy actually lost his wallet and mobile phone too. Funny isn't it, guys usually keep their wallet at the back pocket or front pocket. Merely impossible to be taken by the person sitting behind him. Unless he has been jampi.
The management of the Cineplex was not helpful at all. They had promise me that I would be able to view the CCTV the next day as I roughly saw that guy who sat behind me. I even had witness (their cineplex supervisor) saw a group of suspicious young punks walking in and running out at the end of the movie. The next day, I called the management up to request the timing which would be convinient for me to drop by to view the CCTV. They gave the "I'm busy now, please call me back tomorrow" attitude. I was boiling pissed. I gave that manager a piece of my mind and demanded for a reply latest by the next day. Btw, when I lodge my report to the Cineplex management, the file was quite thick (which means, alot of people have lost their belongings in there). Being a NEW cineplex, about a month old. It's definitely not a good sign.
The following day, she called me and told me that I cannot view the CCTV and only authorities (such as police) are allowed. I was freaking pissed by then. I was like literally raising my voice at her. And she had the nerve to asked me to "please be understanding". I was like WTF!!!! I suspect it's probably an insider job.

Please warn all your friends and relatives NOT to catch any movie at the Cine-Leisure at The Curve. For your safety and spare yourself from the stress of losing your belongings.
Cheers, Steph

A MEMORABLE DAY TO REMEMBER FOR AN ORDINARY CUSTOMER - ME!

I went to One-Utama on the afternoon of 27 April 2006, hoping to purchase a printer ink cartridge. As usual, I ended up buying more than I should. Who says only ladies are compulsive buyers...look at me....and I ended up spending more than RM400 + in 1.5 hours.

Anyway, that's not my story...I didn't put off sleeping early to tell you this. The wonderful story is going to unfold. I bought things from 4 places within 1-Utama and I like to tabulate my customer experience, knowing how awfully meticulous I can be at times.

1st Stop - Jaya Jusco

• Staff at Pineapple Computers quite helpful and knows his products pretty well....I ended up buying > RM350 from there
• My feeling as a customer = 6 out of 10 points
• Will I go back again? = Yes because I am crazy about PC stuff

2nd Stop - Kentucky Fried Chicken

• 3.3opm for lunch.....wow!
• good food....chicken has always been wonderful as compared to all others...just wonder how sluggish competitors are in catching up....it's not difficult...just be creative and copy shamelessly
• crew behind counter - totally "AVERAGE" and that includes the crew + manager.....no wonder the crew staff are giving shitty service because the managers are showing how to....
• I guess they think that customers can live without eating KFC...they forgot that we as CUSTOMERS have many choices....worst come to worst....don't eat lah.
• I just a random check with the crew that served me and asked if KFC is still NOT selling chicken wings Original Recipe (OR) and he said yes and I asked if many customers are complaining and he answered yes. That blew my mind.....either this feedback is not getting up to the very top management or the top management hears about it and just turn their face and say to themselves " Hey, if those fussy customers want to eat our wonderful chicken wings, they just have to eat spicy because we have already made our decision and that's final" .....well let's see who has the final laugh when the customers start boycotting KFC for their insensitivity towards customer needs.
• My feeling as a customer = So So......no feeling. I can't even remember the face of the crew.
• Will I go back again? = Perhaps, when I am hungry and no where else to eat.

3rd Stop - Herbal Teashop next to Delifrance

• Chinese lady didn't bother to look at me
• But, she said thank you at the end, but still no eye contact - anyway, I didn't expect much because it is only RM1.30 for a cup of herbal tea.
• My feelings as a customer = 6 out of 10 points
• Will I go back again? = Of course 100% because this is THE ONLY shop in 1-Utama

4th Shop - Giant

• Bought some groceries and amounted to RM50+
• Only encounter was with a cashier and average experience.
• My feeling as a customer = 6 out of 10 points
• Will I go back again? Perhaps....if I am near there....

So, my 1.5 hours of shopping was just mundane and dull. None of the shops that I bought from (remember, I was the customer) gave me any reasons to remember them, not to mention LOYALTY which business' BOSSES always profess to be important and their main objective for success. None of these shops gave me a customer experience that makes me FEEL GOOD and say WOW!. Nothing. What baffles me is that everyone knows that competition is getting very HOT and you are seeing promotions, campaigns, sales, advertisements, price wars and free gifts just to draw in the customers. But when WE the CUSTOMERS step into their premises, we don't feel that we are welcomed...they way they act is like telling you" Hey buddy, go find another place...we have too many customers here and I need a break....you people are giving me too much work" You see that on their faces, their expressions, the way the stand....it's all over them. BUT....since I get to see and experience those nonsense so often, I just shrug it off and went along.

NOW...comes the biggest BOMB of my day (you thought that my story is over...think again). I was going to my car when I realised that I have misplaced my parking ticket. I went to some places I shopped at and asked the staff if they saw any lost ticket. Of course.....none. By the time I went to the Parking Office to report my lost ticket....it was a small room hidden under some staircase and once I got there, I met 2 guys - one was in uniform and the other was not. I said that I lost my ticket and they said " RM20". I was shocked and allowed myself to begin complaining. None of them bothered, told me to fill in a form, as if I am at the Police Station to report an accident. I said that I was a CUSTOMER and I happened to have bought more than RM400 worth of stuff but it fell on deaf ears. Their body language is saying " WE DON"T CARE. JUST SHUT UP, PAY UP and GET LOST BUDDY". Of course they justified their actions by saying that they are only doing their job and I guess I cannot blame them..they are just employees but they could have been nicer.

BUT....I blame the Management. Why are they having this ridiculous and stupid policy to charge RM20 for lost tickets. That plain clothers guy at the office said that if they don't impose this fine, then every one will come with lost tickets. GIVE ME A BREAK! I guess customers have nothing better to do than to get their tickets lost on purpose and enjoy the fun and adventure of looking for the parking office, filling in the form and then pay the fine. Please don't treat people as children. What irks me most is that I have just spent quite a lot of money (at least to my standards) in 1-Utama and I get penalised for losing my ticket and forced to pay RM20. It's crazy and blows my mind. Where's the caring? Where's compassion?

I left 1-Utama very upset, angry and that experience was so encompassing that I missed the turn to my office and had to go one more round. You see, I went to 4 shops and gave business to them but when I received average service, I didn't really mind and I did not get angry and upset. I do not become their loyal customer but I may go back again and I have no grudge against them. BUT....I do have a grudge against the Management of 1-Utama. All I can say is that I will CHOOSE not to shop at that place for at least 6 months because customers have many other choices where to shop and bad experiences like what I went through today will not be easily forgotten. IT'S ALL ABOUT FEELINGS....CUSTOMERS' FEELINGS.....if you don't take care of your customers, they will not take care of your business...that simple.

Signing off!