Is 'going by the book' more important than maintaining goodwill?
2 incidents today, both at the airport shops in T3, and both within half an hour of each other left me quite convinced that despite training, campaigns or whatever else we have tried, we have yet to fully cultivate a 'service oriented' culture....
Incident 1
Yakun Kaya Toast outlet in Changi Airport. I had ordered the 2 eggs with kaya toast set and specified that I wanted nai cha as my beverage. The cashier called out my order to the uncle making the drinks and then proceeded to collect the cost of my set from me. After the uncle finished making my drink, he turned around and said :"teh-si right?" (for the uninitiated, the difference is that the former is made with condensed milk and the latter, with evaporated milk)
I didn't mind having teh-si instead of the normal tea so to cut waste and save him from having to make another cup, I said that I'd be okay with taking the teh-si instead. To my surprise, the cashier, who'd been listening to our exchange, immediately said, "Then you will have to pay 20 cents more." I was puzzled, and asked why, to which she replied that teh-si cost more and I would have to top up 20 cents if I wanted to order it. I was completely nonplussed.
In the first place, that was not my order. They made the wrong drink in error, and to cut waste, I was agreeable to accepting that drink in place of my order. I thought it was bloody cheek to expect me to pay more for their error! So I told her that I would just stick to my original order, thank you very much.
I was very amused when later, the cup of tea that the uncle placed on my tray turned out to be... that cup of (more expensive) teh-si!!!
Incident 2
I had bought some bottles of body lotion and body mist from the duty free counters in the public areas of T2 this morning on behalf of my helper, who had asked me to do so presumably so she could send them home etc. The T2 counter did not have everything I wanted but after a quick telephone call home, we settled on some alternatives.
We discovered that hubby's flight left from T3 instead so we headed on over, and I saw that the duty free there had the original scents that my helper wanted. So upon checking the receipt, which said "Pls keep receipt for exchanges or refunds", I went in and informed them that I had just bought 12 of these items from the T2 shop and I wanted to exchange just 2, would it be possible?
The counter girl was very obliging but not very sure of what to do. However, I could see she was trying her best to wade through the various forms, and when she picked up the phone to call her supervisor, I decided not to pressurise her and so I told her that I would come back in half an hour to collect the 2 bottles. She thanked me and I went off for breakfast where Incident 1 above occurred.
Everything was fine when I came back but it turned out that they wanted to keep the original 12 bottle receipt. I was ok with that provided that they printed me a duplicate. They said that the duplicate could not be printed on their machine. They called their supervisor who explained to me in detail that the receipt was required for their finance.
I told her that yes, I understood, but I was buying this on behalf of someone and so I needed the receipt, cos there were 10 other bottles on that receipt which I had bought... the new receipt they were giving me only reflected the 2 exchanged bottles. I asked if they could photocopy the receipt. The answer was sorry, the office is closed. There's no other photocopying machine.
She then offered to copy out the items with the price for me. I said that if they did so, they should then keep the list and give me the receipt in case there were any more exchanges and refunds to be made. She said that was not possible.
I was getting fed up.
Finally, I asked if the original counter in T2 could print a duplicate. And the answer was actually yes!! BUT I had to wait for the duplicate to be printed, sent over internally (in the restricted area) and brought out to me.
I was irritated in the utmost. I could not understand why a)left hand could not figure out what right hand was doing, and b)if they are just different counters of the same outlet operating in the same airport, could they not give me the original receipt and have the duplicated couriered over to wherever they needed it at leisure?!!?!
Thankfully, the counter girls (who were as helpless as I) took pity on me and somehow persuaded their supervisor to let me have the original receipt and they would wait for the duplicate.
I left T3 today with feathers very much ruffled and marvelling at the lack of initiative showed by some of our service staff... and at our world class airport, no less.
Incident 1
Yakun Kaya Toast outlet in Changi Airport. I had ordered the 2 eggs with kaya toast set and specified that I wanted nai cha as my beverage. The cashier called out my order to the uncle making the drinks and then proceeded to collect the cost of my set from me. After the uncle finished making my drink, he turned around and said :"teh-si right?" (for the uninitiated, the difference is that the former is made with condensed milk and the latter, with evaporated milk)
I didn't mind having teh-si instead of the normal tea so to cut waste and save him from having to make another cup, I said that I'd be okay with taking the teh-si instead. To my surprise, the cashier, who'd been listening to our exchange, immediately said, "Then you will have to pay 20 cents more." I was puzzled, and asked why, to which she replied that teh-si cost more and I would have to top up 20 cents if I wanted to order it. I was completely nonplussed.
In the first place, that was not my order. They made the wrong drink in error, and to cut waste, I was agreeable to accepting that drink in place of my order. I thought it was bloody cheek to expect me to pay more for their error! So I told her that I would just stick to my original order, thank you very much.
I was very amused when later, the cup of tea that the uncle placed on my tray turned out to be... that cup of (more expensive) teh-si!!!
Incident 2
I had bought some bottles of body lotion and body mist from the duty free counters in the public areas of T2 this morning on behalf of my helper, who had asked me to do so presumably so she could send them home etc. The T2 counter did not have everything I wanted but after a quick telephone call home, we settled on some alternatives.
We discovered that hubby's flight left from T3 instead so we headed on over, and I saw that the duty free there had the original scents that my helper wanted. So upon checking the receipt, which said "Pls keep receipt for exchanges or refunds", I went in and informed them that I had just bought 12 of these items from the T2 shop and I wanted to exchange just 2, would it be possible?
The counter girl was very obliging but not very sure of what to do. However, I could see she was trying her best to wade through the various forms, and when she picked up the phone to call her supervisor, I decided not to pressurise her and so I told her that I would come back in half an hour to collect the 2 bottles. She thanked me and I went off for breakfast where Incident 1 above occurred.
Everything was fine when I came back but it turned out that they wanted to keep the original 12 bottle receipt. I was ok with that provided that they printed me a duplicate. They said that the duplicate could not be printed on their machine. They called their supervisor who explained to me in detail that the receipt was required for their finance.
I told her that yes, I understood, but I was buying this on behalf of someone and so I needed the receipt, cos there were 10 other bottles on that receipt which I had bought... the new receipt they were giving me only reflected the 2 exchanged bottles. I asked if they could photocopy the receipt. The answer was sorry, the office is closed. There's no other photocopying machine.
She then offered to copy out the items with the price for me. I said that if they did so, they should then keep the list and give me the receipt in case there were any more exchanges and refunds to be made. She said that was not possible.
I was getting fed up.
Finally, I asked if the original counter in T2 could print a duplicate. And the answer was actually yes!! BUT I had to wait for the duplicate to be printed, sent over internally (in the restricted area) and brought out to me.
I was irritated in the utmost. I could not understand why a)left hand could not figure out what right hand was doing, and b)if they are just different counters of the same outlet operating in the same airport, could they not give me the original receipt and have the duplicated couriered over to wherever they needed it at leisure?!!?!
Thankfully, the counter girls (who were as helpless as I) took pity on me and somehow persuaded their supervisor to let me have the original receipt and they would wait for the duplicate.
I left T3 today with feathers very much ruffled and marvelling at the lack of initiative showed by some of our service staff... and at our world class airport, no less.