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Source:
www.gov.sg
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SPEECH BY PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG AT
NATIONAL DAY RALLY 2005, 21 AUGUST 2005, 8.00 PM AT UNIVERSITY
CULTURAL CENTRE, NUS |
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A Vibrant Global City Called Home |
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An Excerpt |
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We do not have a natural service culture. |
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If you compare us with other countries, you
go to Thailand, for example, whether it's a man or woman, the man will
say Sawadikup or the woman will say the Sawadika. You go to
Japanese restaurant, Irrashaimasse. Or you go to India, they say
Nemeste or Varnakam. You go to Australia, they say Good Day mate! |
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In Singapore, they go straight to the point.
¡°How can I help you?¡± Or if you're not so lucky, ¡°What you want?¡± |
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There are some Singapore organisations which
do have excellent service standards -- at Changi Airport, the
immigration people are very good, SIA good service. Hotel, retail, food
and beverages, they have good service too. |
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But we have a long way to go to reach world
class and I hear of companies that don't really care very much about
service quality. |
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This is the problem which has to be dealt
with at three levels. One, the companies have to have that focus.
Two, the service people have to have that focus. Three, we who are
served by the people have to have that culture too. |
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I will give an example for each of these. |
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tart with the company because they set
the tone. There is one poly student who went to do a work attachment in
a hotel. It¡¯s her final year. So, guest ordered a cold drink,
waiting for a friend, felt cold. So this poly student says, I must
look after the guest, served her warm water. Got scolded: ¡°You
must not serve her warm water, you must sell her a warm drink.¡± So
she gave up. She said: ¡°I am fed up with this. I am off.¡± |
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If I were her, I would straight away work
for the competitor company. But obviously, the hotel operator
didn't have the sense. But sometimes it's a service girl or boy or
old person who doesn't have it. So there are many horror stories
of bad service staff. I asked for some examples. WDA gave me fat
file. So I decided to make a training video. I will show you this
video now. It's called ¡°Tao Gay Not Enough¡±. (Playback of video) |
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app.sprinter.gov.sg/data/ndr/NDR_clip01.mpg |
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Customer:
¡°Auntie, two packets, less oil, no chilli, no hum¡±.
Hawker: ¡°Neng
bao, you jiou,
mai hiam,
mai hum¡± (in Hokkien)
Customer:
¡°Auntie, sorry, tao gay more¡±.
Hawker:
¡°Two packets, less oil, no chilli, no hum, more tao
gay¡±.
Cook: ¡°Tao
gay
Òª¶àÉÙ?
(in Mandarin)¡±
Hawker: ¡°Hwey,
tao gay how many?
Customer:
¡°More, please.¡±
Hawker: ¡°Zuei¡±
(in
Hokkien).
Hawker:
¡°Hello Miss, tao gay enough or not?¡±
Customer:
¡°Ya.¡±
Indian
customer: ¡°Three packets, thank you.¡±
Hawker:
¡°Wait.¡± |
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But sometimes, the shoe is on the other
foot. So I got another video to show you. This one is called ¡°Tao Gay
Never Enough¡±. (Playback of video) |
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app.sprinter.gov.sg/data/ndr/NDR_clip02.mpg |
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Customer:
(on handphone) ¡°One packet¡±.
Hawker:
¡°One packet¡±
Indian
customer: ¡°Auntie¡±
Customer:
¡°Less oil, no chilli¡±.
Indian
customer: ¡°Auntie.¡±
Customer:
¡°More tao gay¡±.
Indian
customer: ¡°Two packets¡±.
Customer
2(jumping queue): ¡°Can tomgpang three
packets?¡±
Customer:
¡°Auntie, three more packets¡±.
Indian
customer: ¡°Your friend should join the queue¡±.
Customer:
¡°Not your business¡±.
(Hawker,
looking apologetic, hands one packet of fried kway
teow to Customer. Customer refuses to take
and stomps off with Customer 2.) |
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If
you enjoy the video, I should say it was made by
Ngee Ann Polytechnic, School of Film and Media. So, all three,
whether it¡¯s the company, the service staff or the customers, all three
have a role to play. |
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The
companies have to show leadership. You have got to adopt
service-friendly policies. You must have the system, the process. You
must make it possible for your people to give good service. Like
Raffles Hotel, the tagline is At Your Service. So whatever you ask for,
at your service, it will be done. |
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And I think
we can do that. In our hospitals, some of the hospitals, they use SMS
to call patients when their queue number is up. So you can go around,
wander the shops, go somewhere else, come back in time and not miss your
number. I think that improves the service quality. You have got to
emphasise service training for workers, not just the frontline staff,
but the managers and the senior bosses as well so that everybody knows
that service is important. |
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So you see,
organisations like Housing Board who deal with hundreds of thousands of
transactions every year, their senior staff, once a year on Service
Quality Day, come down, go to the frontline, serve
residents coming who have problems to deal with. So I have heard that.
I said, that's good, that¡¯s like MPs doing
Meet-the-People sessions. |
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Then
everybody will know service is important,
then the frontline staff
will get the emphasis and the backing which they need. |
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Next, of
course, the service staff have to acquire a
service mindset. You have to know that and believe that service jobs are
honourable. These are not low-class jobs. You can serve with pride and
professionalism and these are jobs which lead on to something. So Ritz
Carlton says, "Ladies and Gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen¡±. So
you go on and you may begin as a hotel serving girl, you may go on to
become a masseuse or if you are a hair dressing assistant, you might go
on to run your own salon, become a hair stylist. |
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There is a
career path up. You start by serving. You learn how to please people.
You can move on and that's a valuable skill. |
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But, of
course, you need social skills too - how to carry yourself, how to
serve, how to be graceful and, therefore, make people happy.
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One of the
difficulties of doing this is that in Singapore, may be life is a little
bit too easy. Why do I say that? I just give you one example.
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A
Singaporean air hostess arrived at a destination found that she had no
passport. A commotion, the airport manager came, sorted the problem out,
managed to get her admitted, scolded her, say ¡°Where is your passport?
How can you as an air hostess not do this?" She says, ¡°I must go home
and scold my maid because my maid packs my bag, my maid forgot to pack
my passport, it's my maid's fault." |
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So I think
it's a little bit harder to provide good service if you are used to
being looked after. But if you look at the wealthy developed countries
like America, you can get good service in the restaurants and good
waiters. So, I think we can do it provided we put ourselves to it and
pay attention and improve. And we have to reinforce this message,
reminders, campaigns, all ways. |
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In
Hongkong, they have turned things around.
One of the things they did was to have a campaign. So Andy Lau appears
on TV commercials to urge people to provide good service. The programme
is called 'A Hospitable Hongkong'.
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I think we
should consider a similar campaign. Maybe we can have
Taufik and Sly to do it, and we can have a
GST campaign -- Greet, Smile and
Thank and we will make a difference. |
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But the
customer¡¯s attitude has also to change because if the customer treats
you like dirt, you are not going to serve with pride. |
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And
customers have to know as the actor in Tao Gay Never Enough didn't
know, that just because the person is serving
you, it doesn't mean he or she is a slave or a servant. She¡¯s looking
after you, it's your responsibility to be
courteous, to be considerate, to thank her and to appreciate what he or
she has done for you. |
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Good
customers get good service. And that I think is something which all of
us have perhaps to change. It's easier to say the serving people have to
change because we all laugh at the serving people. But I notice Tao Gay
Not Enough got more laughter than Tao Gay Never Enough. But Tao Gay
Never Enough also must be fixed. |
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We have put
on good shows before. When there's a big event, we do well. The IOC we
did very well, and there are other bigger events coming. Next year,
there will be the IMF and World Bank Conference, 16,000 participants.
That may be ten times the size of the International Olympic Committee
Meeting earlier this year and we have to deliver the best service level
so that the whole world knows Singapore is not just clean and safe but
also welcoming and hospitable. So let's gear up now. |
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This
is an effort which we have to continue for a long time. The government
agencies will get together and will promote it and I have asked Raymond
Lim to be in charge of this, to make sure that we get everybody
together. I think he can do that. |
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It's not
just for the tourists but it's also for ourselves because it's the kind
of society we are. What we are, being gracious, courteous, respectful
of one another, knowing that everybody has a place, a dignified place in
Singapore, everybody belongs, doing his part and excelling in his
profession and serving with pride. |
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Full Speech |
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Source:
www.gov.sg Press Release 21 Aug 2005 |
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Prime Minister's National Day Rally Speech
