Business Etiquette & Service Excellence

To be honest, at first I wasn't holding high expectation for this module. I was expecting it to be boring and dull, a class that's perfect to take a nice little afternoon nap in. However, the interesting lessons proved otherwise. Each week, I go out of the classroom with a little something that made me realise how unknowledgeable I was about the etiquettes in the business world. Indeed, from how to dress professionally, to how to exchange name cards, even to simple daily occurances like holding doors, BESE workshops has taught me alot. I grew from an ignorant young man to one that will hopefully be respected by others from my future industry - The Service Industry.

I had to say each and very lesson were insightful and educating, but three particular lessons left deep engravements in my mind.

7 Deadly Statements

The one that left the greatest impression on me is Lecture 6: Customer Perception 2. As a part-timer at Sakae Sushi, I am indeed guilty of the some of the 7 deadly statements listed on the notes. It taught me about how customers don't need to know about my problems, all they need is to get the quality service they desire and require.

"I only work here part time" -

I felt depraved when I recalled the countless times I used this sentence to answer my customers when I am not sure of certain stuffs. This isn't the correct attitude, at all. As a service provider, it hit me hard that I should at least make the effort to clarify questions that I don't know, even as a part timer, customers will still percept me as a representative of the Sakae branches. This deadly statement shall be deleted from my "hard disk" and it will never be heard from my mouth again, never ever.

Well, there are 6 more deadly statements, which can be very commonly heard from people from the industry. It might sound exactly righteous for us service providers, but in the customers' perception, we are just giving excuses for the mistakes. Instead I've learnt that mistakes are not the things that linger in customers' mind, it's how we service providers alter those mistakes. Service recovery is what we call it.

Thus, this lesson really teaches me how not to give excuses when mistakes are made, rather, I should focus on the service recovery that will make up the customers' perception of me. Remember, those 7 deadly statements are those that can destroy you, xianyi.

Politics

The next lesson that I find that is more relative to my life is Lecture 3: Coporate Politics. This is because politics are found everywhere, and yes, by everywhere I mean from school to workplace and even to my own house. Although the lesson is teaching how to deal with politics at the coporate level, I find it applicable to anywhere that politics is occuring!

Through this lesson I realised that in the real coporate world, it is very different from the ideal world of having fair salaries, promotions and desirable tasks. This is because of different factors like craving for power and etc. Also, I find this lesson especially relative because politics happen at my workplace then this helped me to handle the situation well.

During my first day at work during an IT exhibition, I heard negative stories about a fellow colleague. Rather than believing and jumping to outcast this colleague, I chose to listen to these gossips but not getting involved in it. As compared to the previous me, without knowing how to handle the situation, would have gotten into the politics and start doing nasty things to the "bad" colleague.

Overall, I think that this lesson gave me tips for handling coporate politics which is definitely useful and applicable when I step into society.

Delighting Customers

Other than knowing what customers want, I also need to know what actually delights them. In Lecture 9: Delighting Customers 1, I was taught about the ways to please customers and how to create and gain their trust. I find this chapter particularly important as service standard in Singapore is raising as years go by, this lesson not only help me keep up with the high service standard, but also put me at a higher level as the cream of the crop.

I recognized that RATER is very important to customers. RATER being: Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy and Responsiveness. At my workplace, I do constant self-reminders to make certain that I possess most of these quality constantly so that I am used to them subconciously. An obvious example will be responsiveness, I used to let customers wait when they require my service as I had stuffs to be done on hand. Thereafter, whenever I see customers' hands raised, calling for me, I will ensure that I will reach them within 10seconds. At the same time, empathy is exercised as I know how annoying it is for the customers when they cannot get the service crews' attention for a long time.

In addition, one sentence that was nailed in my brain from this lesson was "Rules are meant to be broken" The sentence, though with much irony, proved to be very useful when delighting customers. It taught the very traditional me who used to stick to the rules till death how to bend the rules at appropiate times.

BESE Helping Me To Grow

BESE made me a better man, not only in terms of service quality but also my personality. Starting from within the company itself, knowing how to handle politics can make life easier and more elating at my workplace. As people say, "A happy man provides the best service"

Of course, just by being a happy man doesn't ensure that that my customers will leave the company with the same rate of happiness. Through knowing about customers' perception, I picked up the skill to employ good service recovery instead of giving excuses. Lastly, to make sure that customers leave delighted, RATER will follow me for as long as I live. In conclusion, BESE armed me with the required skills and methodology to face the harsh business and commercial world. With that, I believe that I will not only excel and shine in the future service industry, I would also do my school and family proud.