What is fabulous service? How do you define a “delightful experience”?
To many, an exceptional encounter is a heroic one, epitomised by a smiling human being who jumps through flaming hoops to provide memorable encounters.
Tag: service
The 5 Rs of Curation
A curator hard at work (source of image)
Curators. I should know them.
Guardians of museum collections, curators acquire artefacts and artworks, conduct research, publish articles or books, and mount exhibitions.
Four Tools to Improve Productivity
You need the right tool for the job (Swiss Army knife courtesy of Victorinox)
Productivity is one of the main prerogatives for Singapore’s service-based and export-driven economy.
Unfortunately, it is also one of the toughest challenges to surmount.
As I’ve blogged previously, addressing our productivity challenge entails understanding what it means. This involves studying how man, method, machine, material and other means are combined to generate wealth for the enterprise in the most effective and efficient manner. Through the careful analysis and diagnosis of problem areas, organisational productivity issues can be resolved.
Eat Play Shop at Johor Bahru
What are Johor Bahru’s (JB) malls like? Do they really offer great value for shoppers?
Recently, my wife and I decided to revisit JB’s shopping malls after hearing positive things (mainly how cheap it was to buy books from Popular) about our closest neighbouring city from friends. As we’re pretty time-starved, we chose to focus on two malls – City Square and KSL City.
3 Ways to be Good, Better and Best
Teamy the Bee at NHB’s Love Me Love Me Not Exhibition (Courtesy of Youth.sg)
Anybody who has been around long enough would have heard that old anthem for productivity helmed by the mascot “Teamy” the Bee . Perpetuated by the National Productivity Board in the 1980s (now SPRING Singapore), it goes something like this…
“Good better best,
How Retailers Can Go Wrong
Recently, my wife and I had the chance to speak to a young girl working at a specialty retail outlet at VivoCity.
The circumstances which led to this were rather unpleasant, and I prefer not to go into details. Our conversation was pretty enlightening though.
7 As of Marketing Experiences
Sprite Shower – a great example of experiential marketing (courtesy of Exact Drive)
How do you market a theme park, museum, or holiday resort? Do the traditional 4 Ps of Product, Price, Place and Promotion still work?
The answer certainly lies less in your marketing mix and more in what I’d call your Experience Mix.
Childcare Leave and Dell Heaven
Yes, I am back online! It sure feels good to be connected again, after last fortnight’s scary episode.
First, I must share that I took childcare MC leave today to bring my kid to the paediatrician. He was the latest victim, together with my wife and I, of some gastric related flu. It was some affliction that probably spread around when we last visited Bangkok. We went to his favourite Dr Yeo at the Killiney Family Clinic, and got some medicine for diarrhea, vomiting and related symptons.
Anyway, I spent about 2.5 hours this morning helping him to put together his gift from Auntie Karen – a nice big Peter Pan playset featuring one of the islands in Neverland. Finally managed to fix it amidst lots of grunting and straining over the intricate parts, but the look on his face was well worth it thereafter.
Why Japanese Service is Ichiban
Even fish mongers treat you like a god!
A key reason why I enjoyed my recent vacation to Hokkaido so much was the customer experience. Let’s face it. Japanese service quality is light years ahead of ours. Almost everybody I know who visited Japan raved about it. However, they do also have certain chinks in the armour as you would see later.
First, let’s talk about what great service is. Delightful service goes beyond being polite and courteous. It looks at ensuring that every single touchpoint to a customer is taken care of. It emphasises being quick and responsive to customer’s needs. It empowers staff to be flexible and to take quick remedial action in service failures. It pays close attention to the fine details and little nuances.
Replace Without Question
Just got back from a fabulous holiday in wintry Hokkaido. Will blog about it soon.
Meanwhile, another brilliant example of how service should be from Seth Godin. No questions asked and no serial number, receipt, warranty card or other forms of authentication needed. Just what we need here in “black and white” Singapore.
Laurie writes, “amazing customer service from le creuset, the french enamel on cast iron cookware people