July 25th, 2010 — 12:01am
| This post first appeared in an internal employee ‘email-cast’ by yours truly. Adapted for general reading. |
Singaporeans like to complain, right?
We complain about everything! Why is it flooding in Orchard Road? Why are MRT fares expensive? Why watching World Cup on cable is so expensive? Why is the weather so hot/cold? Okay lah, let’s say we call these: ‘feedback‘.
Now look at the photo on the right. This is the message from the video display screens around Gatwick Airport in London:
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Comment » | Customer Service, People Development
July 5th, 2010 — 11:07am
Sometime in 2006, I started to frequent a Malay barber guy in Race Course Road, close to where I used to live on Petain Road. Operating out of a shop underneath a HDB block, the joint has probably seen better days; it is now sparse and functional. Three of them (all in their 50s) worked out of the same premises and it took me a while to get comfortable with one particular guy. Other than being cheap (SG$8 per trim), a haircut at the barber gets the job done quickly and efficiently, none of the fussiness of the salon and its army of stylists.
My Malay barber’s a quiet man. Apart from pleasantries, Vespa stories and the weather, we hardly got personal. But all the same, my sessions with this guy had been very pleasant. We had a well-established, mutually-beneficial relationship. His colleagues knew that and respected this relationship well to never court me to sit in their chairs, even if the place was swarmed. I was this guy’s regular and loyal customer.
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6 comments » | Business, Customer Service, Marketing 2.0
January 28th, 2010 — 1:38pm
Post Updated: 5 May, see end of post
Are we really a First World country with a world-class service industry serving the economy? Certainly not if our still unresolved issue with Singapore Post (SingPost) is a yardstick for measurement. A simple request for Singapore Post to re-deliver my wife’s parcel (containing online purchases of clothes from Forever 21) has dragged on for almost 3 weeks with no end in sight. Much worse is the customer service treatment we have been receiving at the hands of this monopolistic (we don’t really have a choice, do we?) Singaporean postal service. Truth is: no one at SingPost seems to care!
189 comments » | Business, Customer Service, The Customer
October 2nd, 2009 — 3:33pm
Recently I was asked this question ‘Tell me why Wisma Atria should have a Twitter account’. Wisma Atria is a major mall on Orchard Road, Singapore that has pretty much reinvented itself with a facade change and cool-factor repositioning. A quick check shows that Wisma Atria is already on Twitter although I can’t be sure if that is indeed Wisma’s or a Twitter-squatter. Looks derelict to me (with 4 dubious followers) and 0 tweets.
There are many things that a business can achieve on Twitter and on social media in general, including close interaction with customers, shouting out ads, news and discounts, content distribution and much more. Brand reputation management is also a real possibility if Twitter is set up to alert.
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7 comments » | Business, Customer Service, Social Media, The Customer
September 2nd, 2009 — 1:54pm
Facebook is a great place for small businesses and startups to stay in touch with their customers online. In fact, there are many other social media tools that can help SMEs get around the big revolution that is the social Web 2.0. Fika Cafe is a new food place, serving Swedish food in a quaint district of Singapore. Fika’s on Facebook too and the subject of my case study.
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11 comments » | Customer Service, Marketing 2.0, Social Media, The Customer
Now look at the photo on the right. This is the message from the video display screens around Gatwick Airport in London: