[SG Talk] Poor services: Is that Singaporeans' attitude?

[tangwk1990]

I started this thread because I sometimes do find services quite poor as compared to other countries' standard. It can be any services, like in a restaurant, shops, transport, etc.

I sometimes find the services in some restaurants quite unsatisfying. Sometimes, they are inefficient, like mixing up our orders with somebody else and sometimes we have to wait for quite a long time before our food comes. That's quite frustrating to me!!! :crazy: When compared it to restaurants in Hong Kong, they're much more better. They're more organised and our food comes once we ordered our food. That type of service really impressed me. How I wish that Singaporeans can be like that....

What's your opinion?

[jiali]

I feel that in Singapore, there are poor services in some places. Like in Delifrance. I was queueing with my friends to order our food. Behind us were caucasions. The staff at Delifrance served the caucasions 1st!! PLUS, the proportion of food they gave the caucasions was bigger! My friends and I were like --> :profanit: I mean, how can they be so biased??

I do agree that the service in some other restaurants is not really good too. YES, they take ages to serve our food and it's frustrating. But sometimes, it's due to lack of staff too. The services in Singapore does have room for improvement!

[hisashiluv14]

Jiali: SERIOUSLY????? God I hate it when Singaporeans do that to each other. How utterly stupid! I would've caused a huge scene if it happened to me! :-x

And yes, I agree, the service in Singapore is so crap that I haven't the words to describe it. This especially applies for places like Mango and Zara. When I was working as a salesgirl at some fashion boutique in Far East Plaza, my manager kept breathing down my neck to attend to customers and take out hangers for them when they wanna try stuff on and direct them to the fitting room, blah blah blah, smile at them, things like that, but you'll NEVER EVER see such service when you enter Mango/Zara. The sales people just ignore you as if you're air. And that other time when I was at Zara (the big one at Orchard, near Borders), I wanted to get a bigger size for a skirt, and there was this salesgirl nearby. So I was like, "Excuse me!", loud enough for her to hear, but she didn't even turn around! So my friend joined in and went 'excuse me' too but you know what? That stupid idiot continued walking away without even stopping to turn around or whatever! How rude is that?

And this other time, I was at m)phosis or whatever, the one at Raffles City? Yeah. Me and my mom were looking for a dress for me to wear to my school's (retarded and lousy) pseudo-prom. So we were browsing at this rack, and out of nowhere, this idiot salesgirl pushed herself between my mom and I and forcefully put some clothes back on the rack, WITHOUT EVEN SAYING EXCUSE ME. Rude! So bloody rude!

Singapore is supposed to be some gracious society but honestly, it's bull. I mean, over here we laugh at how chaotic and barbaric Taiwan's parliamentary sessions are, but hell, their services beat ours by SO MUCH. At least, it does in Taipei. When you walk into ANY store, be it a cake store or a fashion store, the people there will go, "huan ying guang ling!" And when you leave, they'd all say bye to you and thanks for coming and stuff, even if you don't buy anything.

I mean, I don't like sales people following me around when I shop either, but at least be around to render assistance to me when I need it! Ugh. This is a long post but I get super agitated whenever the subject of the crappy "service" in Singapore crops up, so excuse my verbosity.

It's sickening, really. :dry:

[jiali]

Jiali: SERIOUSLY????? God I hate it when Singaporeans do that to each other. How utterly stupid! I would've caused a huge scene if it happened to me! :-x

I mean, I don't like sales people following me around when I shop either, but at least be around to render assistance to me when I need it! Ugh. This is a long post but I get super agitated whenever the subject of the crappy "service" in Singapore crops up, so excuse my verbosity.

It's sickening, really. :dry:
Yup, that really happened, but we were hungry and just wanted to get our food quickly and eat. So we decided to let it go... :oops:

OH yah, i do hate it when sales people follow me around when i shop too!! Either that, or they'll keep staring at me. It's so uncomfortable and freaky! Sometimes, when i leave the shop without buying anything, they give the unhappy face! AArgh! Sickening. It's not like not coming back ever again. But after seeing such bad service, I usually avoid entering that shop again, if the same rude person is around..

I feel that Perlini's Silver has pretty good service. The people there are friendly and always around for assistance. So far, didn't experience any poor services there. :happy:

[weemalyn]

i also think that some of the services here are quite bad.

I also hate it when sales people just follow me around the shop, it's kind of give me an uneasy feeling :crazy: . Under such circumstance, I would rather walk out of the shop even if I spotted something nice in the shop.

Some of the shops people are quite unfriendly also, especially when we ask them to help us get new pieces or they sometimes look very unwilling to get something for the customers (I would say it's minority of them, the services are improving)

hisashiluv14, I agree with you that the services in Taipei are very good. I had a enjoyable shopping experience there. They are very courteous and always have a great smile on their face. They are always willing to help and sometimes when we kept staring at some stuff, they would offer to take it down for us to see. Even if we don't buy it after they took it down, they still look happy. Unlike Singapore, if you ask a salesgirl to take something down(especially for those that's unreachable by customers) and you ask them to put it back, some of them will give you an unhappy face :worry:

[hisashiluv14]

Oh yes, the new pieces thing. So this one time I was at U.R.S @ Ngee Ann City, trying on a pair of shoes. I decided that I wanted that pair; it was a size 8 and the sales person had just got it out of the storeroom. But I inspected the shoes and I found some specks of dust or whatever on them, and I wanted another pair. There were two salesgirls there; one of them was obviously more inexperienced, probably a student waiting for her results. So I asked that girl for another pair, and she told me that she'd get it. So she rang up my purchase, my mom got ready to pay, and then I noticed that the other salesgirl was already putting that pair of shoes into a plastic bag. I told the inexperienced one that I wanted a new pair; she went into the storeroom, and then the other sales person went in with her too, with a buay song look on her face. Then when they came out, the inexperienced one told me, "Sorry, that's our last pair."

CRAP. If you don't want to give me a new pair, just say lah. I wanted to buy another pair of shoes but after that incident, I was like, forget it! And if it weren't for Chinese New Year, I wouldn't have bought the shoes that I eventually bought either.

Um, right, another rant. Haha! about the service in Taipei, even their salons have nice people. They called me "[my surname] xiao jie" when I went to a salon to get a haircut! It was so nice! :happy: (And the haircut was a million times nicer than the kind of...things I get in Singapore for the same price.)

weemalyn, some fashion stores have good service, for sure. But I think many shops in Orchard have very rude sales people, which is super ironic considering the fact that many tourists frequent Orchard a lot. Or maybe they're super polite to Caucasians, just like Jiali described. :dry:

Esprit's flagship store in Raffles City has very good service though. The people are friendly and they smile at you and they take hangers out for you. I like it. :-)

[tangwk1990]

Hmm...seems that you guys have more experiences on poor services. You know, I rarely go shopping so I have less experience on that.

Yes, those saleswomen are really too much. I mean, you want them to do a simple task for you, like getting another pair of shoes, etc and they just don't feel like doing it. What type of attitude is this!! :crazy: Don't they feel shameful of themselves?

I've one experience here. My father called the contractor to check something in our house a few months ago and he said that he would come at, say, 4pm. But then, he did not come. My father got quite frustrated and called them. The contractor said that he would come at 6pm and he still did not come at that time. My dad was quite pissed off and you know what? He called the contractor again and at the same time, he had just arrived!!! Really frustrating!!! :crazy: I mean, we were already having dinner at that time. And the contractor could have called us again if he had to change the time.... :dry:

[petheads]

hmmm...I've had my share of bad service at retail shops too - the snubbing, the "I'm deaf" act, etc, so I guess I'm more or less used to it. I just don't buy from them. Seriously. No matter how much I like that piece, I'll travel miles to the next outlet to buy. However, there are still some small boutiques (not the high class ones) that offer very good service. The sales staff are really friendly and helpful despite my dressed down weekend shopping look. They know when to advise and when to back off. Unfortunately I don't come across such shops often enough.

But I must say that our F&B sector is doing much better when it comes to service . Most of the places I visit have friendly staff who makes me feel really good about eating there. To me, it's the whole package that attracts me - the food AND the service. Which is why Starbucks is my favourite self-service cafe. Those branches that I frequent have perky staff who makes me feel happy happy too. Starbucks may not have the best coffee (my cappuccino's usually just half a cup full) but to me, it has the best service. :wink2:

[snowflake]

Actually I feel differently about services when I’m studying and when I’m working. :oops:

When I’m studying, I’m more lenient towards the sales person’s attitude. Meaning I don’t get pissed off so easily. But when I started working, I started to be more severe in assessing them. I guess it is because I felt that money is hard to earn and I DON’T WANT to waste my money on people who are lousy to me when I’m spending my money.

Recently, I went to a shoe shop during lunchtime. I tried a few pairs of shoes and the lady who help me don’t seems to look happy about it. I was considering of buying one of these but changed my mind after looking at her. Plus I won’t go there to buy any shoes any more. Admittedly, it was lunchtime and they are busy so there is reason to be upset. I don’t really blamed them I just chose to take my business somewhere else. :bleh:

However, I must said something for them as I had been doing sales before too. Some of the customers are so unreasonable and nasty :-x . They acted high and mighty and expected the sales people to do what ever they DEMAND no matter how unreasonable. This type of people really makes me sick. It is a vicious cycle.
And as a sale people, they are not earning a lot and how the heck do you keep on smiling to everyone?!

[hisashiluv14]

Yeah, true, snowflake, salespeople don't earn a lot. Or at least, I didn't when I was working at Far East Plaza. It was like five bucks an hour without commission...bleah.

To be honest, after working as a salesgirl, I'm more sympathetic towards salespeople now. The job really sucks, to be honest; you're standing there the WHOLE day and it's really tiring and you still have to deal with some really, really horrid customers. Luckily I didn't come across any, but some of my colleagues did (as in, I wasn't serving that crappy woman, thank goodness or I think I would've been fired :bleh: ). Still, I'm not an unreasonable customer and so I expect to be treated the same by whoever's serving me.

On the whole though, buying lingerie from departmental stores like Isetan and John Little is quite a joy. Yesterday I was at John Little and the woman who was helping me was really nice. I bought 2 sets of underwear and she was supposed to give me a G-string for free but she forgot about it. She could've just kept quiet and all but just before I paid for my stuff she came up to me and told me about it. And then later on, when I realised that I'd gotten the wrong size (after 'checking' at the counter - I'm so blur!), she willingly exchanged it for me and wasn't at all pissed about it. People like that make my shopping even more enjoyable. :-)

And I agree with Pets about our F&B sector...well, on the whole anyway. I had to wait for 7 minutes at Coffee Bean today before my order was taken and the guy didn't apologise to me but apologised to the ang moh man behind but whatever, I'm in a good mood today so I shan't nit-pick too much. :-)

[laruku]

Which is why Starbucks is my favourite self-service cafe. Those branches that I frequent have perky staff who makes me feel happy happy too.
Yep! Me too!!! Their coffee is really so-so but the service staff is always ready to crack a joke and smile and really make me feel as if my $$ is very important to them.

Plus, the Starbucks I go quite often nowadays has got a really cute manager... :shifty:

[kasic_fantasy]

though i'm only 15 but then i feel that almost everytime i go out shopping or eating, the service is always only 6 out of 10.

i'm not being demanding but then there are some places that didnt really learnt to treat their customers well. those people who serve...they act as if like they were being force to serve rather than they serve to work. i begin to feel that singaporeans has the ' love to be served than to serve' attitude.

i have worked in a salon and also in places that requires good servicing attitude. i find that if i do it with the right attitude, i naturally get the good comments and i get to end my tiring day with smile...

i just cant understand why cant those people think in this way :dry:

pets yea starbuck's people rocks! i just love the branch in Plaza Singapura :excited:

[indigo]

I don't think it's just Singaporeans' attitude, I think it can occur to just about anyone.
But seriously, working in the service line is definitely not easy. You've gotta put on a smile no matter how in a bad mood you are, and to some extent, yes, you are forced to serve people you don't like. However, it is their job and a must to refrain from giving attitudes to customers. When I was working as a salesgirl, there were so many unreasonable customers, but I always remind myself not to answer back, but well, there's once I lost it and just :rolleyes:

There's once I was having sushi buffet at Sakae at Westmall, and the staff there were really rude and impatient. There's this waitress whom we called over to take our orders, she gave a very irritated attitude and after taking our orders very reluctantly, we saw/heard her swearing in Cantonese accented foul language and cursing about the customers. After that, our orders didn't come at all. 20 minutes later we called a waiter and his attitude was the same with that previous waitress, and he didn't bother to help us order our last few dishes. And it's a sushi buffet, but the conveyor belt were all red plates. It wasn't until 5:30pm where there're plates of other colours. Fed up, we left the restaurant feeling @!#$#^$&%&!!*&#!

From the way those two staff spoke, we could tell that they're not Singaporeans. Bottomline is, it's not just Singaporeans who are displaying such attitudes. But yeah, kasic fantasy, I've no idea why they think that way too. Maybe they got ditched or they've frowned so much that it's fixed on their faces. :rolleyes:

[hisashiluv14]

Plus, the Starbucks I go quite often nowadays has got a really cute manager... :shifty:

:excited: Really? Where?

indigo: God that's crap! Did you and your friends swear back at them? Complain to the manager? My dad would totally blow his top and start yelling at them and making a scene if it happened to my family.

Actually, I'm one of those people who hate serving others and would rather be served. Haha! But that's quite applicable to everyone isn't it? Still, I think that if you're in the service line, then you should do a good job and not take out your frustrations on your customers. It's just rude and irritating.

[Jie_Lun_Rox]

i live in Tampines and once i went wif my family to Tampines Mall Pastamania. The place was full and we waited. when there was finally a seat, the waitress gave it to the family of caucasians behind us! gosh we waited VERY long! finally when we got in, she took our order. we waited for centuries for the food and when the food finally came, it was a wrong order! god dammit that suckz. it happened a long time anyways, i neva went to eat there again..

yea sometimes when i go Sakae at Parkway, the waitress and waiters are some from China.. from the way they talk..

[laruku]

Yelen, I'll tell you secretly.. But my friend thinks he looks like Guan You from Mayday. I was so upset after hearing that. Whahhahahhaha.

I used to work at the front office in one of NUS' hostels and there was once this Ang Mo who was making a fuss out of something, which I have forgotten what it was. He was like practically punctuating his words with 'bloody' and 'shit' and stuff like that. At the end, he got what he want and before he left, he was like saying "Your service is very good" I didn't know whether to cry or laugh.

Another instance was when I was doing reception for one of my productions. Anyway, this lady didn't know the play was in mandarin and being Caucasian, she didn't understand. So she obviously kicked up a big fuss and demanded a refund saying she had brought clients to watch the play. I called her after that but she didn't pick up so I left a message and she called me back. OMG! She complained to me for ONE whole hour!! I was so glad I was on free incoming. My gosh.. Haha...

Anyway, my point is, sometimes we don't think of our own side. If we were unreasonable or being a tad too difficult. Like hisashiluv14 mentioned, it IS very tough for them to be standing up all day and meeting customers who are really from hell. Nevertheless, I agree that good service is very important and it will contribute significantly to Singapore's attractiveness as a shopping paradise. ^^

[snowflake]

Did you guys read an article written by Mr. Brown in the Today newspapers about Singapore’s sale people service? It was some time ago. I can’t find the link but if I do I will post it. :D Basically it is titled, Don’t Study You will end up in the service line, some thing like that. I think it is true if it is applied 10 years ago now I don’t think it is that accurate anymore. :oops:

Anyway after reading the experiences that all of you had experienced, most of it seems to be at restaurants.
Which reminded me of mine bad experience at a restaurant too. My friend and I went to queue at a certain Swenson restaurant. There was a man and a lady at the counter, busying counting the money. None of them even had the courtesy to acknowledge us. So we interrupted them to say we were here. :bleh: The guy just looked at us and said wait impolitely. They are like so obsessed with counting their money and I got no idea where the rest of the staff was. :-x Being a bit pissed, we walked off just when another staff came over. What I don’t understand is that it was not a peak hour, so where was all the staff? :dry:

Anyway I had not come across an incident where the service staff treated the Ang Mo better. But the truth not all Ang Mo is nice like what laruku had experienced. Some Ang Mo are so full of them, thinking they are superior :wacko: to Asian people. They will expect special treatment. :glug:

Oh by the way, Laruku, congratulations on you being the Member of the Month. :wave:

[tangwk1990]

I was quite annoyed by the service of the cashiers of 7-11 yesterday. I bought a drink and I wanted to pay by ez-link. I tap the card and alas! :oops: No paper left!!! (The paper is for the receipt) And I had to wait for them to add more paper and they are taking their own sweet time!!! :crazy: One of them still even have time to blame the other cashier, "Why you didn't put in the paper?" "I don't know!" the other cashier replied. :dry:

I was very impatient by that time. I had to rush and they are still taking their time. Don't they have the sense of urgency? :-x

[danielle86]

thats bad.... but i think only applied to those at neighbourhood shoppings mall....
cause i just went to get some bread at delifrance rivervale mall... they left with two bread the kind i wanted... so i just mixed with another one... i thought same price as 3 for $3 but turn out 0.60 more... not i stingy... i just asked why? cant they discount me at $3? since they bread i want lack of one.... the manager, wearing blue one say 'can't..' i was asking them to closed one eye... but his attitude was bad.. he said if u dun want dun buy... we dun haf it now... (that time only 6pm...) i was thinking why he cant asked us to stay n wait for few mins.. he baked for us??
another time... they put very less feelings in the bread... paying so much for this service??
but if i go orchard area... service was good, feelings was much more fresher n more than the one i went....
den i remember i ordered my drink.. at the fruit store at tangs market... let say i want papaya milkshake... the uncle say $2.50 at first den, later another uncle tell me it was $3... den the final price told by the auntie was $3.50... i was like -.-"" quite fed up when i paid... service sux

i think service for foreigners was better because image...

sometimes cannot blame the sales ppl... maybe they haf a bad day... its hard for ppl to put up a fake smile and serve.....

[friends_pt]

I think the poor service only occurs in various places and depending on the waiters/waitresses working attitude. i think those poor attitude one are jus that these waiters/waitresses just wanna earn a living and didnt really bother whether they are providing good services. but i think i'm kinda pleased personally with the Macdonald's staff, very good job. the only place which i was utterly disgusted by their attitude was the cafe cum restaurant in Cineleisure. the third floor cafe. It so happened that day that my friends and i were having dinner there and were pondering what to eat and when we've decided on what we want to eat, when my friend place her order, the waitress just told us that they no longer have any japanese food. We were like, fine, choose something else. And when my friends make their order again, the waitress once again said what my friend order was sold out for the day. At this moment, my friend was pissed as she thinks that it was the waitress duty to tell us even before we make our order what is not available but she didnt. She happily wait till we make our order than she tell us what's no available. poor attitude which i ever encounter i guess.

[hazelnut]

My experience with the F&B sector in Singapore isn't as nice as what I have experienced overseas too. The biggest "argh" factor is when I see the staff getting flustered when there is a huge crowd. They just slam the plates and cutleries on the table and walked hurriedly away. Or they will interupt when we are doing ordering. This restaurant I went to is Cry**** Ja** @ Ta**.

It is not good to exhibit that kind of image. Customers dun feel good during the treat and most probably would not come back again.

[tangwk1990]

This restaurant I went to is Cry**** Ja**.

Is it? :? I had been to this restaurant many times and their services are quite good to me. And the food is also quite nice! And I had not seen any rude waiters in this restaurant.....

Anyway, I wanted to share a really unpleasant experience that my parents had. My parents, together with my brother (I was not with them) were going to Pulau Ubin and they took a taxi. We lived in the central of Singapore and we had to go to Changi Village. Guess what? The taxi driver brought us to somewhere slightly further than Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, I think. And my parents were really angry!!! :crazy: And the driver insisted that they were in the correct place!!! :realmad: And later, when he brought them to the correct place, he still wanted my parents to pay for the taxi fare, counting the distance they travelled from my house to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and then up to Changi Village!!! Gosh, is was about $20!!! :ranting:

I'd want to sue that driver if I ever meet him again.... :dry:

[ene]

Why don't your parents just write to the taxi company ? Details all the events and write in a professional way. Action will be taken. I've tried it before and it worked. Just make sure you write it PROFESSIONALLY and not sound as if you're raving and ranting :shifty:

[lattae]

I think it all starts even when the kids are in school :wacko:

I just went for a campfire over the weekend. It was a scouts event (scouts and guides have campfires whereby the host school invites lots of other units for a night of singing/dance/ra-ra etc) at a reputable boys school in Bishan. The whole atmosphere was right (the structure at the entrance, the stage, the pretty fire, decoration etc), but the hosts were so damn rude! All the way from the ushers, to the MCs, to the leader. :ranting: Honestly I was so pissed I wanted to raise it up to the teacher in charge. What have they been teaching their boys?!?!

Hosting is a type of "service" which you provide to your guests, even tho' it's "free". I'm basically not impressed.

[metaray2]

Wad are u not happy with?Personally,i think that the host did a good job.The MCs were not rude.In wad way were they rude?I think they were really great MCs.I think that wad u said wasn't true.Anyway,the campfire rawked

[lattae]

Well... If you want me to list down what was wrong, I can and I WILL. (I thought I wanted to "save face" for the school).

1) Crowd management at the entrance was poor. At least 4 unit was stuck outside (which I don't blame because the structure that guests have to cross can only take a few at a time), with no one coming out to let us know how long we have to wait, or apologise for the wait etc.

2) After the structure, the usher was supposed to take us to our seats. Despite my request to get wait for the entire contingent get off the structure before moving on, the usher insisted and led half of my girls away while the other half are left still on the structure.

3) There were obviously NOT enough seats. Think about it, 2 benches for 35 people? There was no initiative whatsoever to apologise for the lack of seats nor was any attempt to try provide more seats. I've been to many campfires in my life, any good host school will bring out extra benches/seats. I expected scouts to have less problems with getting more benches, cos even guide units like IJ (tp) can provide more seats upon demand without much hassle.

4) So we requested for some extra seats like 3 times... they took out some extremely DUSTY chairs from I don't know where and shove it to us. They DID NOT unstack the chairs even, they just chucked the entire bunch to us, which says a lot on sincerity. When we informed the scouts that the seats are dusty, they just roll their eyes and said "So you want me to wipe with my scarf is it?". It was like totally unprovoked rudeness. If they are good hosts, they should have gotten us rags or something.

5) The MCs rudeness can be seen from the moment they started. When introducing the school and waiting for their cheers, the rudeness starts. The sound system was poor, people can't hear them, so when schools missed their cue to cheer, the MCs go "XXX it's your turn to cheer". In a very blunt manner, no please etc. When attempting to do crowd control, they ended up "commanding" the crowd, which you shouldn't be doing. You should take a more "advicing" tone.

6) When we seeked confirmation on what time the program would end, the scout (venture) just stared at me like I was some alien, and the way he responded was so unhelpful. :wacko:.

And the list goes on. Like I said, the whole environment was good. It's just the people factor was terrible. Which is why I'd likened it to visiting a posh restaurant with poor service. I've been to campfires that are not half as glam, but the attitude of the hosts are :thumbsup:. This school was a sore disappointment, I would expect more from a reputable school like that, especially when there is a big prominent banner that goes "A XXX gentleman (goes on to list the qualities)" in view.

metaray2 from your tone I gather that you were from that school? Number 1, if you intend to defend that school, then type well. I expect students from good schools to type well (typos aside, "wad"/"rawked" is undesirable, and leave a spacing after your punctuation marks). Number 2, like you said this is "opinion" you can force everyone to have the same opinion. I would also like to add that my friends and guides who were with me felt this way. Number 3, I guess you and I differ in the "standard" of campfires, or to be more specific what should be a good MC/script.

[metaray2]

Ok,i apologise for the typos and short forms.

Firstly,there was a great jam at the gateway as 29 schools were invited. The gateway can not hold so many people at 1 go and thus causing the jam.

Secondly,because of the jam,the campfire started much later than planned. The ushers were ordered to get the schools to the seats as soon as possible. I apologise if you found the ushers rude.However,it's not totally their fault as there was a huge crowd waiting,as you stated. They were just trying to do their job and try to get all the schools to their seats as soon as possible.

As for the extra seats, there were not enough benches. The chairs were for the VIP seats.The other chairs were stacked up,and only a few benches were left,after placing 2 benches for each school.We already tried to get the seats as soon as possible.I think that maybe some of the scouts who got the seats may seem rude to you,by not unstacking the chairs.I think that i should apologise about this.

The chairs were wiped before the campfire.Some of the chairs remained with some dust marks even after being wiped many times with clean cloth.And,at that point of time,we not only need to attend to only 1 school.We had to attend to quite a few schools at the same time and we were short of people who help to carry the benches.So,we had to attend to another school after carrying chairs for some school.

The sound system was supplied by an external source,so it wasn't our fault.The MCs might not have heard some of the cheers and think that the school might not be there.For example,when the MCs couldn't hear the cheer of a certain school,they asked the crowd if the school was there and the crowd just replied "no".However,the school was there.Later,the MCs still managed to recitfy the situation by placing the mike near to the school that was doing their cheer.

The crowd control was quite poor,as the crowd got kind of wild at the last part.However,I feel that the MCs have tried their best to control the crowd.As for when the programme would end,I guess that the venture wasn't too sure.

Overall,I find that the campfire was a really great one.The gateway was very grand and the fire pit was very unique.However,nothing is perfect.If you think that the attitude of the scouts is really bad,then we should improve it.I hope that you had enjoyed the campfire and will not be offended.

[laruku]

How should I say, I've been to quite a bit of camps too with small gateways and insufficient 'resources'. It's often the planning that goes behind all this problems. And foresight. Every single problem could have been avoided had the organising committee planned the whole event properly. But I believe that all these can be remedied and solved on the spot.

Often its HOW you do the above stated things. For example, bringing in of chairs. The lack of benches was obviously a lack of planning on the part of the organising school It's easy to test how many benches 30+ people need. Just get your class or something to sit on the benches closely but comfortably. It's so easy but few people think of it and would rather resort to guessing or deducing. If you had already predicted that the benches would not be enough, then alternatives should be sought. This should not have happened in the first place anyway. But since it happened, it's understandable that the host has a lot of other schools to attend to, but how long does it take to unstack chairs? It is ok even to ask the other people to help, all you have to do is ask nicely and give your reasons. A simple "Hi, sorry, could you girls help me with this? I've still got quite a number of schools to attend to as well. Thank you so much." will do. I believe nobody will be offended if the scout said that, even if he did not unstack the chairs in the end as well.

About the gateway part, it's really easy you know, to get by the jam. Just inform the guests beforehand to say, queue up in ones or twos(I don't know what your structure is like) and cross like that. It's really fast that way. And constantly do like the bus conductors do, "Please move faster. There are others behind you. Thank you so much. We appreciate it." Or something like that. And then gather the whole school at a part between the gateway and the seats. Just keep reminding them to keep together and not stray and stuff like that.

The idea and the key to giving good service lies in the magical few words, PLEASE, SORRY, THANK YOU. And of course the sincerity that oozes out of each and every person. Sincerity is a vibe. It can be felt. If you don't feel it, it will be shown.

[lattae]

Well, the issue is not the lack of seats, but how the scouts reacted to the situation. A simple "I am sorry about the lack of benches, please bear with it" will really suffice. We can make do. Offering poncho/plastic bag/newspaper etc for the guests would been a really nice gesture instead of getting the guest (especially the girls with their skirts) to sit on grass, which unlike the school hall or equivalent concrete ground is uncomfortable and leaves soil/grass/what-have-you on the uniform/skin. I would have asked my guides to do that, it's just right of a good host.

I understand the wait at the gate as well... It's just that good hosts would have gone up to the people in queue and do short/simple explanation about the situation, reassurance that it won't take very long. Things like that... It's all about making your guests feel comfortable.

Well like I've already mentioned, the campfire "environment" is really good... it'd be like a restaurant in a 5-class hotel. I was totally impressed by the gateway (which is 2 thumbs up), the stage, program booklet, refreshments. Everything was just set so perfectly for a great campfire. Which is why I am disappointed that the experience was ruined by a few rude scouts, and their failure to be good hosts.

I guess part of the reason I am very concerned over the "people" factor is because of my involvement in movement. As someone who helps to run a guide unit, and someone familiar with scouting/guiding traditions and standards, I really couldn't take that kind of attitude from scouts I met that day. I was really taken aback with shock. I've never quite met scouts with this kind of attitude, especially not at their own campfire :wacko:

[DragonPrince]

Dear Tangwk1990,

I don't know how do other countries improve their services. In Japan, they can bow to you. In China and TW, you can feel so comfortable. (Thats according to my boss.)

I work in the service line and there is a lot I want to complain about some unreasonable customers and terrible services too. Singaporeans just don't take it seriously. Some customers will think that if I give you money, you must work for me and I want to squeeze you dry. That attitude will only drive the service personnal nuts.

Why are there poor service personnal? I think those people are not properly trained, or had received instructions from their superviors that prevent them from servicing well. (e.g. company wants to save money, does not want to replace damaged items with working ones.) Most Singaporeans just take it as a part time job, if they don't like it, they just leave. Most Singaporeans like to be served, don't like to serve others.

If we don't change, I don't think there is any hope for the services in Singapore. I don't think the GEMS program will work very well too.

[SexyPenguin]

Yes. I've seen very rude cashiers at KFC. What do i mean by my rude? My friends and i were at KFC at plaza singapura, and that blooody cashier screamed at us becoz we kept changing our orders. I swear we din do that on purpose. :shifty:

They need to know something: The customer is always right. (: