New breed of service

Most of our training programs for this particular government agency were conducted at hotels in Kuala Lumpur. Since we train low rank staff, the hotels used are usually boutique hotels or those rated 3 star status ones. And these are hotels located usually in the heart of Kuala Lumpur where participants, especially those from out of town, can easily walk out and shop for souvenirs to bring back to their loved ones after the program is over.

We had the opportunity of working at three such hotels on a frequent basis; while their standard is almost the same, their service levels differ. In some areas, the difference is great and in others, marginal. And in the almost four years of training for this government agency’s rank and file personnel, we have experienced these 3 hotels go through many changes – restructuring exercises, so they say. But in essence, change in management and or ownership.

No matter who the new owners or managers are, they will always try to retain the staff from the previous management. This is not easily achieved since movement among the rank and file in this industry is high, and any signs of an “uncertain” future could easily trigger an outflow of staff from one hotel to another.

In the same manner, since hotels work by a standard set of operating procedures industry-wide, regardless of who runs the hotel now, at the least the basic standards are maintained. Or so that should be the case.

So it was that we had a 3-day program at this particular hotel which we personally rank 2^nd in the line-up of the three hotels we always work from. The last time we were there some months back, they were going through a restructuring exercise. By this program, things had settled down. We noticed a few familiar faces on the floor that recognized us. The rest are relatively “new” and foreign.

We had somber and serious Malaysians greeting us at the reception, friendly and smiling nationals from Myanmar serving us our breaks by the hotel pool (the seminar room is located by the pool…a refreshing challenge) and now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t Bangladeshis at the coffee house waiting on us for breakfast and lunches. We were told the cooks are Indonesians and Malaysians (Chinese, Indians and Malays). The new breed of Malaysian service culture!

Which brings to mind an interesting issue, since this new breed of service providers cannot even speak or understand a word of English what more Bahasa Malaysia, how were they trained to deliver on the basic standards of the hotel? It is not enough for them to smile and nod their heads as signs of respect to a guest. Or to hold the elevator doors for us while they patiently wait to let us take our time to get in or out of the elevators.

They must demonstrate that they understand what is required of them to comply with the basic standards – and the hotel must also be equally responsible to its guests and show that they care enough about their service providers’ ability to perform the basic duties so as not to tarnish their own image.

When hotels take in this new breed of service providers under their wings, they cannot be lackadaisical about how these persons are going to perform. A check and balance is needed. The hotels got in cheap labor; don’t be stingy with their training. These human resources from abroad are not classified as “expatriates” – these are skilled “manual laborers”. And back where they come from, most probably they would not be allowed into a hotel unless to work. Chances are they would not know the difference between a soup spoon and a dessert spoon, and that you stir sugar in your coffee/tea with a tea-spoon. To them, a spoon is a spoon is a spoon!

Obviously, this hotel that we had our program at did not think such matter matters. And so it was that during our coffee/tea breaks, we had to stir our hot drinks with plastic table-spoons and use the plastic eating forks to pick our kuihs.