Standards of service

Last week, we accompanied my father to the Legend Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. He was in town for a meeting and was checking in to the hotel where the meeting was held.

At the check-in counter, my father (and his “entourage” consisting of my husband, my nephew and I) were led to the Executive lounge for VIP registration. It seemed as a Board member of this statutory body, my father was entitled to an Executive suite on their Executive floor, hence his registration in their Executive lounge.

My husband and nephew followed close behind my father while I lagged behind, busy responding to a sms from a consultant friend. Also a bit hesitant about stepping in to the room but the young man at he door kept them opened and seemed to be waiting for me, so not wanting to disappoint him, I followed suit.

This is supposed to be service at its best. The guest relations person never forget to refer to my father by his designation, “Dato’” this and “Dato’” that. I guess she was trained that way but I can’t help thinking she could have been a bit more warmth in her service delivery. Term of reference is one thing, but to smile graciously AND genuinely is totally something else. It shouldn’t have been hard to do.

Or did she perhaps feel that it is a burden to attend to people with titles, especially one as old as my dad and obviously not in the same league as the CEOs of the nation’s top corporations. Well, excuse us if my dad had on his less expensive wrist watch – his gold Rolex is undergoing its scheduled maintenance service.

Real Achievers

Recently I was invited by AmCham to be one of the judges for their Young Achievers best selling product final competition. We were to score not only the products but also the reports submitted together with the products, and indirectly the Achievers’ commitment in ensuring sustainability of their enterprises.

These are 16 year old Malaysian secondary school students, venturing into the “real” world of business, with guidance and support from the Advisers – representatives of their sponsors. The school administrators play an equally important role in determining the success of their venture for these Young Achievers actually represent their schools.

The 4 of us judges were unanimous in our decision when it came to which groups deserved high scores….we were allowed to discuss the products and air our views on the reports, but scoring was an individual decision. Yet, the 4 of us were of the same opinion when it came to the top 3 scorers.

While I will share more of this in a later post, what I want to put down here is, in whatever that our young people do, given the proper guidance and support, they will shine. It was obvious from the 3 groups that they had the strong support of not only their sponsors, but more importantly their school. From their Principal, their teachers and down to their fellow students.

2 of the judges were Achievers themselves so many years ago. Look at them now, successful in their careers and very positive in their outlook. And they attribute this program as one of the platform that helped make them what they are today…