Hospitality industry must propel S'pore service
standards: Lim Swee Say
By Claire Huang | 02
July 2010
SINGAPORE: With stiff global competition,
gunning for gold is now not good enough. That's why Labour Chief
Lim Swee Say has urged the hospitality industry to strive to be
better than the best.
He said this during a session to learn more about the success of
the Customer-Centric Initiative of The Ritz-Carlton on Friday
36-year-old Jalee Sulaiman enjoys his job as a club concierge so
much that he even invited two hotel guests from London to his house
for a real taste of Singapore.
He also came up with a heartland tour to places like Toa Payoh and
Ang Mo Kio.
He said: "It was during the Ramadan month and we were celebrating
the fasting month. They stayed with us throughout the Hari Raya
period as well.
“They have conveyed their intentions to go to the heartlands and
away from the conventional tour programmes that we normally provide
them."
Jalee also took pains to buy them the traditional Malay attire in
their favourite colour.
And going the extra mile had been rewarding.
He added: "Most of them have become my close friends and we are
even on Facebook. So we also keep in touch with each other through
SMS and that makes their travel easier. In fact, when they come to
Singapore the next time round, they can just SMS me and everything
will be done for them, from reservation to airport transfer to
dinner reservations.”
Jalee is one of 11 staff of The Ritz-Carlton who received the
hotel's "WOW" award under its Mystique Moments programme.
Peter Mainguy, general manager, The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia
Singapore, said: "The WOW story is an expression that we use about
giving the guests a blow-away experience, beyond the guests'
experience and expectations.
The Customer-Centric Initiative (CCI) was launched by the
government in 2005 to encourage companies to commit to service
excellence.
More than 200 firms have participated in it.
The CCI first targeted the retail sector and was extended to others
like the food and beverage industry as well as the healthcare
sector.
The hospitality industry was its latest extension with close to 30
hotels and service apartments taking part.
In May last year, The Ritz-Carlton was the first in the hospitality
sector to embrace the Customer-Centric Initiative.
It topped the national Customer Satisfaction Index for Singapore in
2009.
But there's always room for improvement.
Mr Lim said: "If every one of us in the service sector in Singapore
can adopt the same mindset, in terms of having a service quality
target, a productivity target, an innovation target - maybe with
the three coming together, there is hope we can achieve a
breakthrough in a very widespread manner.
"If you're the best today, strive to be better. If you're better
today, strive to be ‘betterer’ and if you're ‘betterer’ today,
strive to be ‘betterest’ so that over time, Singapore's service
standards can just keep getting better, ‘betterer’ and
‘betterest’."
Mr Lim said the constant drive to improve will propel the country's
service standards to greater heights. - CNA/vm
