The outcome of my Are You Being Served? Mission has been posted on the Are You Being Served? website, check out Lester & Li Xiang: Sound service!

Here is a snippet of the post:

We approached one of the staff, nearer to us, and ask him to take the product down for us. He is wearing an orange color t-shirt which is significantly different from the rest of the staff there (they wore black) and he do not bear a name tag but just the word “Promoter” so we assumed he might be a part time staff working on the weekends.

Judging from his reply stated on top, he is not very sure of the product himself either. To make matter worst, he has problem communicating with us. He seems to have problem understanding our English and his replies in English to us are often very short.

Check out Lester & Li Xiang: Sound service for the full glory details!

I always complain that the service level in Singapore is lousy and now with the Are You Being Served? platform, I will see whether what I complain holds true.

Things I hate the most:

• When you ask “Do you have this product in store”, they will answer, “all the things are displayed on the shelves”.
• When you ask “Do you have the other model”, they will answer, “No”.
• Tai-Chi-ing you around. When you ask Person A, Person A ask you to ask Person B, when you ask Person B, Person B ask you to ask back Person A.
• With the influx of FT in Singapore, it is not uncommon to find sales personnel from China. Some of them do not even understand basic English which makes communication difficult and that begs the question, are we suppose to blend into them by speaking Mandarin or are they suppose to blend into us by learning English. This is really getting out of control.

Technically they did not answer wrongly but it is their attitude that pisses you off. For example, instead of answering “No”, they answer “Sorry, we do not have it”. Wouldn’t it make you feel better than saying a no and brushes you off after that?

Anyway, back to topic, following up on my Are You Being Served?’s blog post 3 weeks ago, my mission is suppose to commence on the 28th September 2009 and here are my mission details:

• I will be targeting the retail industry, in particularly the electronics portion.
• I am intending to get the Sony iPod Dock Clock Radio ICF-C1IPMK2 to replace my analog alarm clock while it charges my iPhone 3GS.
• I will be getting it from a local electronics store in VivoCity because it is the cheapest with member’s discount.
• I will be going together with Li Xiang and let her ask all the questions, while I observed the sales personnel.
• I will be observing his/her patience, attitude, product knowledge and most importantly will he go the extra mile to serve us.

PS: I can’t explicitly named the store to prevent unnecessary lawsuit.

The Go the Extra Mile for Service (GEMS) movement today unveiled a new logo to symbolized GEMS Up, the next phrase of Singapore’s service journey which aims to take service delivery to a higher level over the next three years.

New Gems Up Logo

GEMS Up is the second phrase of this national movement represented by five agencies, SPRING Singapore, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), the Institute of Service Excellence at the Singapore Management University (ISES) and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).

Mike Barclay, CEO of Sentosa Group

Mr Lim Swee Say, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office and Secretary-General, NTUC

GEMS Up supports the Are You Being Served? initiative. Are You Being Served? is a blog that centers around a passionate “Service Squad” which seeks to provide a reality check on service standards in Singapore and to find out if Singaporeans are being served well. Members of the service squad visit different locations to conduct “Missions” testing the standards of service around Singapore and posting the mission’s results on the blog.

Everyone are welcome to post comments regarding the service squad’s mission in the blog as it aims to highlight the pluses and minuses of service in Singapore, with the hope that when people discuss service, standards can improve.

My mission date is from 28th September to 12th October 2009!

PS: Are You Being Served? is using my WP-Polls plugin!