Why Service is Bad in Singapore

Sometimes, i feel that the waiter over the Starbucks counter has better mannerisms than the rich spolit brats in my country club.

Maybe they are deluded by their wealth that they have became ignorant of their/family humble beginnings. The service staff are treated quite badly, they are like surrogate maids.

I have been telling my mum to correct her sentences when she asks for a cup of coffee… she would go something like:

“Can i have this and that?”

And i will immediately correct her;

“MAY i have a cup of coffee please?”

And she will give me a nasty pout and explain that she is Chinese educated and her English is not very good etc etc…

Or maybe i am just more sensitive to such stuff. I tend to smile at the waiters and treat them like equals. After a few encounters they will be quite happy to see me around and i get better service from them (hehe). There was once i left my notebook on the chair and the next time i returned to the cafe, the waiter came up to me and gave me back the notebook personally. This is indeed first class service! No need for the hassle of going through the management to fill up some ridiculous form.

The government has been harping on improving service quality but the real deal is that our people treat service staff like maids. The better approach is to improve service levels is to introduce etiquette classes in schools to improve our interpersonal skills.

Service starts with the people. The state of having third class citizens in a first world nation is going to bring down our service standards further. We should learn from SIA, we can have first class services on our planes so why is that not possible in our country?