“The Service Excellence course is good because in the role plays, it gave us hands-on practise to solve the customer’s problems. It teaches people a lot about service skills, about what to say, how to answer the patron positively rather than negatively. I told one of my service staff the compliment given to her and encouraged her to keep up the good work.”

“The Service Excellence training impressed me a lot. I used to be low self-esteem and had trouble talking to customers. But after the training, I gained confidence in being at the frontline. Listening to the trainer and watching the video helped me see new ways of handling situations and what approaches to take. In the past I would ask my colleagues about how to handle a problem, but after the training, I made my own decision to solve a customer’s problem. I saw the reaction of the customer. He was very happy with the way I handled it. Now I put myself in the patron’s shoes. I can help solve the problem.”

“Being “more forgiving” is one of the most direct outcomes for me in attending these workshops. I learned to be more empathetic to hear and learn about my client’s anxieties and circumstances first before judging – “We don’t know their stories. We need to put ourselves in their shoes…we also have to be mindful or our tone.” It is also important to approach my colleagues appropriately so as to avoid triggers that might cloud the issues at hand. I now choose to go for win-win outcomes as a priority and I am mindful of good practices in my interaction with others. I now have a mantra, which I gleaned from the workshops to guide me – “wiping off the coffee stain” – when one has drunk his coffee at a common area, he should be mindful enough to clean off the mug stain so as not to inconvenient the next person using the area. This illustrates the need to be other-centered and demonstrate ownership.”