By Fanny Lee

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Photo by Helena Chui


    The customer is the boss, the god. This is the main ideology for tertiary industries in Hong Kong.
     Said Miss Angela Fan, the front office supervisor for Kowloon Shangri-La: “Good service not only fulfills the customers’ expectations, but also goes beyond their expectations.”
     Miss Polly Cho, the human resources manager for Hotel Furama Hong Kong, said that training can bring out the potential of staff, making them more confident.
     Nowadays service training is activity-based. It has changed from pure lectures 10 years ago to include video, slide shows and case studies.
     Role plays, group discussions and experience sharing are practised to enhance interactions among staff.
     According to Hang Seng Bank, contemporary training tends to be user-driven, with timely and tailor-made training programmes to cope with fast changing business needs.
     Miss Cho explained that customers nowadays are different from those years ago.
     “Owing to unsatisfactory economic conditions, customers expect more than what they pay for,” she said.
     “The society has become more efficient and technologically advanced. Thus the methods used in staff training is transforming," said she.
     Companies set their own training goals according to their business nature. For example, good command of language is essential in hotels.
     Hotel Furama Hong Kong organized English and Mandarin courses for the staff. A Japanese course was provided in Kowloon Shangri-La.
     Miss Cho said that upgrading the language standards of the crew helped to increase guest satisfaction.
     “Good dress is also part of good service,” added Miss Cho. Standardizing the appearance of staff can project the corporate image, create a unique identity of the company, promote a sense of belonging among the staff and uphold the discipline.
     “It is the duty of the staff to present a clean and tidy image to customers,” said Miss Fan.
     However, the manager for Spring Deer Restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, Mr. Chan Kee Shun, questioned the result of the modern service training.
     He suggested that workers in the past had to go through years of training before their skills were complete. This could not be compared with recent short-term training.
     Disagreeing, Miss Fan said, “Efficiency is important. A long training period does not guarantee good service.”
     Miss Chung Sau Lan, a former client service representative in Le Salon Orient, said the skills taught by the company was useful but insufficient.
     “Problems are new everyday,” said Miss Chung. “I was advised to pass the problems to the assistant manager whose jobs was to deal with complaints.”
     Miss Cho explained that no training could help to solve all problems.
     Thus, Miss Fan suggested that flexibility of staff is important. Staff have to deal with problems themselves.
     One way to cope with difficulties was advancing one’s own ability.
     For instance, Miss Fan attended business courses in her free time. This also helped provide an extra career choice besides the present profession.
     To keep up the service quality, companies held staff assessments from time to time.
     Hang Seng Bank held assessment exercises after training courses. Periodical post-course assessment, questionnaires, interviews with staff and aptitude tests are also used to ensure the standard of the crew.
     In Miss Cho’s hotel, service quality was assessed by guest questionnaires, letters and work of the guest relations officer.
     Mr. Chan of Spring Deer Restaurant pointed out that a reputation was accumulated over time.
     Said he: “The most important task is to make the customers so satisfied that they will not complain after meals at the restaurant.”