Are Malaysian not anymore service friendly ?

There is a saying, ‘Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray’. The natural passion to serve and to please others is a good thing to have because it will lead us to become good hosts as well as our ability to perform excellent customer services. It forms our social make up and contributes to our service culture. It can also be a critical attribute that will continue attract tourism and foreign investment to the country because of this distinct talent in us. So there are social, business and economic implications to it.

Once upon a time Malaysian were very hospitable, but I simply can’t help noticed that our younger people are fast losing the natural flair to serve and to please. The natural eagerness to serve and to please people is becoming passion of the past. Our service people at hotels, banks, shopping centers, restaurants, theme parks, trains, planes, buses, taxis, petrol service stations, public counters, ticket counters, customs, immigrations, airports, etc. are not anymore doing Malaysia proud. I have sounded brutal here. Of course there are some extremely good individuals in all of those service centers, but due to cost cutting measure and other operational pressures, organizations are getting to be lean and mean. So are their people.

What we have nowadays are service people who are more interested in safeguarding service cost, profit, system, process, procedure and thus end up in ‘processing’ or at times even reprimanding customers. They are getting to be too much more operational, and a lot less customer centric. They are not there to serve and to please customers anymore. They hardly exhibit that radiant smile and almost always avoid eye contact since that will mean more customer requests that will lead to more things to do. Thus customers are often given the impression that they are there to bother rather than the reason for doing business.

Younger people nowadays are more ‘educated’ and equipped with better paper qualifications. They are technically more efficient with systems, processes, procedures and technology. All these hardly add up to good customer service. In fact they tend to behave like 'operation robots' and seem oblivious to customer welfare and needs. Thus services often become reactive. Not proactive.

Customers are people and need to be served by people who understand them and always respectful of their needs and expectations. What’s needed are those type of service people whom I describe to be like service ‘light bulbs’ that always light up and ever willing to shine on customers.

During the earlier days of low tech, our service people were able to compensate the quality with lots of high human touch, but with the current high tech, the service quality is let down by insensitive service conduct.

Malaysian do not anymore go out of their way to help people who needed help. If your car developed some mechanical problem in busy traffic, and expected people to readily push start your car, or gave you a lift to a nearest workshop, you probably have to cry and beg for it. It is getting less and less likely that you get an eager offering from local motorists or passers by. The scenario could perhaps be a little friendlier if you needed similar help in kampong area.

Malaysian used to ‘feel good’ for being able to help. It was almost like a daily passion. We did it without the expectation of material reward. The satisfaction comes with the given opportunity to help. We did it voluntarily. It gave us the sense of value. We enjoyed the sense of usefulness. The ‘feelings’ used to be the push factors to motivate us to help and to please. Those ‘feelings’ form part of the service attitude that as Malaysian we once were proud of. Sadly, that attitude has faded away.

They cannot teach ‘service attitude’ at schools and universities. Like any other attitudes, it is inborn and ingrained since young. It is shaped by those family values that are embedded in cultural and religious beliefs. It was ‘an honor to serve’. That honor belonged to the days when Malaysians were once upon a time proud to don national jerseys and play for the country. No one think about being paid for it. No one asked ‘What is it for me?’ Everyone was simply proud to be selected to wear Malaysian jersey. In any games, and in all types of representation. Given the chance, they might even willing to pay for it. The scenario is completely the opposite today.

The service scenario is also visibly changing. We are witnessing the influx of Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Indonesian and other Asian immigrants in our service sectors. Malaysian who live in gated properties are importing people from Nepal to protect them from local and foreign thieves. Most of our petrol service stations are manned mainly by Bangladeshi. You walk into local restaurants and you will be served by a variety of imported workers. We have long employed Indonesian and Filipinos to be our domestic helpers. Are Malaysian workers getting worse that our own service businesses do not want them, or our people have simply lost interest working in service sectors? Perhaps a little bit of both. Are imported workers any good at delivering service? What will be the long term effect of our service industry should we allow the current scenario to prevail? I am afraid you are not going to get any comforting answers.

This change of attitude toward service among Malaysian is by no means solitary. Attitudes toward personal integrity, laws and orders are also sadly on the decline. News on various levels and forms of corruption and dishonest practice are on the rise these days. So are cases on child and domestic abuses. At the same time, Malaysian motorists are fast gaining reputation to be among the world most notorious. Our drivers jumped queue, parked their cars anywhere closest to the point of destination, and in the process blocked others, clogged the roads and junctions. Majority of our motorcyclists do not stop at the red light anymore. Our taxi drivers will not likely win any courtesy awards anytime soon. Remember the KL mini bus drivers? Look like they are still around driving other type of passenger buses. Well, the lists can go on and on. It is no wonder that our accident rates are among the world highest.

Is the change in service attitude any correlation with the current decline in integrity and disrespect toward law and order among Malaysian? Perhaps there is an indirect correlation. I believe those declines put together, relate directly to many prevailing issues in our current lives. We are being flooded with technological and material achievements. Thus making us more self sufficient and in turn less sociable. We have a fair share of drug abuse cases. Perhaps there are flaws in our education system considering the number of drop outs and dysfunctional people around us. Surely we have to take a hard look at our parenting skills. All these factors need to gel and better managed to stem the decline of our value system that had resulted in those decaying attitudes.

What are the solutions? How do we get back on track with our service attitude and aptitude? I think we need to start managing differently at all fronts. We need to rediscover our service culture.

We need to start managing our kids differently at home. We need to nurture in them the values of treating people with respect, and if they were to continue serving and pleasing people around them, something good will come back to them. We need to talk to them about it. We need to make them understand the importance of it, and how it will affect their lives. We need to help them balance their focus so that sufficient attentions are given to people values. Otherwise we will easily lose them as they isolate themselves in their digital world. We need to collaborate with them service projects that are meaningful at home and the community. We need to focus and intensify our appreciation when they perform and excel in those values.

The same agenda need to be promoted at schools.

At the workplace we need to manage our human capital differently. Too much assessment and attention have been given to profits, costs, technological, system and process achievements. We need also to reinvent ourselves and give more focus in the way how we treat and value our people. It is time we rediscover their human dimension, which includes their propensity to like people, and to serve and to please. We need to reward them accordingly. We need workplace 'leaders' that inspire them to do the right things, and do them right. We need to continuously send the right signals that business survive on customers and they are there to attract and retain customers. To entertain customers and not to do battle with them. Only after we work very hard at achieving these results that we can hope on getting something back. It is not going to be anytime soon, but the sooner we invest time to manage them, the sooner we are likely to get something back. I hope it will come in the form of a very pleasing service culture that we can once more be proud of.

What do you think?