Sunday, September 04, 2005
Snubbed
I was snubbed today. Yeah, u heard me right. The place in question: Citigems (branch name has been withheld to still give them whatever dignity they still have). The suspected reason (Do I dare assume?): I was shabbily dressed.
Citigems was having a 40% storewide sale, so i decided to pop in to take a look to see if there was anything interesting to buy. I was dressed more casually than usual in Tshirt & Bermudas, lugging around the usual backpack. The shop was quite crowded but not to the extent of maddening. I took my time to look around, from display to display. Time check: 5 mins, no sales person bothered to come up and serve me. I thought they were busy and brushed it off. But then doubts started to arise when I raised my head and looked around: there were 2 sales people who were free.. Hmm.. Ookay... then came the ultimate insult! One of the two sales person who was free, walked passed me, went to the entrance, and then invited a couple who were looking at the outside window display to come in and take a look. Woah.. WTF? Prime time to vamoose. Saw something I really liked there, but since no one was interested to serve me, I left the shop. Lost sales for them = savings for me
Sounds sad? But hey, that's reality in materialistic Singapore. The salespersons are trained to go for the big kill: Well dressed = more money = bigger commision = go slaughter the lamb (interesting that they dun think it this way: shabbily dressed = miser = hoarding loads of money = slaughter an even bigger lamb! Whoo hoo!). They probably thought I was just a browser and can't afford anything. Would it have been different if I were better dressed? I think if I were dressed in Louis Vuitton, i would have the whole hoard kissing my feet (but then again, if I could afford Louis Vuitton, I won't be shopping there!)
Apparently, SG Prime Minister has been questioning the service standards in SG. I dun read the news. Serious. I don't have access to the newspapers (Dad takes it to work with him, so by the time it gets back home, it ain't news no more). I hardly watch TV. I do listen to radio but the radio only reports major news. So, I usually get my news through friends.
It was on Thursday that Hippo was feeding us news about the Prime Ministers speech about service standards in SG. There are 2 reasons why SG service is less than stellar: the first being the service providers being a pain in the ass; the second where the customer is the pain in the ass. Hippo was telling us a hilarious analogy of the former reason, where a lady asking for no chilli, less oil and more tow gay (read: beansprouts) in her char kway teow. He saw this in a video during the Prime Ministers speech and it was produced by Nanyang Polytechnic students. Impressive!
So with sales people being so judgemental, it is going to be hard to up the service ante. And I think SG has a really long way to go. Or more like we lack a lot of individuals with patience for the trade. When was the last time you had really good service? I can remember mine. It was at the X:odus store at PS and I was served by a really sweet girl named Felicia (see, I can still remember her name). The store was crowded because of the ongoing sale. She had to man the cash register and serve customers at the same time. But yet, she still patiently helped me get 3 different pairs of shoes with a smile, apologized to me sincerely when she couldn't get the size, and didn't complain when I didn't buy any of the shoes (Can't be helped.. the shoes didn't fit well, didn't mean to torture her). Sadly, she isn't there anymore.. sigh
So yeah... I wait for the day that service is greatly improved in SG. Till then I just have to take all the snubs. But hey, at least dressing this way has let me avoid all the Credit card promoters/ questionnaire fillers etc (see, even they are judgemental). Heh heh heh
Citigems was having a 40% storewide sale, so i decided to pop in to take a look to see if there was anything interesting to buy. I was dressed more casually than usual in Tshirt & Bermudas, lugging around the usual backpack. The shop was quite crowded but not to the extent of maddening. I took my time to look around, from display to display. Time check: 5 mins, no sales person bothered to come up and serve me. I thought they were busy and brushed it off. But then doubts started to arise when I raised my head and looked around: there were 2 sales people who were free.. Hmm.. Ookay... then came the ultimate insult! One of the two sales person who was free, walked passed me, went to the entrance, and then invited a couple who were looking at the outside window display to come in and take a look. Woah.. WTF? Prime time to vamoose. Saw something I really liked there, but since no one was interested to serve me, I left the shop. Lost sales for them = savings for me
Sounds sad? But hey, that's reality in materialistic Singapore. The salespersons are trained to go for the big kill: Well dressed = more money = bigger commision = go slaughter the lamb (interesting that they dun think it this way: shabbily dressed = miser = hoarding loads of money = slaughter an even bigger lamb! Whoo hoo!). They probably thought I was just a browser and can't afford anything. Would it have been different if I were better dressed? I think if I were dressed in Louis Vuitton, i would have the whole hoard kissing my feet (but then again, if I could afford Louis Vuitton, I won't be shopping there!)
Apparently, SG Prime Minister has been questioning the service standards in SG. I dun read the news. Serious. I don't have access to the newspapers (Dad takes it to work with him, so by the time it gets back home, it ain't news no more). I hardly watch TV. I do listen to radio but the radio only reports major news. So, I usually get my news through friends.
It was on Thursday that Hippo was feeding us news about the Prime Ministers speech about service standards in SG. There are 2 reasons why SG service is less than stellar: the first being the service providers being a pain in the ass; the second where the customer is the pain in the ass. Hippo was telling us a hilarious analogy of the former reason, where a lady asking for no chilli, less oil and more tow gay (read: beansprouts) in her char kway teow. He saw this in a video during the Prime Ministers speech and it was produced by Nanyang Polytechnic students. Impressive!
So with sales people being so judgemental, it is going to be hard to up the service ante. And I think SG has a really long way to go. Or more like we lack a lot of individuals with patience for the trade. When was the last time you had really good service? I can remember mine. It was at the X:odus store at PS and I was served by a really sweet girl named Felicia (see, I can still remember her name). The store was crowded because of the ongoing sale. She had to man the cash register and serve customers at the same time. But yet, she still patiently helped me get 3 different pairs of shoes with a smile, apologized to me sincerely when she couldn't get the size, and didn't complain when I didn't buy any of the shoes (Can't be helped.. the shoes didn't fit well, didn't mean to torture her). Sadly, she isn't there anymore.. sigh
So yeah... I wait for the day that service is greatly improved in SG. Till then I just have to take all the snubs. But hey, at least dressing this way has let me avoid all the Credit card promoters/ questionnaire fillers etc (see, even they are judgemental). Heh heh heh
# posted by Xallista @ 1:17 AM 
