Last week, I had been to Sentosa, the famous tourist attraction of Singapore. I noticed an important phenomenon, which would lead to bad reputation and no repeating customers. Many staffs have so-called "Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process-Attitude" (at least it is how I like to call this attitude).
I had been to the resort (relaxing and fun) island a couple of time across the time-span of 6 years. On my first visit six years ago, most staffs are smiling, helpful and very proud to serve the guests with passion. Shouting at a visitor's face (or gesturing a visitor without accompanied spoken words like waving hands to move) seemed a forbidden taboo and, even when they need to repeat some instructions (like safety instructions for some rides etc) in case I didn't hear or I misunderstood, they always did with a smile. I really loved the experience (island's attractions and staffs' hospitality) that I even bought an islander card (which allows free-of-charge entry/transportation plus some discounts on the island's attraction-entrance-fees).
From time-to-time, I noticed more and more staffs have their smiles disappear, have their passion gone and start shouting and/or gesturing the visitors. A sad phenomenon, indeed. What the hell (pardon my language) did happened to their once well loved hospitality?
The worst case of hospitality-flying-into-thin-air was during my last visit, when I tried to return home using the monorail in the evening. Understandably, there was a crowd and a staff was trying to pack as many passengers as possible into each car, just like those staffs in Japanese trains (not literally).
Logged on Doughnut I/O. U.E. 1345391600.
I had been to the resort (relaxing and fun) island a couple of time across the time-span of 6 years. On my first visit six years ago, most staffs are smiling, helpful and very proud to serve the guests with passion. Shouting at a visitor's face (or gesturing a visitor without accompanied spoken words like waving hands to move) seemed a forbidden taboo and, even when they need to repeat some instructions (like safety instructions for some rides etc) in case I didn't hear or I misunderstood, they always did with a smile. I really loved the experience (island's attractions and staffs' hospitality) that I even bought an islander card (which allows free-of-charge entry/transportation plus some discounts on the island's attraction-entrance-fees).
From time-to-time, I noticed more and more staffs have their smiles disappear, have their passion gone and start shouting and/or gesturing the visitors. A sad phenomenon, indeed. What the hell (pardon my language) did happened to their once well loved hospitality?
The worst case of hospitality-flying-into-thin-air was during my last visit, when I tried to return home using the monorail in the evening. Understandably, there was a crowd and a staff was trying to pack as many passengers as possible into each car, just like those staffs in Japanese trains (not literally).
An Example of Train-staffs Pushing Passengers
(Sentosa was a mild case)
The staff was telling passengers to move away from the train doors (to give way for more passengers) after boarding, which was an understandable action. What is not understandable is he was shouting. Shouting, at least in many Asian countries, is regarded as a rude behavior. He was shouting at the face of the visitors.
To make the matter worse, he started knocking the glass window in front of me and gesturing me to move in. Allow me to explain the situation. The cars are like more than two meter wide. Therefore, when you have two persons standing side-by-side (even if they are super-fat), there is still plenty of room (at least a meter) for other passengers to get into the car. I had a pair of sole-feet therefore, I decided to leave that over a meter lane for others to move in and I stood near the door. See the figure below to understand the situation more readily.
An Illustration of the Situation
I'd even comply his instruction in case he popped his head in the car throught he door and speak while looking at me (with a normal/non-shouting tone) to move inside. Guess what he did! He knocked the glass window in front of me and gestured me to move inside (without any spoken word). How rude!!! In both Asian and Western standards, how rude!
Even in Naboo's Standard, How Rude!!!
I noticed the problem is not a localized one with the staffs with packing-passengers-into-the-car duty. Universal Studio Singapore (USS) was just opened back in 2011. Back then, the staffs, who helped visitors taking the photos with costumed staffs (like those people wearing like characters from Mummy movie franchise) are patient and really was helpful. They'd understandably tell you to move out if you are taking forever taking pictures with the costumed staffs however, taking forever back then didn't mean taking two shots of still photos. What has happened to them?
I hypothesize that this phenomenon is across industry, region and profession. To put it in simple terms, they are doing the same job everyday -- the train-packing staff is pushing passengers into train everyday, the photo-taking staff is arranging photo-shots everyday. For them, a visitor is just Another-Item-to-Process. If a visitor refuses to comply with their commands, they'd get angry and shout the visitor as, in their mind, the visitor is making their job harder or preventing them from getting their job done. In other words, the visitor is just an Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process. To make the matter worse, since they are doing the same job everyday, they know the optimized way to finish their job and started to command the visitors -- started to sound like an authority. Some staffs even told the crowd in the queue not to stand too close to them as they are shooting photos of other visitors -- which, in my opinion, is just a matter of showing off their authority.
However, for the visitors, Sentosa experience (or USS experience) is possibly once-in-their-lifetime experience. Everything is new and wonderful for him. He may not know the optimized way to take photos or ride the train back home. What he knows is he has paid a great deal of money and he's entering an entertainment complex, in which every staffs' first and only duty is to entertain him. That view clashes when the staffs start sounding like an authority. The question is how to combine the authoritive voice (for smoother operations) with entertainment undertone.
Another excellent example of this issue is with the staffs in "Monster Rock" attraction (even back when USS was first opened in 2011), which looks like an on-stage performance (a theater) with a more-or-less free-seating setting. For a visitor, a free-seating setting means he can choose any vacant seat and, most importantly, if he comes earlier, he'd be rewarded with the best seat (either front-center or back-center). For the staffs, to pack as much visitors as possible in the shortest possible time, the first visitor to appear must take the seats at extreams (right extream or left extream). When the visitors are told to move on, a clash of will occurs. The problem? The staffs' optimized way treat the visitor like an item on the assembly line and, when the visitor questions, the staffs regard the visitor as Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process and force him to comply.
For a credit to those hardworking staffs in Universal Studio Singapore, those staffs working with the animatronic dinosaur model (for the visitors to take photos) somehow master how to combine authoritive voice and entertainment undertone. They have a robotic dinosaur on a truck, whose non-organic nature would reveal to a visitor coming too close to the truck. They acted (and dressed like) a park-ranger who warn the visitors not to come too close or the dinosaur would eat them alive. Since the visitors are already willing to buy the fantasy (that the dinosaur is alive), they play along and comply.
Going back to the issue, I found the similar phenomenon in supermarkets and even some clinics. In an assembly line, making the parts follow an optimized way of working is fine yet, when people involved, optimizing become harder if not impossible. People has pre-perceptions on how the staffs would treat them (for example, most visitors assume USS employers are entertainers, not authority, making authorizing safety instruction difficult). If these pre-perceptions are violated (in order to optimize the work-routines), the entertainment complex (or supermarket or clinic) would get bad reputation.
There can be a lot of ways to avoid bad reputation. The management can rotate the staffs in different duty -- as a short-term solution. However, this may results in some staffs mastering in many different duties and start treating visitors as Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process in no time. The real solution would be to set up different incentives and different ways to measure work-done of staffs and communicate the staffs that the core-value of the entertainment (shopping/health-service) industry is to make visitors happy not to have more work done.
At least, I'd like to protest not to treat me like an Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process in Your Assembly Line since I'm a human being, not an item, who is worthy of respect.
At least, I'd like to protest not to treat me like an Another-Annoying-Item-to-Process in Your Assembly Line since I'm a human being, not an item, who is worthy of respect.
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