Customer Service - a 'hobby' ?

As I've mentioned before, I've been in Abu Dhabi for a number of weeks and have just spent 2 weeks in Dubai.

During my time in Dubai, I've been a regular at a coffee shop/ restaurant called The Grind. I'm such a regular that I call this place my office. Well, the coffee's good and they have free wifi internet access and for a traveller like me, that sure sounds like an office to me.

During the time I've been coming, one of the waiters has been really looking after me. So much so, that he often doesn't charge me for all the coffees I have. Like all the hospitality staff in Dubai, he's an expat, in this case, here from his native Sri Lanka.

Now, even though tipping isn't regarded as necessary or expected in this part of the world, I usually leave a small tip, maybe 10% of the bill.

Yesterday, when I was leaving for the last time - and may not be back for 3 or 4 months - I decided I should give my ever attentive waiter (and he certainly is that !) a slightly more generous tip. I know the salary these guys are on -and, believe me, it's not great - and given that I'd been so pleased with his service delivery, I wanted to say a special thanks.

"No - thank you," was his very polite response. I protested, insisting but I could see his response was genuine and to persist would have offended him.

"No sir, giving good service is my hobby. I want to do it really well. This is my hobby."

The dictionary defines a hobby as 'an activity engaged in for pleasure and enjoyment'.

If everyone involved in Customer Service regarded the way they helped customer with the same attitude as their hobby, what different results we would get ?

But then doesn't that apply to all that we do ?

How's your 'hobby' attitude to the things you do in your life ?

Not Eyeeore !!

I've mentioned Tigger in the last two blogs on this site. Remember Tigger ? He was one of the characters from the Winnie the Pooh stories we enjoyed as a child and also enjoyed, maybe even more, when those of us who are fortunate enough to have read the story to our own children.

But what of the other character, Eyeeore? Eyeeore was steady and reliable. But he was a donkey, he was slow and inclined to take rather a contrary view to the others when it came to looking on the bright side.

Eyeeore is still alive today. He can be found in many offices and workplaces. I came across one such Eyeeore today. The main problem with this Eyeeore was that, like so many others, he had made up his mind and continued to reinforce his negative thinking about the situation by not listening to what I was saying.

The situation could have been handled much more effectively and his issue resolved quickly if he hadn’t been stuck with his own preconception and his inability to listen to what I was saying.

”But I’ve lost my tail.” I could hear Eyeeore saying.

Maybe that’s it. Maybe the Eyeeors of the world don’t listen.

Ahh…. I’d rather be a Tigger every time.

But then as the Tigger song from the Winnie-the Pooh book goes, “There’s only one Tigger.”

At least we can try.