Evolving a service culture

During location filming of the iconic Monty Python television comedy series, the cast stayed at a hotel in the English seaside town of Torquay. The idiosyncratic behaviour of the manager caught the eye of actor and screenwriter John Cleese.

Cleese and his wife Connie Booth developed the character of the manager of a badly run hotel as the central pivot of the comedy series Fawlty Towers, which they co-wrote. It won many awards and was named the best British television series of all time.

Probably the best recognition the series received was that many of its episodes were used as instructional material for hotel staff, event planners and even for fire safety. Two of the episodes received export awards in their capacity as training videos.

Cleese later set up a company, Video Arts, to make and distribute training videos, which broke from the norm and used comedy to aid the educative process. Like Fawlty Towers, the new generation of training videos depended on the use of comic characters to show how things should not be done.

Training videos are big business in the developed countries, simply because training is such an important factor in all aspects of their economies. Pre-employment education and training is supplemented by frequent on-the job training and refresher courses, which keep staff up to date.

Foreign experts

In particular, training is the very basis for the work ethic of service which these countries have evolved. This service culture considers the end user (client, customer or the public) to be king, and it is the satisfaction of the end-user which is the prime necessity. It is this way of looking at things which is, as a whole, absent in Sri Lanka. We need to evolve a service culture if we are to be more than simply a middle-income country.

In this state of affairs, merely being polite to the end-user it not sufficient. There should be a whole properly-functioning system of integrated jobs (done with thoroughness and attention to detail) fulfilling multifarious obligations to the end user.

Several foreign experts have commented at length on the lack of a service culture in this country. In particular, they have highlighted the absence of this culture in the tourism sector: while we score far above average for the hospitality we extend to guests, this by itself is not enough where the actual competence of the service given is below standard.

A guest will generally prefer to stay in a hotel in, say Singapore, where the staff do not make them feel particularly welcome, but where the efficiency in providing service is excellent, than in Sri Lanka - where the opposite is the case. A charming smile and an apologetic bow may be good enough for the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but not for an establishment claiming to be rated five-star (or even a three-star).

For example, a guest staying at a very posh city hotel at the very heart of Colombo is going to be put out by the fact that the toilet does not flush - apparently not a particularly rare occurrence - however luxurious the trappings.

This lackadaisical attitude is not confined to the hospitality industry. The recent experience of an acquaintance, buying a laptop computer from a prestigious American-owned multinational electrical goods retail chain exemplifies the problem.

When he purchased the laptop, he had not been informed that the installed operating system and drivers were not enough to run the devices with which it was equipped. Subsequently, after arranging for one of the company’s service personnel to show up to install the requisite software, he waited in vain for the employee to show up. He finally had to take it back to the shop and wait for another service operative to show up and do the necessary. The whole process was spread over five days.

Another acquaintance bought a refrigerator, the front of which started peeling off within a few months. As it was within the guarantee period, he informed the service department of the retailer. They visited him, told him the door needed to be replaced and then kept him on the hook for a couple of years, telling him it was on order and had not arrived.

Clear signs and instructions

Yet another acquaintance procured a reputable American power drill from the local agents, which ceased functioning within a few months. On giving it for repair under the guarantee, he was informed that the item had a Singapore guarantee which was not valid here, and refused to honour it despite his producing the bill.

These examples illustrate the kind of post-purchase treatment customers receive from top-line corporate retail chains. The after-sales service of less reputable shops is even more non-existent, which one might not think possible.

Other services are no different. Users are generally not informed of what is required from them and signposting is conspicuous by its absence - they must find out on their own. Many in government service, in particular, assume that the public should know the internal procedures of the administration; forms for example are unintelligible to the average citizen.

The importance of the introduction of the public information telephone line cannot be gainsaid. For the first time in this country, an effort was made to make it easier for the public.

However, there is much more that needs to be done and, as in Singapore, the state should play its part in making sure that a service culture evolves here.

The interface with the public (or client or customer) has to be user-friendly, with plenty of clear signs and instructions. Staff must be kept trained in dealing with end-users and should be up-to-date with their knowledge. And most off all, personnel must be inculcated with the ideas of teamwork and fulfilling their own designated tasks.

Without this essential background, the general experience of end-users interacting with Sri Lankan personnel will continue to be reminiscent of Fawlty Towers.