TRUST ON SERVICE MENU, PLEASE!

CHIEF SECRETARY OFFICIAL OPENING ADDRESS

CCAM NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2010:
MOVING ASEAN TOWARDS ZERO FACE – TO- FACE INTERACTION

TRUST ON SERVICE MENU, PLEASE!

Bismillahir rahmaanir rahim

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh

Good morning and Salam 1Malaysia

Ir Nirinder Singh Johl,
President CRM and Contact Centre Association of Malaysia

Dr Catriona Wallace
Managing Director of Callcentre.net

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for inviting me, and I am indeed delighted to be here this morning. Customer service is a much debated denominator to national competitiveness today. Not least a subject often so closely associated to the Public Service of Malaysia. I presume this association has much to do with our service, or lack of it. Allow me the next 20 minutes or so to put it to you that service excellence is not just about ease as much it is about building trust, building a brand.

ISLE OF SKYE

2. For those of you who live or have travelled to the United Kingdom, and even if you haven’t, you may have known of a place in the Scottish Hebridean islands called the Isle of Skye. It is said to have rugged and mountainous landscapes graced with deep and sage like lochs. No high rise. No factories. No discarded waste. The scarcely scattered white-washed cottages in the vast hillsides draw a marked command of nature over human creation.

3. But beyond the discreet physical attributes, there is something more to this Isle than the virgin back and beyond. It embodies the epitome of TRUST. One magazine wrote that on the corners where paths cross there are ‘product boxes’ where people leave their homemade jams and free-range eggs. Passers-by come, take what they need and leave their payment. Doors in homes are left unlocked. One can leave cars there with the windows open, and the only thing that will enter is the rain.

TRUST

4. Trust predicates any relationship; lack of it too is the cause of much conflict and dissent. Trust is an act of faith. It is the something that you feel, left feeling, and yearn to experience again that leads to continuation of any form of sustainable relationship. It is trust that has us looking for that same doctor for all our ailments. The same tailor for all our wears. The same diner for a special occasion; the same grocer and butcher for your monthly buy.

5. The very nature of trust is that it transcends legalities. It offers and demands no warranties and guarantees. Even when you don’t receive the expected delivery from your favourite barber or hairdresser, you put that down to a bad day but not bad service. Why? Because the seller and the buyer have established a commitment to a delivery, and the sparing bad days are forgiven. You will still be willing to travel that 100 km to that same shop to have your prawn noodles or briyani, when you feel like an authentic prawn noodles or briyani.

6. This is why when trust is broken or begins to break down it takes an almighty effort to rebuild it. This is why brand building after a crisis is a huge task, if not managed. It is the “trust compass” that ultimately drives our brands as institutions, organisations, businesses, markets, our society, and alas our country!

Ladies and Gentlemen

SERVICE IS NOT PUBLIC RELATIONS

7. Service cannot be a public relations exercise. As Peter Drucker said, “Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it”. Public relations often address the front issues. The after sales. The dressings, if you like. But service, in its true sense has to address the entire supply and value chain.

8. Take this example, for instance. A group of you dine at a restaurant and at the end of the meal you tell the waiter who had served you well — these guys are big tippers. The waiter would reply, “I’m not being nice for a tip. It doesn’t even matter if I get a tip or not. If we give you good service, your group will bring back its business here and not to the competition.” Wowed by the waiter’s response you write to his manager. Your exuberance is rapidly dampened when you don’t receive a response from the manager. As the waiter may have “wowed” you with excellent service, the manager’s lack of response may have led you to taking your next business meet to the next diner, their competition.

9. Everyone in the value chain of service makes a difference. Everyone in the value chain must understand what service is. It is not just the lady serving you at the front desk of an Immigration Department. Or the Head of Public Relations sent for a meeting to appease an agitated customer. The sense of urgency for the client must be felt by the people processing the papers, and the officers delivering the end product. It isn’t wrong then to say that for a company’s advertising strategy to work it has to be handled corporately and also individually.

MORE THAN JUST GOOD SERVICE

10. Our relevance as a market and our businesses would not exist without customers. And if you have customers, you have to have customer service. Everybody talks about the importance of good customer service, but few follow through on it. With the parade of choices, loyalty is today a sought commodity. Trust is the Omega Point to any sustainability.

11. I dare say for these times – – good customer service alone does not work. I can say this of the public sector. It is about meaningful service and promised delivery. Just going by the theme of today’s Conference – Moving ASEAN to zero face-to-face customer interaction, I put it to you that it is not so much as minimising face-to-face customer interaction as it is in delivering on promises made on your service.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

RELIABILITY IN ZERO FACE-TO-FACE

12. Even as we work towards zero customer interaction, this must be supported by reliable technology because that’s what we are replacing face-to-face interactions with. Can we guarantee no credit card slip ups, order spams, billing errors and violation on privacy and private information to name a few. These are elements that require enormous building of trust when converting traditional customers to online.

13. Even if we perfected the art of zero face-to-face customer interaction in say all matters pertaining to road transport department, there will be some areas that will require face-to-face interaction. For instance if you had to certify tinted glass in your vehicle? One will need to bring the vehicle in. This cannot be done on a zero face-to-face interaction. Equally if you wanted to make an application for residency or citizenship, this cannot be done online. The process can however be trimmed by online submissions, but the final decision will require face-to-face interaction for validation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

MONEY OR SERVICE OR BOTH

14. The speed of technology and the burden that innovation has draped on nations for competitiveness has challenged the very notion of service, the very essence of brand and the very element of our business. Many, and we in the public service are amongst them, confuse meaningful service with conversion to technology. Equally you will agree the private sector has seen numerous promised services undelivered.

15. We assume a service which is delivered by three individuals say, would look “neat” to the customer if not more efficient, if replaced by some form of technology. As we expect this new promise to deliver, we face the dreaded breakdowns and complications of technology. Makes one wonder if that service would have remained efficient if left to be delivered by the three officers?

16. Apart from the customary technology aches, there is also the issue of accessibility of a technology. So what happens where there isn’t technology? Would providing face-to-face for only selected and remote areas be good for business? It doesn’t augur for economies of scales. And so would we then drop the services in these remote? These are real issues in building a viable business and often the answers to these, lean towards bottom line more than it does for social responsibility. Therein lies a business and national priority we need to ponder.

17. The setback of converting every level of service to technology, risks an environment devoid of the essence of relationship. Service is about relationships, about human bonds, about building rapport. As we surge towards zero face-to-face service we need to reflect if national trade bi-laterals can be done on a zero face-to-face concept? Can defence sales, education transaction, healthcare service be delivered by technology from the comfort of your rooms?

18. The challenge thus for the public and private sectors isn’t so much as converting current real time interaction to zero face-to-face interaction. The challenge is in knowing when personal rapport is much needed in service sustainability and customer retention, yet when a faceless customer is acceptable in transactions.

MALAYSIA’S REALITY

19. The government has introduced several initiatives under the Government Transformation Programme and the 10th Malaysia Plan in preparing Malaysia to become a high income and developed economy by 2020. These plans demand not only an efficient public service, but an accountable and transparent service. With the rise of online media and social networks, our performance is often graded and rated by customers before it is by our own bosses.

20. This said, digitising of many of our public services today has contributed to a marked efficiency in many of our counter based operations. But there is a lot more work to be done. A lot more unnecessary bureaucracy to scrap out. We have yet to arrive. We may have built citadels walls of strengths in our technology, but we must equally in the people operating it.

21. At the risk of being called pompous, I like to quote on what I once cited on the comparative of “Tragedy of the Commons” in a technology Event with Microsoft Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Steve Ballmer when he came to Putrajaya. I raised the concern that in our every quest to have that SOMETHING, that EDGE over others, we fall into the Tragedy of the Commons dilemma described by Garrett Hardin. We create situations in which multiple individuals, acting independently, consulting only their own consensus, ultimately deplete a shared limited resource.

22. For the benefit of this audience allow me to repeat this. Imagine the grazing of animals on this common ground. Individuals are motivated to add to their flocks to increase personal wealth. Yet, for every animal added to the commons, the commons itself degrades. From an individual perspective, the degradation is small relative to the gain in wealth to him. But if all owners follow this pattern, the commons will ultimately be destroyed. Alas that which was to make gains for the common good, loses its use for the common good!

LOSING FOCUS, TRIPPING OVER

23. There is a real danger that we trip over each other and ourselves when we miss the perspective of what SERVICE is all about. The difference between genius and madness is plainly paper thin. We cannot thus disparage that ounce of difference that can tilt the balance between genius and madness. This principle is especially true in service.

24. Consumers of the times yearn for the WOW factor. That you will do what you say you will, when you say you will, how you say you will, at the price you committed topped with that extra gesture, “I appreciate your business.” This ain’t rocket science but it is plain delivery of trust. It ain’t public relations exercise but plain commitment to the trust you bonded your service to. It ain’t just service but a mark of your brand.

25. It is therefore pertinent that at every level of our organisation we make known that service is about building trust, building a brand. It is about answering the phone quickly when it rings, calling back the customer when you say you would, addressing a problem in a prescribed period of time, and simply delivering a promise. It is about addressing complaints no matter how much it stings, and responding to mails, even a short THANK YOU note. These simple acts can have a customer come back for more. The act of just asking, “Did you enjoy your meal, Sir”, Can I get you something else”. As these may sound mundane most miss these simple niceties in our rush to focusing on the big ideas. I am persuaded this is the service we must all aspire towards in the public, and private sectors alike.

26. The days when the private sector could argue that we will be judged by our competition holds very little strength today. You could well be playing in the third league competition when expectations are at the prime league. In time not only you but the entire league could be replaced by a new space defined, drawn and designed by the customers’ consensus.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

GOOD TO GREAT

27. The competitiveness of Malaysia lies in the ambit of public and private sectors jointly and severally. Every clog in the wheel must move in coherence, in focus to a common purpose. That purpose I would argue is making Malaysia globally competitive and relevant beyond the realities of today, but also for the days of our children and grandchildren.

28. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate CCAM for organising this conference and urge its members to focus on the very essence of SERVICE and TRUST when delivering zero-face-to-face transactions. Your many initiatives and programmes can propel ASEAN at the forefront of customer services. With much expectation that the next century or is it this century, will be led by Asia, every small initiative we take and big developments we implement must focus on delivering Trust on our Service Menu.

29. As Malaysia liberalises its service sector, and with over 65 services sub-sectors liberalised for intra-regional trade in Asean, it is that paper thin act that will determinate between the Good and the Great. In his book “Good to Great” Jim Collins wrote and I quote, “GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. The vast majority of organisations never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good — and that is the main problem. Those who built the good-to-great companies, however, made as much use of “stop doing” lists as “to do” lists. They displayed a remarkable discipline to unplug all sorts of extraneous junk.”

30. Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic and also known as Japan’s father of Management wrote in the opening pages of his book titled, “The Path” –
When it rains we casually put up an umbrella,
We rarely stop to think about such an instinctive response,
It comes naturally,
In our simplest and most unconscious moments we can observe fundamental principles,
About the way the world works best.

31. Ladies and Gentlemen, Matsushita was one of the prime movers that transformed a war-torn Japan’s Gross National Income and GDP per capita income to becoming the second largest economy in the world, although it’s now the 3rd. A service simply becomes excellent when its delivery is simple and comes naturally. This response can only surface when we have TRUST in an outcome. When we each deliver that trust in our own purviews of service, sustainability of a business will naturally follow.

On this note, I am pleased to officially declare CCAM National Conference 2010 open.

Thank you.