Poor service quality

I have observed for several decades that the quality of customer service in Singapore is poor.

I know that the front line staff does their best, but the service is generally bad.

I blame it on the system. It starts with the "terrible" call center system.

This bad system is made worse after the introduction of the privacy and data protection act. Every little information is private and the customers have to climb over tall fences to get service. Nobody seems to apply common sense.

Is Singapore worse than other countries? I think that the customer service is also quite bad in many countries, because they follow the "best practices". These "best practices" are designed by people who do not seem to exercise common sense or do not care about the customer experience.

But I suspect that Singapore is probably worse than most other countries. Why do I say so?

All our males have to serve national service. They spend two years being trained that they have to follow orders, especially SOPs, and that no deviation is allowed.

They carry this mindset when they take leave national service and work in the business world. Our SOP mindset is prevalent.

Five decades of non-thinking mind and strict adherence to SOP can cause a lot of harm. It has.

Tan Kin Lian