I hope that our service sectors in Singapore take the same approach and employ more people to improve customer service. During the current economic downturn, many people (young and older) will be happy to have a job, even if the wages are low. Being employed is better than being unemployoed, and remaining idle, at home.
They will learn the experience of customer service, which will be useful for the future quality of life in Singapore.
As many businesses are watching their cash flow, perhaps some government funding can be given for these customer service jobs?
Tan Kin Lian
5 comments:
The wage given out here cannot match those in JKT as the standard of living over there is way lower. You are right the govt has to provide more subsidise to retailers that employs local as service staff like paying 30% of their salary for the employer. In the long run, more locals will join & we do not need to employ so many foreigners.
I am not sure if wages for part time sales assistants have changed to keep up with inflation.
At least I know F&B part time waiters should be drawing similar per hour rates many many years back.
hongjun
Employing more workers doesn't mean that customer service will necessarily be better. It will only be better if the workers are well trained and have pride in their job - something that I found to be lacking in Singapore.
It is the customer and sales that matter. Having more sales people in the shop doesn't mean more customers will buy and more $ earned.
That's why for sales staff their basic salary is very low and the bulk of their income comes from sales commmission. That's how most businesses employ sales people. These sales people will leave once they cannot earn a decent commission. No need even to sack them.
Hence I think Mr Tan's idea that you employ more sales assistants at a decent salary is not the way things are commonly practised. Because more sales people does not equal more sales. Even if there are more sales, it may not be enough to offset the decent salaries for more staff.
This is my reply to David.
Businesses in Singapore employ inadequate staff to provide customer service.
The staff are highly stressed and are not able to attend to the customers properly. The customers have to wait to get attention.
We now have many unemployed people, including school leavers, who cannot find jobs.
It is better to give customer service and sales jobs, even at lower salaries, to these unemployed people.
We do not need to over-employ people, but inadequate staffing is not satisfactory either.
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