More Ramblings

World Cup

It's really only January and spring time comes when the Chinese Lunar New Year comes around and a full year ahead is waiting. Depending on where you are, who you are, life can have very different meaning. We can get preoccupied with our work and life's problems while to others life's hanging in the balance and in tenterhook. Many Singaporean's chief concern right now is whether we get to see the World Cup soccer in South Africa in June and at what price. Our telcos out bid one another to give away several hundred millions to the EPL to lead FIFA to think that to pay a small sum of a hundred million for a month of soccer extravaganza is peanuts. Well, let them carry on with the gamesmanship to see who blink first. It'snot as if you don't have to pay. My take is that an amicable settlement will be reached. It could be FIFA's greed or out telco's way of telling us why we have to pay so much. In the event that we miss out improbable as it seems, I tell you that there is no love lost.

The World Cup today is a far cry from the spectacles of the past. Players today are beholden to their clubs where the real money is. They do not play to the same level or understanding as they would for country as they do clubs. I mean Barcelona can win the World Cup. The World Cup is the venue for fringe players and unknowns to make a name for themselves. Leading to June, players get very tired especially the English due to their long grinding season, the only one that plays through winter. This year, they were made worse by unplayable winter conditions with games postponed. In any case, at that ungodly hour, how are we to survive the grind. I can't wait for Asia to host a World Cup event again and better still for an Asian team like China, Korea or some other team to go on and win the World Cup. This way, more World Cups can be held in Asia in our time zone and let the Americas, Europe have a new experience of watching their live games like we used to. This will also lead to new businesses and things sprouting out in their countries during the World Cup month.

Golf and Service

Edison went for computer repair and got into trouble. Tiger's involved an SUV and a golf club. What's yours to spill the beans? It's best you have no beans so you have nothing to spill. I hope to come out of hiatus as 2009 was a lean year I mean in terms of the help I would give to the golf industry. Besides the pensive mood, spending on golf equipment in such time will make me feel like some Wall Street executives getting huge bonuses and splashing on flashy non essential items in life.

But I kept thinking of those workers at Ping or TaylorMade and others who may be kept out of work if we stop buying equipment and delay further the US recovery. Also the retailers here may suffer more. Part of our responsibility in life should be to help sustain people, businesses and services we believe in. We must believe that everybody needs to make some money. This will enable the business to flourish and in turn the business will improve and enhance themselves to serve you better. Of course, I am not talking about those with exorbitant prices. In such a way, they can employ better customer service staff even if higher salary and hopefully you would be served better.

The problem customer service is slackening in Singapore is largely due to the fact that on both sides of the coin, service is seen as servitude which is liken to slavery and not as in service to help and to enhance an experience. I shall touch on this in a separate article in future. Customers often get angry easily and shout at service staff over the smallest things and yet never provide the correct feedback on where the service went wrong. This can be condescending.

I don't know about you but I would always consciously reward the one who deserve it. I mean who doesn't like to buy something cheaper but if the service is not good, I wouldn't take the bite. If I wish to buy golf clubs, I need to try it on a proper range. Those who has a small area at the back for you to hit onto a canvass doesn't cut it because at that short distance, every shot you make looks good. You need to see how the ball ended at the end of the shot. Then there are those who may try out clubs at range shops to get an advantage of the free testing and will go on to purchase from somewhere else who may offer for $20 less.

I say give it to the guy who lets you try their equipment. It is a small reward for their extra service. If we don't begin to be aware and do things like this, then we may end up rewarding the wrong folks and the good guys with the right attitude and service level are left wounded and in the long run will disappear into oblivion and you will get the standard poor service dish out to you by those who thinks that by selling things cheap or by dishing out poor service, it is not a problem. Later, you start complaining about poor service levels but you didn't know you have contributed a large portion of it to the culture. I would further advocate that whenever you receive good service, tell and thank the person about it. Better still, tell his or her boss about it.

This way all the folks - waiters/waitresses or sales assistant can see for themselves what good service is all about. When they all improve, they can serve you better in future, everybody wins and Singapore's ratings will go up.

Contrary to popular belief or it could be some folks observation, I am not that rich bloke who flirts around ... with golf equipment and I spend less than the SAF in GDP terms in acquiring weapons but the doctrine is quite similar. When I started out, my play and equipment level was just to hold out for a while and let others take pity or help me. I then moved on to allowing people to take digs at me before I respond appropriately and decisively. Now, my confidence has risen, I do not just buy weapons. I upgrade them with a clear purpose and I absorb some technical expertise to go along. I compliment them in a way to maximize damage when called upon. The weapons system is not just broken down into Airforce, Navy, Army. All can be integrated, every response will be swift and decisive. I reserve the right to have the first strike if deemed appropriate. This is an ongoing process. It gives me no reason to fail and failure is not an option. If I fail, it is me.

More on how we can help Singapore be first rate in service another time.

Have a great weekend to get ready for the next one!