I thought this was the most useful and practical of all the workshops because it applied instantly. This subject required us to dress formally in suits for lessons. Throughout this workshop, we had a good look at ourselves; assessing ourselves on whether we had fulfilled the guidelines stated. This workshop is absolutely necessary. Now, when i see people outside in business suits, i tend to notice them more; their suits, the grooming of the individual etc. And I spot mistakes and flaws sometimes in the way they dressed. A very useful part of the workshop was the different dress codes for different occasions and what the dress codes meant. This gives me a sense of security that if i had to attend such functions in the future I would not be worried about my attire and focus on my behaviour instead.
Knowing how to behave is also an important part of building a professional presence because first impressions count a lot. Some of these bahaviours include 'meeting and greeting', 'shaking hands', 'handling business cards', 'small talk' and 'body language'. These behaviours define first impressions. They 'are practice-able' in normal lives such as meeting and greeting people and shaking hands. Everyone knows how to do all these, but doing it right is what differentiates BESE students from other people.
Skin care was also talked about the in the workshop. A pleasant, clean looking face is always pleasant. Therefore it is important that we know how to take care of our skin. Some of my controversies of skin were answered in this workshop; like how we should never pop our pimples because they would leave scars instead of healing faster.
I realised that sometimes, the lecture notes included extra bullet points which did not serve any purpose at all and they proved to be rather confusing.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Delighting Your Customers
This workshop included a case study about the famous Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. I think it was selected specially for this topic because it has very successfully delighted customers with the culture of their organisation; as they said bringing 'magic'. I believe every organisation should have a vision. However, a vision which is not properly communicated down the hierarachy is like a sword without a hilt. Thus, in my view, the vision in the company should be a meaningful statement which the whole company can identify with and work to achieve it.
However, I think this topic should have been combined into just one tutorial or lecture since this was rather short. Moreover, as we know, many of the students do not attend BESE lectures, thus, they have gone through the case study of Disney Land; leaving them clueless about the tutorial. I have also learnt that we must constantly identify barriers to communication in the organisation and come up with solutions to them. Procedures are often problems because staff are unsure of what can be done and what cannot be done, thus what many organisations do is device a standard operation procedure as a guideline for them.
Identifying what people want to achieve from patronising the organisation is also very crucial to them either coming back for repeat visits or spreading positive word of mouth to people around them; both them benefiting the company. Exceeding the customer's expectations of their wants is even more beneficial.
However, I think this topic should have been combined into just one tutorial or lecture since this was rather short. Moreover, as we know, many of the students do not attend BESE lectures, thus, they have gone through the case study of Disney Land; leaving them clueless about the tutorial. I have also learnt that we must constantly identify barriers to communication in the organisation and come up with solutions to them. Procedures are often problems because staff are unsure of what can be done and what cannot be done, thus what many organisations do is device a standard operation procedure as a guideline for them.
Identifying what people want to achieve from patronising the organisation is also very crucial to them either coming back for repeat visits or spreading positive word of mouth to people around them; both them benefiting the company. Exceeding the customer's expectations of their wants is even more beneficial.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Art of Corporate Entertainment
The art of corporate entainment covers many forms of etiquettes as touch on in the workshop such as social, meeting, general and dining etiquette. They are applicaable not only in the business world but also in day-to-day lives. Social etiquette is about respecting and being considerate to the people around us. Thus in my view, it is fundamental to making a good first-impression on people besides dressing well as talked about in 'Building a Professional Presence'.
General Etiquette is the most applicable to our day-to-day lives as it talked about the opening of doors, etiquette on public transport and the act of saying 'thank you'. I realised various of the etiquettes are to be observed by particularly men and not so much by woman such as the opening of doors and walking by the road; men opening doors for women and men should always stand closer to the road and woman should be further from the road. after this topic, I realised that many of us Singaporeans in thier fast-paced lives have neglected the basic courtesies of saying 'thank you' and 'MRT etiquette'. I think we have all experienced these situations before when you help someone but he/she does not thank you, and of course the infamous rushing into the MRT train with the poor alighting passengers trying to squeeze out a midst the opposing crowd.
The dining etiquette section in this workshop mainly focuses on dining in a formal/fine dining environment from the selection of restaurants, reservations to the end of the meal itself. The part particularly useful is is the selection of restaurants. i didn't not realise there was so much considerations to think about before choosing an appropriate restaurant for a business dinner. I also learnt of how to handle situations when things go wrong like when the food is not edible, i should discreetly use the napkin to remove from it from my mouth and request for the waiter to change the napkin.
For a tutorial assignment, my friends and I visited Top Table to experience the entire procedure of me being the VIP and kher meng being the host for the day. We tried as much as possible to 'role play' throughout the whole visit to Top Table. From before entering the restaurant to after payment of the bill. It was a very interesting assignment in my view.
General Etiquette is the most applicable to our day-to-day lives as it talked about the opening of doors, etiquette on public transport and the act of saying 'thank you'. I realised various of the etiquettes are to be observed by particularly men and not so much by woman such as the opening of doors and walking by the road; men opening doors for women and men should always stand closer to the road and woman should be further from the road. after this topic, I realised that many of us Singaporeans in thier fast-paced lives have neglected the basic courtesies of saying 'thank you' and 'MRT etiquette'. I think we have all experienced these situations before when you help someone but he/she does not thank you, and of course the infamous rushing into the MRT train with the poor alighting passengers trying to squeeze out a midst the opposing crowd.
The dining etiquette section in this workshop mainly focuses on dining in a formal/fine dining environment from the selection of restaurants, reservations to the end of the meal itself. The part particularly useful is is the selection of restaurants. i didn't not realise there was so much considerations to think about before choosing an appropriate restaurant for a business dinner. I also learnt of how to handle situations when things go wrong like when the food is not edible, i should discreetly use the napkin to remove from it from my mouth and request for the waiter to change the napkin.
For a tutorial assignment, my friends and I visited Top Table to experience the entire procedure of me being the VIP and kher meng being the host for the day. We tried as much as possible to 'role play' throughout the whole visit to Top Table. From before entering the restaurant to after payment of the bill. It was a very interesting assignment in my view.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Building a Service Culture
This workshop basically talked about what is meant by the term 'Service Culture' and how leaders should try to incorporate this into the organisation. This includes drafting a suitable service vision which the rest of the organisation can identify with. This is especially important with the frontline employees as they liase directly with customers.
This topic made me realise the difference between a leader and manager. Before this topic i always thought a manager was a leader and a leader in turn was of course a manager but this workshop had made me realise the differences between the two roles. The leader goes the extra miles more than the manager like being future-oriented rather than just focusing merely on the present and encourages teamwork instead of being in power.
From this workshop, I learnt never to predict a customer's perception of the good or service provided unless the customer has honestly provided a feedback because customer satisfaction varies with individuals. It also highlighted the importance of excellent service which I found to be very true. When much of the items in the hospitality industry become a commodity, what will differentiate your business from others is the extraordinary service which will allow customers to choose to patronise your establishment rather than others. Also, statistics showed that 68 percent of customers abandon a business because there is indifference shown by the owner, manager or employee. Another important point highlighted is the empowerment of frontline staff. Singapore had the GEMS (go the extra mile for service) campaign awhile ago, but in order to go the extra mile, staff need to be empowered. With this, staff will feel more confident of being able to deliver exceptional service to the customer.
The Lands' End company was exceptional in providing customer service. The trademark 'Guaranteed. Period.' policy is the one of the reasons it had become so successful. They believe in their products so much that they are willing to believe that most customers would not send their clothes back for exchanges. At no extra costs, Lands' End will exchange any clothes purchased from them with no time period limit. However, I believe if this company was based in a country as Singapore, Lands' End would probably run a loss because of the local 'kiasu' culture, people are bound to exploit the 'Guaranteed. Period.' policy.
The assignment of this tutorial was to research on a company with an internet presence and briefly review their mission and service culture and present to the class. With this assignment, i learnt about many companies which place great emphasis on their customer service, such as Giordano highlighted by one of my classmates.
This topic made me realise the difference between a leader and manager. Before this topic i always thought a manager was a leader and a leader in turn was of course a manager but this workshop had made me realise the differences between the two roles. The leader goes the extra miles more than the manager like being future-oriented rather than just focusing merely on the present and encourages teamwork instead of being in power.
From this workshop, I learnt never to predict a customer's perception of the good or service provided unless the customer has honestly provided a feedback because customer satisfaction varies with individuals. It also highlighted the importance of excellent service which I found to be very true. When much of the items in the hospitality industry become a commodity, what will differentiate your business from others is the extraordinary service which will allow customers to choose to patronise your establishment rather than others. Also, statistics showed that 68 percent of customers abandon a business because there is indifference shown by the owner, manager or employee. Another important point highlighted is the empowerment of frontline staff. Singapore had the GEMS (go the extra mile for service) campaign awhile ago, but in order to go the extra mile, staff need to be empowered. With this, staff will feel more confident of being able to deliver exceptional service to the customer.
The Lands' End company was exceptional in providing customer service. The trademark 'Guaranteed. Period.' policy is the one of the reasons it had become so successful. They believe in their products so much that they are willing to believe that most customers would not send their clothes back for exchanges. At no extra costs, Lands' End will exchange any clothes purchased from them with no time period limit. However, I believe if this company was based in a country as Singapore, Lands' End would probably run a loss because of the local 'kiasu' culture, people are bound to exploit the 'Guaranteed. Period.' policy.
The assignment of this tutorial was to research on a company with an internet presence and briefly review their mission and service culture and present to the class. With this assignment, i learnt about many companies which place great emphasis on their customer service, such as Giordano highlighted by one of my classmates.
Corporate Politics in Perspective
Politics are unavoidable for many reasons like how people crave for power and there are not enough resources to go around. Thus people create politics in order to achieve what they want.
Being aware of this situation which occurs in every organisation, the workshop was carefully designed to help students like myself who will encounter these acitivities in the future to stay afloat and not be at a loss of how to handle these sticky situations. Some examples include maintaining good relationships with the important people inside and outside the organisation who may provide some form of assistance to you in the course of your career and the 'dangers' of office romance. It had never occurred to me before that office romance could affect work so drastically. It highlighted the possible consquences like unequal treatment, conflicts of interests and a bad ending of the relationship could even result in misuse of power. I realised that diving into an office environment without the 'survival kit of office politics' could result in a very hostile work environment. Working then, would definitely not be enjoyable.
this tutorial session, we were provided with a 'Measuring Your Political Tendencies' quiz, this made the session more interesting rather than the usual dry tutorial sessions which could sometimes lull you to sleep. I had a low score on this quiz which probably meant I would most likely not be the group of people who would spark off politics within the office which is quite a relief for me.
The most important part of this workshop to me is 'Defending yourself against unfair politics'. Though it is usually not common but i believe like the workshop said 'This world is not ideal', there would definitely be people out there who would resort to unscrupulous methods to sabotage people to achieve what they want, thus it is beneficial to know how to handle them in case they do happen.
Being aware of this situation which occurs in every organisation, the workshop was carefully designed to help students like myself who will encounter these acitivities in the future to stay afloat and not be at a loss of how to handle these sticky situations. Some examples include maintaining good relationships with the important people inside and outside the organisation who may provide some form of assistance to you in the course of your career and the 'dangers' of office romance. It had never occurred to me before that office romance could affect work so drastically. It highlighted the possible consquences like unequal treatment, conflicts of interests and a bad ending of the relationship could even result in misuse of power. I realised that diving into an office environment without the 'survival kit of office politics' could result in a very hostile work environment. Working then, would definitely not be enjoyable.
this tutorial session, we were provided with a 'Measuring Your Political Tendencies' quiz, this made the session more interesting rather than the usual dry tutorial sessions which could sometimes lull you to sleep. I had a low score on this quiz which probably meant I would most likely not be the group of people who would spark off politics within the office which is quite a relief for me.
The most important part of this workshop to me is 'Defending yourself against unfair politics'. Though it is usually not common but i believe like the workshop said 'This world is not ideal', there would definitely be people out there who would resort to unscrupulous methods to sabotage people to achieve what they want, thus it is beneficial to know how to handle them in case they do happen.
International Business Etiquette
We had project presentation this week. Each group had to research on a country each and present on the business etiquettes of their respective countries. My group presented on Japan while other countries presented by other groups included China, Germany and France. I think this is a very useful and meaningful exercise as it allowed us to learn from each other in the class through presenting our research findings. The knowledge gained from these presentations will definitely go a long way. Working in the hospitality in the future, I will be bound to meet people of different nationalities. The presentation by my friends in the class provided me with an insight of how business is done in other countries.
I learned that the way in which people do business in a certain place is very much affected by the culture and the way of life there. Other than knowing about business etiquette in the respective countries, we also indirectly learn about the culture in the country. An example in the country which my group researched on which is Japan. Gift giving in Japan is part and parcel of the Japanese lifestyle and this has inevitably influenced how gift giving has became an essential component of Japanese business etiquette.
Many of the Dos and Don'ts of social etiquette of the respective countries were highlighted in the presentations by my classmates, this provides me with a guideline as to how to behave infront of people of the respective nationalities. An example of the difference in doing business in different countries is presenting opposing views. Take China and France for instance. The Chinese are very conscious of face, openly presenting opposing views may be considered as a personal attack. the French, however, are more acceptable of this practice.
I learned that the way in which people do business in a certain place is very much affected by the culture and the way of life there. Other than knowing about business etiquette in the respective countries, we also indirectly learn about the culture in the country. An example in the country which my group researched on which is Japan. Gift giving in Japan is part and parcel of the Japanese lifestyle and this has inevitably influenced how gift giving has became an essential component of Japanese business etiquette.
Many of the Dos and Don'ts of social etiquette of the respective countries were highlighted in the presentations by my classmates, this provides me with a guideline as to how to behave infront of people of the respective nationalities. An example of the difference in doing business in different countries is presenting opposing views. Take China and France for instance. The Chinese are very conscious of face, openly presenting opposing views may be considered as a personal attack. the French, however, are more acceptable of this practice.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Customers’ Perception
This workshop talked about the subjectivity of customers' views on products and services. This subjectivity in turns affects whether the customer is satisfied with the good or service received. Through this topic, I understood that customers can have different viewpoints on the exact same service or good received. In fact, this does not apply only in business, but may also aid in the relationships with friends and the people around us. It teaches us to put ourselves in the shoes of others instead of just looking through our own eyes and falsely predicting the perceptions of people thinking that they are the same as us. It is important for the business to identify the perceptions of customers and deal with it appropriately so as to retain their business.
This workshop also highlighted the very important '7 deadly statements never to say to your customers'. Usage of these statements, as in stated in the notes, are excuses provided to the customers to explain the shortchange in service which is very true. For example, the statement, 'I only work here part time', is used when you are unsure of details which the customer needs. To escape being blamed by the customer for being ignorant, the statement is used. In my working experiences, I have also been guilty of using this statement. I know the implications of this statement now and wherever I work in the future, be it part time or full time, I will make it a point to provide my customers with the information they need instead of finding excuses to cover myself.
I undertook a field trip to an F&B outlet called 'Arnold's BBQ Chicken' at E! Hub to assess their service and food provided. This was very useful as it made me observe how my perception changed over the course of the experience from before i entered the restaurant, having the meal to exiting the restaurant.
One very important thing i learned from this topic is the aspect about 'complains'. Most customers who complain to the establishment are actually exceedingly loyal customers who wish to continue to patronise the company.
This workshop also highlighted the very important '7 deadly statements never to say to your customers'. Usage of these statements, as in stated in the notes, are excuses provided to the customers to explain the shortchange in service which is very true. For example, the statement, 'I only work here part time', is used when you are unsure of details which the customer needs. To escape being blamed by the customer for being ignorant, the statement is used. In my working experiences, I have also been guilty of using this statement. I know the implications of this statement now and wherever I work in the future, be it part time or full time, I will make it a point to provide my customers with the information they need instead of finding excuses to cover myself.
I undertook a field trip to an F&B outlet called 'Arnold's BBQ Chicken' at E! Hub to assess their service and food provided. This was very useful as it made me observe how my perception changed over the course of the experience from before i entered the restaurant, having the meal to exiting the restaurant.
One very important thing i learned from this topic is the aspect about 'complains'. Most customers who complain to the establishment are actually exceedingly loyal customers who wish to continue to patronise the company.
Building a Professional Presence
This is the first workshop which i attended. i found this workshop particularly useful because it made me realise the importance of dressing well and taking care of your own personal grooming to secure a good first-impression on prospective employers and whoever is crucial to your employment. It is a very good start to the whole subject because the module requires students to dress formally in suits to the lessons. It ensures that everyone knows the Dos and Don'ts of dressing formally. The notes provided were detailed with individual components highlighted, example: jacket, blouse, skirt etc.
Besides talking about the grooming and dressing, it also gave basic knowledge about caring for our skin and products which help. Living in a tropical country like Singapore, it is inevitable there will be breakouts from time to time, but the information given helps to reduce the possibilities of them by keeping our skin nice and clean. The component on the 'Facts and Myths' of skin was particularly enlightening. I always thought drinking more water could help to prevent dry skin, however, that was not that case. Instead, it had to do with the skin's ability to hold water.
Another information which i found very useful is the different dress codes (Casual, business casual, black tie etc.) and what they mean and how to dress for them. After this component, i felt I would not have to worry about what would be appropriate to wear for different occasions anymore.
Building a professional presence of course does not only include how one dresses. How an individual carries his or herself also plays a significant part in looking professional. Some of the aspects included in the workshop which I found to be more important were 'small talk', 'body language' and 'telephone and email etiquette'. This is because they did not only apply to business but are useful as well in our normal lives.
Besides talking about the grooming and dressing, it also gave basic knowledge about caring for our skin and products which help. Living in a tropical country like Singapore, it is inevitable there will be breakouts from time to time, but the information given helps to reduce the possibilities of them by keeping our skin nice and clean. The component on the 'Facts and Myths' of skin was particularly enlightening. I always thought drinking more water could help to prevent dry skin, however, that was not that case. Instead, it had to do with the skin's ability to hold water.
Another information which i found very useful is the different dress codes (Casual, business casual, black tie etc.) and what they mean and how to dress for them. After this component, i felt I would not have to worry about what would be appropriate to wear for different occasions anymore.
Building a professional presence of course does not only include how one dresses. How an individual carries his or herself also plays a significant part in looking professional. Some of the aspects included in the workshop which I found to be more important were 'small talk', 'body language' and 'telephone and email etiquette'. This is because they did not only apply to business but are useful as well in our normal lives.
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