Building a Service Culture

1. LECTURE OVERVIEW

This lecture is about building a service culture. It is about the customer satisfaction, service excellence, the role of service, the service encounter and the service gaps.

2. MY THOUGHTS, VIEWS & CRITICISM

Customer satisfaction is having what the customer want, when they want it, where they want it, at the right price and place. I agree to this statement as customer satisfaction is how much the customer is satisfied with the service. Customer service is all about feedback, behaviour, reinforcement, and satisfaction & success. I agree to every single factor as firstly, feedback is asking what the customer really wants in our service to make them happy, and then the behaviour of the staff must be deal in professionally and not personally. Reinforcement is solve problem without blaming your customer, yourself or your co-worker while satisfaction & success is having better quality in the service, create lasting impression which results in customer satisfaction.

From the above photo, it shows that a waiter is providing an excellent customer service.

Service excellence is to provide customers with a positive experience every time they come to the shop. I agree to this statement as I believe to provide customers with positive experience, service personnel need to put in effort in their service.

The service encounter is about successful service personnel understand how to control service encounters to ensure that guests are satisfied. I agree to this statement as different guests require different treatment of service.

3. HOW I APPLIED THOSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

I applied these during my service skills methodology tutorial which require us to work in a fine-dining restaurant and a café. We need to know what the customer want, and then provide it to them, and then when they want the service to be provided, where they want it to be, and at the right time. In my case, I did waiter for my service at Top Table, the fine-dining restaurant and I applied service excellence by ensuring all guests that come in are satisfied with our service. And also I treat each guest differently as each guest’s wants and needs are different and they expect different service from us.

4. HOW THEY HAVE HAD AN IMPACT IN YOU

After knowing these, I have learnt the important of customer’s feedback and not only the feedback but the follow-up which are ensuring the correct behaviour, then make adjustment to solve the problem and provide an excellent customer service. I will now reading every guest’s feedback and ensure we do necessary changes in order to provide a better service to the guest next time. This will allow service excellence and customer will have positive experience.

5. HOW THEY ARE RELEVANT TO YOU

It is very relevant as now we are having the service skills methodology module which allows us to run the fine dining restaurant and the café which must interact with the guests as they dine in. With this knowledge, I am able to provide a better customer service, and ensuring every guest provide a feedback to us so that we can know our mistake and try not to do that particular mistake again.

Corporate Politics

1. LECTURE OVERVIEW

This lecture is about corporate politics. It talks about “The Ideal World”, the reason of having corporate politics, basic survival skills, office romance and sexual harassment.

2. MY THOUGHTS, VIEWS & CRITICISM

In our ideal world, we assume that work is all about receiving salary, get promoted, have fair share of tasks and receive goodies based on merit. I do agree that this is the ideal process of every working adult but in the real working world, things do not happen in your way and things may even come against you.

The reason why there are corporate politics is because imitating power holder to draw attention, people craving for power, emotional insecurity and hunger for acceptance. I agree to the reasons given as all these actions and behaviour will lead to corporate politics resulting in unhappiness in work place.

The basic survival skills are to be visible, never offend the VIPs, the peers and subordinates, and the big boss. To be visible means to do the difficult project, often help people, and to be the cool guy which does not easily get agitated. Never offend the VIPs which are Mrs. BOSS, the personal assistant, secretary, and the boss’s relative in the family. Regarding the peers and subordinates, you must be a team player, always ask for advice when in doubt, exchange favours with colleagues, the extra ears that listens and try not to be involves. And for the big boss, always apologize when mistake is made, be loyal to the company, always share credit when job is done, and avoid upstaging. From my previous work experience, I agree that to survive in the company, these are the ways that one can use. As I can remember last time when I was at work, one colleague always thinks he is right and always did the supposedly team work by himself, and he would not listen to other people’s advice thus he always got into corporate politics with the other colleagues.

My thoughts on how to handle corporate politics is very positive, I think it is a very good information and guide towards a better office environment.

3. HOW I APPLIED THOSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

I can apply it when my internship starts at March and for my future working life. With these valuable knowledge, I will be very cautious in meeting people in the office, and do what I suppose to do, and will not do what I not suppose to do. This will help me in avoiding corporate politics and be safe in the office.

4. HOW THEY HAVE HAD AN IMPACT IN YOU

After knowing all these, I have learnt to avoid unnecessary contact with those colleagues that are involved in the corporate politics and will follow the basic survival skills and all the ways to keep a better working environment for myself. This will help me in getting promotion and also avoid getting involved in corporate politics which will result in losing my job or my boss’s trust.

5. HOW THEY ARE RELEVANT TO YOU

It is quite relevant as it happened to me once during my part time job experience and I believe it will happen when I go for my internship next month and definitely during my future work life. Thus I will remember the ways to survive in the company and try my very best not to be involve in any corporate politics.

Building a Professional Presence

1. LECTURE OVERVIEW

The lecture “Building a Professional Presence” is split into two parts. In the first part, I was taught how to look professional by personal appearance, grooming, body language and first words. The lecture also has the right look for ladies and gentleman, which included the hair style, shirt, jacket, tie, and more factors. In the second part, I learnt the importance of image, individualism, interview and making the effort. The lecture also says about our skin, how to take good care of our skin, our skin type, the reason for age accelerator and etc.

2. MY THOUGHTS, VIEWS & CRITICISM

The lecture and workshop taught me how to dress for different events such as formal dinner, or just a business casual lunch and etc. I learnt that for a formal event, it is best to wear a business suit with a jacket and every single clothing and shoe plays a part in the perfect attire. The shirt must be well-pressed, the jacket cannot wrinkle across the back, and the pants fit above stomach and more. I think it is very handy for my upcoming internship, which in the sense that I will know what to wear for different occasions and will not embarrass myself in front of my colleagues and bosses and, for my future job that maybe requires me to wear formal to work, attend business conference, etc.

From the photo above, it shows the appropriate formal business suit for a formal dinner or a

business meeting.

It also taught me to take note of my personal appearance, grooming, body language and first words to have the first impression right if I’m meeting a new client in the future, or going for an interview. I used to think that when we are going for an interview, you just have to be prepared with all the documents but this lecture taught me to dress up, speak well and body languages.

This is a very good point to take note of as I will not know of this information and with all these information, I will excel more in interviews, meeting clients, and have more successful business

deals in the future.

From the above photo, it is a beginning of a lady at a job interview.

The lecture also talks about judgement, personal grooming, body art & piercing, dressing, interview and making the effort. I learnt that people judge me as what they see and appearance & grooming really matters. Making the effort is to plan early, and most importantly people will

take you only as seriously are you taking yourself. I think that this is also another factor that will help me in my future. I know I will look good if I pay more attention to my personal grooming and appearance and it will definitely bring me to a higher level compared to those who never emphasize on their personal grooming and knowing what to dress, and knowing the fact that the interviewer makes an assessment of you within 30seconds to a minute and more.

From the photo above, we can see that he has a tattoo on his wrist thus he need to wear a longer inner shirt to cover as people might show prejudices against people who has tattoo.

This video will show us the importance of male grooming for a professional look.

The last part of the lecture is about our skin. It has information of the anatomy of our skin, skin ageing, skin type, skin care, age accelerator and facts & myths about skin. It is not that useful because when it comes to the business world, I think most people do not actually cares about your skin type but for our own benefit to at least ensure the minimum personal grooming, the lecture can shorten the information and only put those important information, such as how to take care of the different skin types.

3. HOW I APPLIED THOSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

My internship is coming up in March and these few weeks are full of different kind of companies’ interviews. The companies vary from Events Company to a resort, to a country club and to airport. From what I learnt in the lecture, it taught me to look good for my interview, my body language, my first word, my personal grooming, my appearance and my dressing actually plays a part in getting me a placement in the company. Another point will be making the effort to ensure I will look good on my interview day.

When I received a call or email from the company and they asked for an interview, I will always prepare myself for the interview. I will ensure my hair is neat by going for a haircut, ensuring my business suit is clean and ready for wearing, and personal grooming is up to standard. And I will remember to keep a good body language during the interview.

4. HOW THEY HAVE HAD AN IMPACT IN YOU

I changed my formal dressing sense as I know what to wear for interview and what to wear for different events. I used to go interview in shirt and pants but without tie and jacket but now I will wear it with tie and jacket as it will reflect a better first impression when the interviewer see me. And for the age accelerator, it states the habits that make people age faster and thus I will reduce those I have been doing these years so I will not age faster.

5. HOW THEY ARE RELEVANT TO YOU

The things I learnt from this lecture are quite relevant to my life. I can use the information of the dressing right for my upcoming internship, future business life. During my upcoming internship and future business life, I will take note of my personal appearance, grooming, and dressing in order to build a good first impression with my colleagues, bosses and even clients. Thus I think it is very relevant to my life now and my future.