What Happened at Our Meeting
on
27th August, 2003
Pres. Henry opened the meeting by asking PE Rudy to introduce the Visiting Rotarians & guests. He welcomed PP Steve Lau from HK Island
West & two lovely Rotarians from Peninsula South namely Rtns Angela Hui & Bessie Ho. He then ask Hon Tres Clark to introduce his guest
who was the charming Cammie Kwok, a cousin of our PP John Kwok. Also he introduced Dr David Fung his guest for the day. Pres Henry then
gave his congratulation to Rtn Heron for attaining his Doctorate degree and suggested he see the Sargeant. He then gave out our District awards to PDG Y.K. for his job well done as District Trainer, and an award to PDG Uncle Peter as District Advisor. Finally our club received an award for Best Community Service project accepted by Dir.Jason & PE Rudy.Pres. Henry then introduced the speaker for the day who was Dr. Royce Yuen the managing Director of Ogilvy & Mathers. The title of his talk
was " Delighting Your Customers Through Better Service".Mr. Yuen started off the presentation by stating customer service is actually something rather basic but lack the attention probably because of the fact that it is so basic and obvious. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is something that has direct & important bearing on our business performance.
Mr. Yuen then went on to give an example of his family's experience of having dinner at the Peak last Sunday. Basically, the waiters were pro-active in servicing the family, and attending to the children. Furthermore, Mr. Yuen and his friend noticed the drastic improvement in service. The conclusion from this experience is that the customers are beginning to evaluate their experience at a restaurant by looking at the service first. Customers come for the food, but poor service may drive them away. The next key point Mr. Yuen discussed was our internal customers, or our employees. The reason is very simple. When you have problems or queries with certain organization, who do you think you will be dealing with. Is it the CEO or Chairman of the corporation. Or is it the operator who answers your call. Mr. Yuen mentioned his experience of changing his battery at a watch shop on the basement of Jardine House. The reception kept him waiting for one whole hour without explaining to the fact that the dealer was actually trying to examine my watch thoroughly instead of simply replacing my old battery with a new one. This professional and serious way of treating the merchandise was misread by Mr. Yuen , the customer, ignoring the customer because the lady at the reception desk failed to explain the situation to me. In this case, the company suffered because a junior staff didn't manage the expectation of the customer properly.
The speaker brought up a very interesting point on the high-end fashion boutiques. Do you rather prefer the friendly smile of Giordano or G2000 versus the cold service at Prada or Joyce boutique? When you think about it, it is really ridiculous that you are actually paying 50 times more for a T-shirt but receiving 50 times less friendly services.
One case of where successful service managed to save business and customer can be seen at your local broadband service provider. Mr. Yuen gave another personal example whereby he found out that he was double charged for his monthly broadband service. He originally called the hotline with the intention to cancel the service for good. But because of the professional service and courteous explanation, Mr. Yuen ended by subscribing to more features. Proper handling of customer complaint can possibly turn an angry customer into a loyal customer. In other words, quality of services provided to customers is a function of the satisfaction levels of the employees.
Satisfied employees are more likely to provide superior level of service. They stay longer with the firm and they have a greater sense of commitment to the company and its customers. Employee retention, therefore, is as important as customer retention.
The next key point was about the customers. The importance of delighting customers reveals itself when you compare the influence of a expensive TV commercial to that of the recommendation of your friend who has actually used the service. Which one is more important? The customers are the users of the product and services provided by the corporation.
Because they are the current users, their words of mouth carry weight. By listening to the actual user experience, the non-users will be able to make more informed choice and reduce the risk of committing to certain product or services that they don't know enough about. Your customers have tremendous power to persuade people because they provide the so-called moment of truth. In addition, Mr. Yuen mentioned the importance of after sales service over simply customer acquisition.
Mr. Yuen mentioned three main points whereby corporations still have room for improvement when it comes to keeping their customers happy.
First, although many corporations, especially those in the service industry, often use wordings such as "Customer is king". "We care"."We do this for you" etc, etc. These wordings are nothing but advertising slogans. Most companies don't actually carries through with action. Customers know when companies are just paying lip service.
Second, many companies are seeing customers as nothing but the geese that lay the golden eggs. What they are interested is the cutomers' money, not the customers themselves. That's why there are terms such as " Maximizing customer lifetime value", "Share of wallet" and "segmentation by customer profitability, etc". All these concepts are reflection of the fact that some corporations are not really interested to serve customers; they are just interested to make money out of them.
Third, many companies are still operation-driven rather than customer-driven. This is becoming more apparent with the increasing popularity of the
business tools such as IVRS and CRM. However, this takes away the personal and friendly aspects of customer service.
Mr. Yuen then gave examples on MGM (member get member) programs and cited that fact that customers and friends usually sign up out of favors and these are not long-term sustainable loyalty. Mr. Yuen also gave an example of a friend who is a long time loyal customer of AMEX.
In summary, the key take-away is- take care of your customers, and they'll take care of you.PE Rudy then gave a vote of thanks to Dr Yuen for his very interesting talk. Pres Henry then closed the meeting by giving a toast to the
Rotary club of Hong Kong Island West.
The Rotary Foundation It is appropriate to release some figures of the Rotary Foundation and its mission while the Rotary Foundation Seminar is just around the corner.
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to support the efforts of Rotary International in the fulfillment of the Object of Rotary, Rotary's mission, and the achievement of world understanding and peace through local, national, and international humanitarian, educational, and cultural programmes.
During the year 2001 - 2002, total contributions received was US$81.00 million while progrmme awards and expenses were US$95.4 million. The following is a breakdown of the total expenditure in value and percentage:
Projects Amount Percentage
Volunteers US$l.l million 2%
3-H Grants US$3.6 million 6%
Matching Grants US$28.3 million 49%
GSE US$3.8 million 7%
Grants for U-teachers US$0.5 million l%
Scholarships US$16.7 million 29%
Others US$3.6 million 6%
From the above, you will have a better picture of how your donations have been wisely used. For further information, please contact our club's Foundation chairman, Peter Hall and if you wish to donate further of becoming a multiple PHF or major donor.
A lady about eight months pregnant got on a bus. She noticed the man opposite her was smiling at her. She immediately moved to another seat. This time the smile turned into a grin, so she moved again. The man seemed more amused. Finally on her fourth move, the man burst out laughing. She complained to the driver who radioed the police and the man was arrested.
The case came up in court. The judge asked the man (about 20) what he had to say for himself.
The man replied, "Well your Honor, it was like this: When the lady got on the bus, I couldn't help but notice her pregnant condition. She sat under a sign that said, "The Double Mint Twins are coming" and I grinned. Then she moved and sat under a sign that said, "Slogan's Liniment will reduce the swelling" and I had to smile. Then she placed herself under a sign that said, "William's Big Stick Did the Trick" and I could hardly contain myself. BUT, your Honor, when she moved the fourth time and sat under a sign that said, "Goodyear Rubber could have prevented this Accident...I just lost it."
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"THE CASE WAS DISMISSED"
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& Pres. Henry. |
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Yes, you Dr. Heron. Congratulations! |
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| Dir. Jason, pictured here with Rtns. Angela Hui & Bessie Ho (Peninsula South) | |
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for their efforts in last year's project. |
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