Service Industry? KL Number 1!!!

88 cents. Thats how much in ringgit that I am paying for an egg here. Its only half the price (and twice the quality) back home.

That’s all that I have to say about this place.

OR NOT

Because, back home, things are a lot more accessible. A lot MORE.

I’ll start with the shops, and after being here for 2 weeks, and making countless trips to Coventry, I suppose one business etiquette that I can deduce is; all the shops I've been into is short-handed. Compared to KL, its actually quite severe over here, this problem, and this is something that I cannot comprehend, because the basis, the nature of doing business is to start with providing good customer service, be it advice and recommendations to concluding transactions smoothly and quickly. And it’s hard to find this here.

My direct comparisons may be harsh, but, as far as the title of this post is concerned, I'm not complaining, just, you know what I mean. In London, the medium sized sundry shop is run by only one dude and one counter, and I had to wait for him to stop talking on the bloody phone before asking him for a top-up; our most isolated 7-11 has 3 cashiers, and they don’t need to scan the newspapers, just give them the coins and run. Like how Malaysians put it, “collect money also got problem, how to do business?”

The McDonald’s next to the London eye, a large, really large tourist destination has only 6 counters, and was packed like sardine at lunch, and had little seats left in the 2 storey building; our unknown Sri Damansara branch has about 9 at peak hours, and short queues, and lots of space next to the kid’s playground.

The Burger King in Oxford is a work of genius. They take the order from around 5 customers (and their money), make them wait like monkeys for 15 minutes, then only start filling out the orders, asking you again what you ordered. Our Burger King? Most of the time its empty, so no queue, no waiting, excellent service

In Coventry, the SportsDirect shop has a missing Nike sales guy; our Royal Sporting House has around ten following you all the time, like you are there to steal something, and our Nike stores, wow, they let you try every shoes until you find the right one. That’s what I call service.

The Tesco here has got 20 counters max. Back home, even our small Tesco express in Desa has 5 express lanes PLUS some 30 odd counters. And small Atria's Giant has more than 20, if you have to compare. Mutiara Damansara? If my memory didn’t fail me, its 40 cashiers, and it opens a new one everytime there’s more than 3 trolleys in the queue. World class.

Here, in the handphone shops, you have to collect a number and wait for at least 30 minutes to get some assistance. COLLECT NUMBER!! At home, even a really small shop in Cameron Highlands can sell you a phone faster, and probably serve tea as well, and tell you the latest neighbourhood news.

Then there’s the issue of opening hours. In Malaysia, the public transport extends their service hours during the weekends to accommodate more passengers. This makes sense, as people naturally go for late-night movies and come home late. But in London, certain Tube lines are actually closed during the weekends to facilitate servicing. And the bus lines are less frequent. I just don’t get it. Why can't they just service it at night, like back home?

The Tescos (and Giants and Carrefours) actually extend their opening hours especially in the weekends, but here, they close at 4pm. I find this really strange because, people like me who stay far away from Tesco wouldn’t go there on the week days for obvious reasons e.g. too busy, too tired, things like that, although they are open 24 hours. The same happens in KL, where on weekdays they work their socks off to make ends meet. Thus, Tesco Malaysia is considerate enough that, taking in to account the people actually prefer to shop in the weekends and take their own time, they extend the opening hours to 11 or 12pm. That’s what I call doing business. Unlike here, when I could find the time to go out and buy my groceries, they choose to close at 4pm.

If all these happen in KL, all the Kopitiams and Papa Rich would explode at lunch time, they will need at least another 2 Mcdonald’s in Sri Damansara, and the LDP toll would be closed after 11pm in the weekends, so if you find yourself in Scarlett at 12pm, might as well spend a night there. Crazy.

I could go on and on about how the Tesco cashiers just wouldn't help you with stuffing the groceries into the plastic bags, or how I had to queue in the HSBC bank, where in KL, they make you wait in a bright lounge with weird sofas and free water, but that’s all the time I have for now. Gotta check my fridge and plan my next trip to Tesco, this time on a weekday. They might as well close for lunch, like back home......