INFORMAL BUSINESS SYSTEMS BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER
By Jack Yu
It is a balmy evening in Bui Vien Street, a small road in Pham Ngu Lao Ward in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1. As it always is on any other evening, this popular backpackers’ area is bustling with activity. Tourists down beers in the many pubs lining the street, while others walk down the thoroughfare in their flip flops, past multi-coloured litter scattered carelessly around them, eyes trained on the numerous signboards promoting restaurants’ best sellers. A tourist enjoying his Bia Saigon feels hungry and informs a waitress he wishes to order some food. She produces a menu, which to his surprise, features not just finger food like drinking places at home do but full dinners. 10 minutes later, the food arrives, not from the pub’s kitchen but from a restaurant across the road, perched on an uncovered plate held precariously by another worker sauntering across the road. Although the food would have been covered with a thin layer of soot by now, it still tastes good. It is all the more remarkable when one realises the food costs just VND80,000, equivalent to SGD5. Washed down with two bottles of Bia Saigon, the entire meal costs just VND160,000 or SGD10. Added to this is the warm, genuine smile that accompanies the delivery.
Amid the sweet smells of barbequed squid emanating from the many unlicenced pushcart stalls playing the street, a taxi pulls up before a budget hotel. A tourist gets out and proceeds to check in to his SGD30 room. After a quick glance of his passport, he receives the key to his room. He lugs his heavy suitcase up the stairs, only to find a giant cockroach waiting for him on his bed. He decides to forgo his room. He goes back to the reception and recounts to the staff about the nasty encounter. Without hesitation, the staff, dressed in casual attire, apologies profusely and offers him a new room in half-baked English. She calls over a colleague and two Xe Om, motorcycles for hire. The colleague immediately picks up the tourist’s suitcase and clambers onto one of the Xe Om, motioning the tourist to get onto the other. Together, they speed off to a partner hotel just round the corner, where the tourist gets a clean room. Along the way, no helmets are used and no insurance coverage is accorded to the rider. Although the ride is unsafe, the action taken to rectify the situation is quick and efficient, and the service extremely courteous and personal.
The scene described above is probably familiar to many. Only as recently as four decades ago, Singapore resembled Ho Chi Minh City. Buildings consisted mostly of shophouses and roads were rudimentary. There were few rules governing businesses’ actions and businesses owners generally did what they had to do to satisfy customers’ needs. More often than not, they bent over backwards – and bent the rules, if required – to gain access to customers’ wallets and trust. With less red tape in place, vendors focused on customer service and were generally genuine in their dealings. The smiles they wore on their faces originated from their hearts. Systems, though not formal, were functional. Somehow, things worked, in their own quirky ways.
With less red tape in place, vendors focused on customer service and were generally genuine in their dealings.
Fast forward to the 21st century. Singapore as a nation has progressed by leaps and bounds. It is now one of the world’s major financial centres and modern glass-and-steel buildings line the downtown skyline. While efficiency in almost all aspects of life and economy has improved, it seems that a certain warmth has disappeared. People want things fast and vendors have them delivered fast. Technology has replaced the human touch, evident in the number of apps that assist in the many aspects of everyday life. In the hustle and bustle of modern life, people rarely stop to communicate with one another. Although frontline staff have been trained to smile to customers, some do not, and those who do, do so only because they have been told to do. As much as the city-state has gained in efficiency, it has lost in human connection. Compounding the problem is the unrelenting rise in prices, which have affected everything from commodity to housing. Here, the systems are operating in full force. Things are extremely efficient, if a little clinical.
To be fair, this phenomenon happens not just in Singapore. It is a common occurance in many developed economies. It is generally accepted that the communities of days gone by exhibited the kampong spirit, something sorely missing in today’s world. Large retail and hospitality chains invest huge sums every year to train and retrain their staff in customer service. When one steps into a well-known store or hotel, one receives impeccable, if slightly robotic service. While companies try their best to replicate the personal touch of decades gone by, it is not easy. Society as a whole progresses and in doing so, it carries with it businesses, in the same, but soulless, direction. Genuinely attentive service is difficult to come by, and that is why each time it happens, grateful customers take pains to commend the deserving staff. Are we, the modern consumers, trading warmth and the human touch for formal business systems? Do we crave structure and efficiency so much that we are willing to forsake genuine concern and the human touch?
Are we, the modern consumers, trading warmth and the human touch for formal business systems?
It is here that we return to the opening scene. Would you, as a tourist, rather book a room in a friendly hotel that provides great service, and dine in a friendly drinking hole located on a litter-covered street smelling of barbequed squid, or put yourself up in a five-star international hotel in the middle of a large city, enjoying impeccable but robotic service and have your dinner in its Michelin-award-winning restaurant with other corporate types? Would you prefer an informal business system where things function with little or no protection, or a formal business system that offers full protection but where things don’t always work?
This article was contributed to The Corporate Insider (https://www.Facebook.com/CorporateInsider/)