My Passion and Pride in Providing Excellent Service
By Jonathan Heng
on behalf of all ITE Award Winners.
When I first learnt that I would be receiving the Excellent Service Award (EXSA) presented by SPRING Singapore, I felt both honoured and humbled at the same time. The Excellent Service (EXSA) Award Ceremony 2008 was held on Wed 3 Dec at ACS (Independent) Tan Chin Tuan Auditorium.
As a team member of ITE’s Marketing Communications Department, one of our key roles is to establish and enhance ITE’s relationship with the schools. This means working with the students, as well as their teachers and parents. Through conducting presentations, open houses and other networking activities, our Department typically reaches out to about 20,000 Secondary School students of various cohorts each year. In addition, we also support events and initiatives that would reach out to public members and various stakeholders in order to enhance ITE’s brand equity.
On an individual level, I have been entrusted to take charge and care for over 30 schools. This translates to some 3,000 to 4,000 students on average each year that I would have the opportunity to present and share about ITE to. While it is easy to regard these students only as anonymous faces in the crowd, I try to put myself in their shoes. Having been a young school leaver before, faced with a bewildering array of educational and career options to choose from, I can identify with their needs and concerns.
To some extent, I pretend that there could be a “Jonathan” out there in the crowd, somewhat lost and not fully certain about what the future holds, or what kind of career that he should pursue. This helps me to see each student as a valuable, or if you prefer, an invaluable (which strangely means the same) individual, even though I could be speaking to tens or hundreds of people at any one time. While the students may not express their appreciation to me directly, the look of relief in their eyes once they learnt of their options, and what ITE could do for them, is enough to make my day. At the same time, I am always happy when teachers and parents who appreciated the “spirit” and “heartware” underlying my efforts to guide and motivate their students or child, write in to thank and praise me.
Just to share with you a recent instance of a “happy customer”. An aunt of a new ITE student called and emailed me to appeal for her nephew to switch to another ITE College nearer the student’s home. Even though I knew that the chances were slim, I did my best to assist them. Fortunately and thanks to the flexibility exercised by my colleagues from the Colleges, the aunt and her nephew got their wishes. The well wishes and card they sent me subsequently to thank me really boosted my spirit.
Having won the Excellent Service Award is by no means a reflection that I am now “perfect” in my customer service. Far from it! While most customers and partners are pleasant to work with, you can be sure I have encountered challenging and frustrating ones too. When such situations arise, it takes patience, understanding and yes, assertiveness too, to represent both the organisation’s interests and yet serve customers’ needs at the same time.
If I have a personal philosophy on service standard, it would be this: “I believe in doing my best in providing Hands-on, Minds-on, Hearts-on service to stakeholders, partners and prospective customers. Being confident and convinced that when school leavers and adult learners are empowered and equipped with a powerful tool as in an ITE education, there is immense satisfaction and reward in knowing that I am playing a part in shaping the careers and destiny of lives.” This is my driving force in serving with excellence, passion and pride.