Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

So then in 1990 Singapore has a problem. Singapore is manufacturing, low cost. Motorola, Sony, Seagate, Philips all leave Singapore. And where does it go? China. Right. The world’s factory. And all of the back office and the call center and the data processing leaves Singapore for another big Indian speaking country with lower cost labor. Where did they go? India. And Singapore, the little red dot, had a problem. And they decided the way to solve that problem was to become the best in the world in service. Like they wanted to become the global capital for service excellence. But they needed help because everybody had been trained to work in factories. So they say, ”Okay, how are we going to handle this? Let’s go out into the world and find somebody who can help us to solve a problem.” And they found a guy who was comfortable with a microphone and had big white socks. And I came in 1990 and I said, “Great, what’s the situation here?” They explained. I said, “What do you want to do?” They said, “Service excellence.” And the first question I asked them is, “What is service? What do you mean by that?” If we’re going to be excellent at it, we got to have a good definition. I asked 100 different people, “What is service?” Turn to your partner real quickly. Just go, “What is service?” And you know what? If I asked you all to answer that question and write it down, I’d probably get 100 different answers, right? Some people are saying, “Oh, you know, service is giving people what you’d like to get,” as if they were like you, right? “Where the customer is always right,” which is wrong. Right? Or you know, “Make other people happy.” Which isn’t necessarily the right thing to do in a medical situation, for example. So I said, we got a problem here. We’ve got to solve this problem. What is service? And I did. I looked back in my history, I created something and I wrote a definition, read it out loud with me. Ready? Go. “Service is taking action to create value for someone else.” And the reason this definition solved the problem is it applies in every industry, it applies in every culture, and in every language, to every situation from the frontline, supervisor, manager, and boardroom. Make sense? Does it apply to us too, as speakers? Isn’t that what we’re doing? Taking action to create value for the clients and the audiences that we serve. But then we had another problem. If that’s service, what is service excellence? So I decided to crack that one as well. Read it with me. Ready? Go. “Service Excellence is taking the next action that will create more value for someone else.” Why are you here at this convention? Isn’t it to learn, like, what could be my next action that will create more value? And that’s why it’s all about growth, to help you become better and stronger. So then we had to solve another problem. Okay. We got definitions. How do we teach people to continuously improve service every day in every way for everyone inside the company, outside the company? And I can help solve that problem. We created a whole series of ten principles on service and workshops they can apply internally as well as externally. But then we had another problem. What about the leadership of the organization? Do they know what to do? And so we worked out seven fundamental rules of behavior for leaders and service organizations. And then we had one more problem. What’s in between these two? We identified 12 areas of activity, fundamental building blocks to create a service culture inside an organization. It’s a lot of work, but that’s what you do if you’re committed to solving a problem. Now, of course, I also wanted to make learning fun. So it’s not just services. It was called UP! Your Service. Uplifting service. And I’ve had the privilege of working in Singapore now for almost 30 years.