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The ideal and the reality of "customer is king''
By Ishani Ranasinghe and Vidushi Seneviratne
"The small courtesies sweeten life, the greater, ennoble it," says Christian Nevell Bovee.

While driving, did you ever want to switch lanes, but was prevented from doing so by the heavy traffic? How did you feel when someone recognizing your problem slowed down, waved to you, and let you in? Your frustration was instantly transformed into relief and thankfulness, right? Later, when you saw someone else in a similar jam didn't you also slow down and let him or her in?

Mobile boors
Raushen Perera of Dialog G.S.M agrees that courtesy is very important when it comes to dealing with their customers.

"We train our staff to be courteous at any contact point with the customers, but I guess at times there are problems."

She went on to say that apart from courtesy being important from a service point of view, it is also important that they, as a mobile phone operator 'should take the initiative to highlight the need of certain phone manners.'

"Mobile phones are no longer used as a fashion statement in society as almost everybody owns one now, therefore it is best if certain mobile manners are to be followed by the users". Dialog has launched a campaign where they have displayed stickers inside hospitals etc; asking mobile phone owners not to let their phones ring. "They can always put it on the silent mode with vibrator and not disturb others" They also hope to take this a step further and urge 'silent mode' in religious places and funeral houses etc.

"It is important that courtesy be extended not only service wise, but also when the phone is used by your customer," she continued.

Banks, are the paradise for the rude. You enter and you are greeted warmly, then the politeness disappears rapidly. For one the other customers are very rude and sometimes it is because they are being treated rudely as well.

Then you are sent from one counter to the other until you are finally fed up. Countering this opinion Deepal Abeysekera, Chief of Marketing and Public affairs of the People's Bank had this to say, "In the service business we sell a promise.

The way that we deal with the people projects who we are. It also helps to build their confidence and they feel good at the end of the day. Because at the end of the day we sell them a promise not a product and they have to be confident about the choice they just made."

When we talked to Otara Chandiram, Managing Director ODEL and one of the visibly upwardly mobile in the business world, she had this to say: "Customer service is the most important thing for us and customer relations is foremost. We have special service strategies like choosing the employee of the month and year, which improves our service.

We have a feature called "mystery customer," where we get a customer to monitor the employees and report on their service to us. The employees of the month and year are chosen on this basis."

In reality, how good or bad customer service is in Sri Lanka, is also based on the colour of your skin, the way you dress and maybe even the language you speak.

"Customer service should never be based on the appearance of the customer. Every customer should be treated equally and this should go further than just the regular greetings when customers enter and leave their premises," was Otara's opinion.

Maybe instead of striving to be important, which is nice, let's strive to be nice, which is more important.

Miss Manners guidebook
How are we to practise courtesy?
There are as many ways as there are moments in a day. Every encounter is an opportunity. Whenever someone treats you kindly, show your appreciation, express your gratitude, and offer your thanks. As they say there is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.

Sunshine with a smile
Scatter the dark clouds of gloom and spread sunshine with your smile. Remember, a smile is a curved line that can straighten many problems. Be as thoughtful as the 82-year-old woman who was more concerned about others than the pain she was in. "I may be in pain," she said, "but I don't have to be one."

Recognize the achievements of others, not with shallow flattery, but with sincere and warm praise. Respect the opinions and decisions of others, even if you disagree with them.

Treat your superior as a father, your equal as a brother, and your inferior as a son. Be a good friend. Express your good manners with your emotions. When your friends arrive, say, "At last!" And when they leave, say, "So soon?" When you treat your friends kindly, you will be greatly rewarded.

Treat others with respect. Treating royalty, political leaders, or movie stars with respect is a common occurrence, but treating beggars, the homeless, and ex-cons with respect are the mark of greatness. It is not only the downtrodden that need respect; it is our children, too.

Kindness
Act kindly toward others without expecting anything in return. To act in the expectation of a reward cancels out the kindness.

Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well; but their manners should be of the greatest concern.

Respond to rudeness with kindness. For what better test of good manners is there than politely putting up with bad ones? We become kind by being kind.

And when every act we do is a kind one, the world will rejoice.

Be gentle in your dealings with others. As someone else wrote, to find out what others are feeling, don't prod or poke. If you want play with a turtle, you can't get it to come out of its shell by prodding and poking it with a stick, you might kill it. Be gentle not harsh, hard or forceful.

Courtesy at home
Cherish your family and reinforce it with courtesy. Oddly enough, we often treat strangers more politely than we do members of our own family. This has to stop, and we need to implement a policy of "courtesy begins at home."

Phone manners are also important. Use appropriate and respectful language on the phone. Children should be taught exactly what to say when someone calls for a family member, such as, "Just a moment, please" or "May I please take a message?"

Listening
People show respect for one another through good listening skills, too. When a person looks around, down or away when someone is talking, it appears as if he/she is not listening. This can be very disrespectful.

Understanding and acceptance are important to respect. Really listening (rather than thinking ahead to what you're going to say) is hard to do.

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