Courtesy ranking and competitiveness of service industry

The Reader Digest survey that rank Malaysia or Kuala Lumpur as the third worst city in terms of courteousness has cause much debate recently. Some said it is restricted to Kuala Lumpur, not whole Malaysia. Obviously, life in Kuala Lumpur and other part of Malaysia are different. In Kuala Lumpur, if you unable to aggressive while driving. You will deemed uncompetitive to live in Kuala Lumpur. A lot of people who came from our own Kampung would find people in Kuala Lumpur is uncourteous. I personally also find Kuala Lumpur people uncourteous but when I go back to my home town. Those who work in my home town would find my behavior uncourteous even some people in Kuala Lumpur would feel my behavior incompetitive to live in Kuala Lumpur.

Lets look at the comparison with Singapore to see whether the poll reasonable or not. Reader Digest conducted 3 test. We have same ranking on dropping paper test (20th) which I feel is reasonable. We rank higher (25th) than Singapore (33rd) on Holding door test. Which I think also reasonable. Majority of Malaysia would agreed with me. However, in purchasing test, Kuala Lumpur(32nd) ranked substantially lower than Singapore(22nd), 45% vs 70%. If you been to Singapore before and buy something from Singapore retailer. You will always greed with "Thank You". You would really feel customer is king. But you would not feel that in Malaysia. I have such feeling long time ago. But I really in doubts, as Singapore, as a develop country should be less courteous than Malaysia. Now my feeling has been proven correct by Reader Digest survey. Once, I even hear a person call up to a radio "Call In" show mentioning that she is a retail assistant. She said on air that the people she most dislike is her customer who spend little but act like a big boss. I think this is the attitude of majority of Malaysian. Only you able to buy the whole shop you will be entertain courteously. I have discuss this with my boss as I am still young when I went to Singapore at that point of time. My superior told me that Singapore is a service society. Their service industry is world class standard. Their airline, port service, hotel services, retail services is good while Malaysia just transform to Manufacturing economy from agriculture economy. Thus, that is the different.

Now, Malaysia manufacturing industry has been threaten by China low cost counterpart. Malaysia has been slowly transform to service economy like Singapore. We slowly gain competitiveness in traveling and education industry. Which we attract business from China big spender. Our Port of Tanjung Pelepas has give some uneasiness to Singapore Port Authority. Our low cost carrier Air Asia slowly gain competitiveness even our Malaysia Airline (MAS) still unable to compete with Singapore SIA. Our Parkson has invaded China Market. However, we still have a lot to do in term of customer services. Our banking services. Which is worst than civil services after Pak Lah become Prime Minister. A cosmetic company in Taiwan has engaged a human resources consultant who train SIA staff to train their beauty consultant. Would any Malaysia company do that or would our MAS do that? Malaysian really has to improve their courtesy to compete in service industry if all our factory slowly move to China. Complained on loss of money in banking industry and on loss of item while traveling via our airport cannot be left unattended. Lets correct and improve our courtesy to improve our ranking in next poll and indirectly improve our competitiveness in our service industry TechnoratiTag: Business Commentary competitive Economics Economy Malaysia Opinion Social

COMMON COURTESY: What a rude Malaysian!

Submitted by pekwan on Friday, November 27th, 2009

Rude Malaysia Columns Mail Box

Friday, November 27th, 2009 12:55:00

AS a frequent visitor from British shores to Malaysia over the last seven years , my wife and I always marvel at the tremendous range and diversity of shopping and culinary facilities that KL has to offer. I came to work in the country and came to love the sheer excitement and energy of KL which is truly unique, compared with many other cities. However, most regretfully, the city has been unable to shake off during the six or so occasions I have visited here the seemingly all prevalent "first world facilities, third world mentality" of the maintenance and service staff at these facilities. On Nov 19, my wife and I were outside the Pavilion shopping centre in Bukit Bintang, marvelling at the excellent Christmas display outside. As we made our way into the shopping centre with my wet umbrella, almost instantaneously, a burly security guard came charging towards me and practically rugby-tackled me back outside the building. He babbled something incoherent about "No umbrella", which his colleague explained that all wet umbrellas had to be "plasticised" before I could enter the building!

Was it really necessary for the security guard to put his hands me so rudely seemingly devoid of the ability to communicate to me in a civilised manner that I needed to put my umbrella in rainproof plastic before entering the centre? As a chartered surveyor in my native England and as someone who has managed many shopping centres in my time, this seems an excessive policy as most modern shopping centres have adequate anti-slip measures in place. I felt it was a disgusting way to treat a visitor to the land, intent on spending money in a shopping centre by first manhandling him in such a barbaric, uncivilised way. I didn't expect, and didn't receive, any apology. William Bear London

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Hello to all. I have just returned to England and I just caught up with the comments above. I would like tothank everyone for posting, and in particular the kind comments of support from people. However I wanted to clarify I few things as my origional letter was somewhat edited by our kind hosts the Malay Mail. Firstly my wife is actually a Malaysian and having stayed in KL on six or seven occasions (once for 7 months) I can most certainly confirm to you that the security guard was a local, and not from a different country,and although the term "rugby tackle" was a phrase, it isnt too far from the realms of truth, in that, the security guard was a powerful squat man and he grabbed my forearm and walked me into the opposite direction to the all important umbrella "plasticer". The Pavilion is a great shopping centre, and its management seek to cultivate an atmosphere of international sophistication. Employing such a uncouth and aggressive person in the entrance security is surely a mistake. Blame it on training or whatever but in the West, one of the first things a security guard is taught is the danger of litigation from manhandling or treating roughly a patron.With shopping centre security I always advise them to always remember it is supposed to be a place of relaxation and in minor matters not to be over administrative. This was merely one example of rudeness one gets in KL. I have a large and decent group of Malaysian friends of all races in both the UK and in KL, and they all agree with me.....in that KL is one of the rudest cities in the world, no one ever says thank you if you open a door, people jump queues

habitually, shop and restaraunt staff are rude and smart alecy and frequently I feel my Uxbridge English is to blame. Also try walking in Sungei Wang and watch as a shop assistant says "YES" and than follows you any where u walk in the shop destroying the ability to browse. Sometimes I am almost tempted to walk in circles to make a mockery of the shop assistant.Taxi drivers refuse to put on meters, and ogle female members of my family, and there is a real problem of predatory and aggressive transexuals who hiss and whistle at any western man stupid enough to walk on Jalan Sultan Ismail in the evening. What makes matters worse is some of them hang around outside Menara Genesis where there is a police box a few hundred yards away but they are never apprehended. It doesnt sit well with the historic islamic nature of the country which I admire as it goes back many hundreds of years. Also parts of the population seem to have permanent and chronic bronchitis and spitting and coughing in a persons face is common. I have visited the land of smiles, and I am stunned at the difference, which has nothing to do with eduation or training but basic warmth. I wish I could be more positive about KL but It is somewhere i visit because I have family there and not because I enjoy it. I beleive one needs to travel outside KL to experience the true warmness of the malaysian people. Someone mentioned chinatown, and I concur the aggressiveness and bullying of the traders there is disgusting and it puts a lot of tourists off. Western people like to be able to "browse" as they shop. That is impossible in Chinatown as if you even glance in a sellers direction you will be put under unbearable pressure to buy something and if you dont frequently you are insulted as you leave. I have seen fights in Chinatown and its one reason I dont shop there anymore and Jalan Alor is also a disgrace, an old style slum full of scamsters and the rudest people in the universe, slap bang in the middle of a high class glossy shopping enclave. I would be interested in what the experiences of local people are with this rudeness when they travel to central KL.

Submitted by William Bear on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009. Submitted by William Bear on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009.

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Enough with this childish behaviour of pointing fingers already. Its a matter of respect and courtesy in times when people have long thrown it aside. After living here for 3+ years, it becomes almost natural to expect one rude behaviour here and there but its no different than the rest of the 'modern' world.I've seen senior citizens stand on buses and trains because young people are to busy on PSP's to give a damn and yet I've seen a gentleman hold the door for me even when I was almost 10 mteres away from it.There are a few good Malaysian apples out there, its a matter of which ones you choose to pick. Submitted by Whimsy on Friday, December 4th, 2009.

Malaysia is ranked third least courteous country in the world, according to Readers Digest. Yes I know Im not the first to report this (thanks for the info Sheila) but Im a reporter type of blogger anyways. Im more towards voicing my opinions on issues I feel strongly about

Malaysians are rude. I wonder why it took people so long to realize that but the truth is now out. Of course we cant beat Mumbai, the rudest country in the world. I know I worked for a year with people from that region when I was an exec in Telekom Malaysia. Those guys deserve the undisputed number one spot. Thailand being on that list though, suprised me. From my experience they are 10 times more courteous and friendly than Malaysians in general. Or maybe its just because youre a tourist with cash? Here are some quotes from Readers Digest: The region that most lacked courtesy: Asia. Eight out of nine cities in the region finished in the bottom 11.

in Mumbai, theyll step over a person who has fallen in the street.
In my eperience, people from Mumbai only treat you with courtesy if they think youre on par with them socially.

Its a quiet day. Im in no mood to be courteous A young cashier in Kuala Lumpur has no interest in being helpful.
Nothing new. How many cashiers in Giant / Tesco / The Store / Carrefour even smile at all? Obviously they dont think its part of their job.

Malaysians in General >>

Others may have different views, but heres what Ive observed in 26 years dealing with Malaysians (not to be confused with Singaporeans who look alike but are much worse in courtesy):

If you drive a BMW / Merc then youll get more courtesy Related to cars, we are at our worst on the roads. I myself am a total jerk on the road People in rural areas tend to be more courteous than urbanites (especially in Penang or KL) People tend to be afraid of showing / receiving courtesy from strangers, probably because we were told as kids that strangers are bad news. Everyone parks in the spots allocated for the disabled. Why waste a good parking spot?

People pretend to be busy or asleep when a pregnant woman is standing in front of them in an LRT. Why give up your seat, eh? Theres exceptions of course. Some of the pregnant women when actually offered a seat fail to even smile or say thanks.. They dont have time for courtesy since they only have 24 hours a day and most outlets in Mid-Valley closes at 10. Besides youre not paying them to be courteous, so why bother? They like to flash their headlights without reason and speed on the highways but dont pay the tickets (wait this sounds more like Singaporeans)

Taking It Deeper >>

Chinese A: In my experience (sorry to say this) the Chinese-educated group tend to be the least courteous. I mean those who studied in private or semi-private Chinese schools. Because they only grew up with other Chinese-dialect-speaking friends, they also tend to mix less with the other races. They basically live in their own world here in Malaysia, and perhaps if you speak Chinese dialects then youd get a friendlier response. I speak Mandarin, and trust me it makes a world of a difference when dealing with people from this group. I have opened a few doors, picked-up stuff they dropped and even helped with directions. I hardly got a Thank You. How do I know they belong to this group instead of the one below? Well, after 26 years in Malaysia most of the time you can tell Chinese B: The other group of Chinese (those who were schooled in Kebangsaan / International institutions) are a whole different story. They tend to have a better mix of friends, and they understand other cultures better. Although they are not super-friendly they do communicate

better when spoken to and in my experience, just as courteous as any other Malaysian. Some of my best friends belong to this group Indian: Then comes the Indian group who can be rather snobbish. Dont worry they are only snobbish to other Indians The most irritating this about this group is that they like to stare (at other Indians only I guess) and dont seem to realize that its impolite. Most of them speak good English and Bahasa Malaysia and when spoken to they are more likely to acknowledge. For example if you just purchased something from them (at their store) they are more likely to say Thank You as compared to the first Chinese group. As a customer they are also more likely to say Youre Welcome. Malays: The friendliest race in Malaysia, in my humble opinion, are the Malays. I think its in their nature to be polite and show courtesy. Youre guaranteed to get at least a smile when you speak to them, or say Thank You. They are also the most approachable among everyone else.

My 3 Scenarios >>
Scenario 1: If I was in a car accident, and there were a Chinese guy, an Indian and a Malay guy standing across the street, who will I approach? My answer: The Malay chap, if he hasnt already rushed to help. Senario 2: If I am lost and I (finally) decide to ask for directions, who will I approach? My answer: The Malay chap again. Hes most likely to help. The Indian guy would too, but generally Indians tend to exaggerate when giving directions everything is just 5 minutes away according to them. Scenario 3: If both my hands are full, and I need to open the door to 7-11. Who will help me? My answer: Ill have to kick the door open because I dont remember being so fortunate as to have someone help me open it. Might be different if youre a woman As a member of the least courteous country in the world, I would like to say Thank you for visiting my blog. okthe survey consisted of 3 test (quote from RD): test1: We walked into public buildings 20 times behind people to see if they would hold the door open for us

test 2: We bought small items from 20 shops and recorded whether the sales assistants said Thank You test 3: We dropped a folder full of papers in 20 busy locations to see if anyone would help pick them up. As you can see from the test, language shouldnt have been a problem. The surveyors were all from their own countries (35 different countries to be exact) all conducting the same survey. Half were men, half women I think the survey is fair enough