A friend of mine from Hong Kong recently consulted my advice on what he should know, if he ever considers migrating to Brunei.

As a person who’s lived here and a few other places in my lifetime, it was easy for me to point out some plus and minuses right away!

Below are some of my notes for my friend. My underlying message is, please come! We warmly welcome you and your family here!

Maki in Australia (the new immigrant to Brunei)

I was quoted by Borneo Bulletin today (4th November,2011) here:

“Customer Service has nothing to do with how good your English is, or any language for that matter. If you are not professional, that’s fine. You just have to have the heart, passion and action to deliver it.” Shaun said.

I wish to clarify that the reporter has taken my words out of context.

My response to this is below:

I was making a point that moving from Good to Great customer service, one needs to look beyond just being Professional. Companies need to transform from doing the Check-List-Robotic (‘Professional’) approach to a more holistic and humanistic of being thoughtful and proactive about solving customer’s problem.

My standing on the topic of Professionalism is that: Being professional is of paramount importance in any service sector. I do not condone to any unprofessional practice with servicing customer.

I gave two illustrations to support my point. They are direct excerpt from the opening of my book, The Heart of Service.

For full context of my examples: see below

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I learned from selling shoes!

The last KK trip was so memorable that I brought along my mum and aunt there for 3 days on a trip which ended this morning. This vacation almost ceased to happen, but thats a whole other story. The important thing is; it came with a happy ending.

We must have visited just about every shoe shop imaginable in the city. Mum & aunt ended up with only a handful of (good, sensible) shoes, which did not do the hard yard much justice in my humble opinion.

However, the emotional gain out of the shoe shops experience far supersedes the harvest, as shoe shopping in itself is an art form. Coupled with the best self professed shoe salesman as your concierge, you can almost describe the experience as a pilgrimage, let alone therapeutic.

I am talking about non other than yours truly, who have served literally thousands of women, men and kids alike. It certainly brings back fond memories of my life as a hopeless shoe salesman 6 years ago.

Here are my 10 uncompromised life lessons (and understanding about women) from selling shoes:

1. Smelly feet do not discriminate (regardless of how beautiful she may be).
»> Lesson: The same principle also applies to a woman’s character, heart and breath. Of course there is always exception (my Deon’s feet are flawless).

2. Women with small feet are often the most difficult customers / people to please.
»> This hypothesis has been put into test way more than it’s due. Try verify with any experienced shoe salesman, they’d reaffirm this truth (Not just any urban myth).
»> Lesson: The next time you encounter a difficult person, try checking out their feet / shoes. If its size 5 and below, you’d understand why.

3. Fundamental Matters
»> Good inventory management is, if not more important than the best sales person you can have on the floor. No stock = no sales. It comes down to hard work, details and operational excellence!
»> Lesson: Substance counts. Without which is merely putting lipstick on the pig.

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