Bali People

Indonesian Service is a Memorable Experience

Have you ever traveled to South East Asia? Those who have been lucky enough to travel and visit the culture and service of the staff while staying at a hotel or eating at a restaurant know that it is truly a special experience. I was very fortunate to experience it first hand while having  an opportunity to speak at a conference in Bali, Indonesia this past month.

Everyone of the staff and I do mean everyone was extremely friendly, sought out to greet me, smiled and offered any assistance at all times. The hotel staff literally tried to kill me with kindness. It was truly remarkable. I had heard of this servant culture before but it came to life during my stay.   Balinese people are just simply friendly. Smile at them, and they will smile back. Balinese attentiveness in the service industry is simply unmatched and legendary. They are ever helpful and will always try hard to please you.

What was so unique was that it became contagious to the guests as well.  As I observed the interaction between staff and guests, I could see it created a friendly atmosphere throughout the resort.  I noticed guests acknowledging and greeting other guests, staff being friendly to each other and the overall environment around the resort hotel to be very pleasurable.

Many of you know that evaluating, learning and speaking on the subject of the “customer experience” is a way of life for me. It is in my DNA and I am passionate about helping businesses achieve a customer experience that is Disney-like and Magical. So I had to find out more about this unique servant culture  and what I call this customer experience phenomenon.

I asked Jamie Evans, the wonderful event planner of the conference I was speaking at, if she could help me gain more insight with this curiosity by trying to arrange a short meeting to speak to the General Manager of the hotel. Jamie came through and I had the pleasure of meeting the GM, Peter Brampton.  Peter shed some great insight on this servant culture and explained to me that most of the workers and staff are truly passionate about serving others. They look at it as a privilege to be working in this resort environment. Of course not everyone in the community feel that way but he said it was easy to separate those during the interview process who truly love to serve others. The ones that are chosen are usually excited, enthusiastic, and tell great stories of themselves serving others in the past. “They bring a great sense of passionate energy with them during the interview process.” said Peter.

My question to you is do you have people in your organization that bring a passionate energy and enthusiasm for serving others? If not why?

Here are some tips to find passionate people to work on your team.

1.  Look at the candidate’s body language when they arrive for an interview. Do they display positive energy and enthusiasm.

2.  Ask the candidate to share a story or example of a time when they helped serve a customer or friend. Do they light up when sharing the story with you?

3.  Ask the candidate to give you a definition of a “customer”. How do they describe them and do they truly believe in serving them?

4.  Don’t settle on people who do not show this passionate energy in hope that they will change. They never do!

 Begin developing your own friendly Balinese culture by providing passionate energy to serve others.  It will become contagious within your organization and your customers will notice a big difference in your business over your competition. Best of all, they won’t have to travel half way around the world to experience it. Now that is MAGICAL!

Always Wishing You Magical Success!