How should Beijing's cops, cabbies, bus conductors, salespeople, waitresses and bank tellers improve their services during next year's Olympic Games?
Under an ambitious training program, all of those who work at restaurants, parks, banks, the police force, and the transportation and other service sectors, which are seen as "windows on the city," have been taking crash courses in occupational skills and ethics, as well as brushing up on their knowledge of the Olympics.
By the end of this year, 810,000 workers are expected to have received a certificate that will qualify them for work during the Games.
That's why the government has published a textbook to train employees in these "window sectors" as a way of providing improved services to build up a nice new image for the capital.
For example, the book offers an exacting set of appearance rules for taxi drivers. They are not allowed to don sleeveless shirts, have tattoos or shave their heads. Women drivers should not apply heavy makeup or wear mini-skirts. They ought to bathe and brush their teeth more diligently. The neat-looking and English-speaking drivers are intended to impress visitors right from their arrival in the city.
The training textbook covers all major "window sectors" except for the police force. But according to local media reports, officers in the Tian'anmen Square area were among the first to have obtained these certificates recently. As an indication of their readiness, 323 officers or 76.9 percent of the total in the police sub-bureau, can speak rudimentary to advanced English.
No doubt, being trained in how to present a positive face and job-specific skills will better prepare people for their Olympic roles. However, the city might also take it to a higher level, such as eliciting from employees a sense of moral obligation and personal responsibility, as well as teaching them a list of do's and don'ts.
Last week I had lunch with two professors from Britain at a restaurant serving Yunnan noodles on the bank of Houhai, a lake downtown known for its stretches of lotus flowers, light breezes and lapping waters.
Despite the fact that the restaurant was half empty, its service was far from flawless. The noodles were served in clay bowls. Normally a waiter would add thin slices of meat and vegetables and noodles into the hot chicken soup, in front of guests, as part of a ritualized way of serving the famous delicacy from southwestern China.
As if to add insult to injury, in the middle of our lunch, a couple of cleaners started sweeping the Lotus Lane not far from our open-air table, causing puffs of dust to spiral up off the ground.
Before we left, I asked a waitress the name of the birds that had perched on the railings outside the restaurant.
"I don't know," she said, looking away.
"Why don't you know? Surely I can't be the first guest to ask this question?"
"Yeah, many people have asked. But we are from Yunnan, how can we know?"
I think the restaurant should add to their staff training manual: "Always make noodles in front of guests" and "Don't sweep while guests are dining." But it would be better if the employees were to learn trust, integrity and civility, cornerstones of occupational ethics, so they could guide themselves in these matters.
And it would take a happy person who really loves their job to delight customers, like finding out the name of the birds that settle on the premises every day.
Services are basically a "feeling business," as Disneyland often describes itself. I would prefer a caring service man or woman with minimum skills to someone who knows the business, but is bored and indifferent to other people's feelings.
E-mail: yuanzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
