motivasi23-kaufman2 Face-to-Face with the "Quality Man" An exclusive interview with "Guru" Ron Kaufman QUALITY NEWS, The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore He is a stand-up comic, a guru and an entertainer all rolled into one. Most front-line staff would know him, others might have seen him around the airport quite often. This man is none other than Ron Kaufman, the dynamic trainer for Changi Airport's Quality Service Management workshops. Changi Quality News caught up with Ron who is fondly nicknamed, "The Quality Man", for an interview. Quality News: What do you think of Changi Airport? Ron: Of all the places that I have trained, by far, one of my favorite is Singapore Changi Airport. When I come back to the airport, I feel at home. I also feel a sense of responsibility towards all the other passengers who come through the airport. I want them to feel as good about coming here as I do. Quality News: What is Service Quality all about? Ron: "Service Quality" is simply a subset of "quality". It involves the face-to-face interaction between staff and passengers. To know if we are providing quality service, we ask ourselves: Are our people smiling? Are they pleasant? Do they have initiative? Do they show empathy? Service Quality is also product knowledge. How well do our staff know about the airport? Quality News: Can you train a "sour" person to be a more friendly person? Ron: YES! The way to do it is to "crack the shell". One thing I've learned is that in order to make people learn, first, you must put them in a good mood and second, you must get their entire physical being involved. That's why I use high energy training techniques. People become more enthusiastic, more open and receptive towards learning. Quality News: What is the "Service Ambassadors" Program about? Ron: This program gets people from all the different airport organizations to learn from one another so that they have a general idea what others in the airport do. They become more empathetic and feel more like a member of the airport, not just a member of their organizations. When this happens, they have pride working at Changi Airport and feel proud of its achievements. Then, they will be motivated to contribute their share to make sure that Changi Airport stays as the world's number one airport. Quality News: How would you rate the airport staff in terms of the service that they provide? Ron: They are getting better. Singapore Changi Airport is a very well designed airport. But while it has a world-wide reputation of being large, clean and efficient, it has yet to come across as being warm and friendly. That is the challenge for our staff -- to provide warmth and friendliness, the human aspects of service in the airport. Our airport staff are improving on this. The level of service is better, compared to six years ago when I first arrived here. We are warming up, not hot yet, but definitely warming up. Quality News: Having trained the airport staff, what do you hope to achieve at the end of the day? Ron: At the end of the day, I want to leave them motivated, inspired, educated and to a small extent, entertained. I use the entertainment to "access" them so that the education can happen. In terms of education, I want them to know more about their colleagues at the airport, to understand a little bit about issues like grooming, to learn to be friendly, to know how to approach passengers, to smile, to greet etc. Most importantly, I want them to be motivated and inspired, to realize that each and every person can make a contribution towards improving Changi Airport. Quality News: Are we on our way to achieving superior service? Ron: We are definitely on our way. It's important to realize that for superior service to happen, it is going to require everybody at Changi Airport to say "Let's do it!". "Good service" means consistency -- everyone has to do their job well, nobody must do a bad job. But "superior service" requires a certain kind of synergy amongst the people. It requires us, as a group together, to say "Let's do it, let's make today an incredible day for our passengers". If we can get people motivated and united like that, we are going to have an incredible airport -- nothing can touch us.