Job VS Service

Saw this on a onetime daily-read blog, nineaugust:

"Sometimes, I guess it is because of the kind of service culture we have and allow to have here. Singaporean sales people are efficient. They can finish folding up the pieces of clothings that you messed up with before you can make three steps out of the door. Singaporean sales people are responsible. They arrive at work punctually, remember to greet customers when they enter the store, and try their best to sell their products. I have to agree that most sales people in Singapore do their job well. But that is also where it ends.

They are only there to do their job well. They are not interested to know what are your needs, or how they can help you. In short, they are actually not serving their customers. "

Isn't this so true of our mentality as ushers sometimes.. We are interested in doing our job, and forget the reason behind why we do this job is for serving the people.

"Maybe an example will be a great way to explain what I mean by serving the customers.

Recently, due to my oversight, I had forgotten to send my credit card bill payment and so I had to do it over the counter. After greeting me, the teller told me that I had to pay a certain amount of service charge for paying my credit card bill over the counter. Before I could sigh on my little punishment for being forgetful, she told me that I could save up on the service charge if I use the cash deposit machine for my credit card bill payment.

Sheepishly, I told her I had never used the cash deposit machine for credit card bill payment and I was not sure how to do it. With a smile, she ensured me that was easy and made a quick explanation on how to do it. Then, seeing that I had all the big notes for the payment, she requested to change them into smaller notes so that I could use the machine.

If this teller had accepted my credit card bill payment over the counter, she was doing her job. But by teaching me how to use the cash deposit machine and changing the notes for me, she was serving me."

So what is our mentality today? Do we want to be people who just DO OUR JOBS, or do we want to be people who SERVE OTHERS? =)