Delivering Great Customer Service

This is very important especially if you are new to the community. Anything that you do, you must be sensitive to the local culture and beliefs. Do some research on the taboo in that community. If they find it offensive than avoid doing it. One example to this point is, when I was a waiter for a hotel that had just been taken over by an international chain. The Group General Manager, a foreigner insisted that for the new menu, we serve the local dishes in a wok. To the local community eating out of the wok was a taboo. We told him about this but he brushed it off, saying it was rubbish. We went ahead with this menu. The result of this action is that the locals avoided us and those that came were very annoyed. After a few bad reviews from the customers eventhough the food was great, the Group General Manager finally gave in to change the menu but it was too late. It took us another year to build back our local clientele. Even the design of your place or the uniform is also important. In the East Coast of Malaysia, the people there don`t take too kindly to their waitresses wearing revealing clothes. When I was working in Thailand, they have so much respect for their King and Queen to the extend that they don`t serve alcohol on the King`s and Queens` birthday.


Also if you know their culture you can use this to your advantage too. One episode of Restaurant Makeover, the designer found out that it was a culture for the Somalian families to dine together in a private dining area. So she created an area just for that. By the way they were making a Somalian restaurant. Well this a great customer service to the Somalian community.

All this means is that different cultures have different beliefs and taboos. In order to give great customer service and be on the good side of your customers, you must know what is the beliefs and taboo of the community around you. Even Sun Tzu has a verse for this in his Art of War. It goes like this
"We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country--its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps." Chapter VII. MANEUVERING Verse 13

To know more on how I use the Art of War, please click here. How I use the Art of War

A Restaurant Promotion Idea- Watch Reality Shows

I know this goes against what some parents told us when we were kids. That in order to succeed we need to watch less TV and study more. And I'm aware that some reality shows bring out the bad side in people. But there some if you cut out the backbiting and bad sides of humans, can be a great learning process. One such show that I loved to watch was "The Apprentice", the show with Donald Trump. The show is about people working in teams at projects in order to be the last one standing to be "The Apprentice” for Donald Trump. There is one episode that is an example to what you can learn from it. It was the one when each team had to promote a product using a limited amount of money. One team used their money to promote at the back horse drawn carriages. As promoting on horse drawn carriages was expensive, they managed to get only 10 carriages. Another team promoted on sandwich boards carried by people walking around. Promoting on sandwich boards were much cheaper, they managed to get 50 sandwich boards moving around the town. So from there you can see who had the most coverage. From this episode I learnt that if I put up one banner, how strategic the location may be. You will only capture a certain amount of coverage. But if you put up buntings around you will capture more people. And I have also learnt that the overhead for putting up 30 buntings is the same as putting up one banner. So now I put up more buntings. Another great reality show is "Restaurant Makeover". It has a lot of ideas on how to design a restaurant. And the ideas are very simple and nice.   This Reality Show is about two people (a designer and a chef) helping people to revise and revitalize their restaurant. The Restaurant Makeover team has only 6 days to make the restaurant with a new menu and design with a limited amount of money. The ideas that come out are great and simple and also don’t take too much money. I have also learnt that you don’t need a large menu to attract people just a small one with all your specialties.

For More Ideas on Promoting your Restaurant you can go to my website Restaurant Promotion Ideas

Cashew Shoots (Pucuk Gajus)

The cashew tree originated from Brazil, was brought over by the Portuguese immigrants to Malaysia. Its botanical name is anacardium occidentale. It’s a low shady tree about 15 meters high which is normally planted at the sides of padi fields for shade. The bark gives out the a type of sap that gives a burning sensation to the skin where it touches. The fruit shaped like a pear with its kidney shaped seed on the outside.


The locals normally eat the young shoots with sambal belacan or cencaluk as an ulam. My wife showed me this tree when we were working in Cherating, I have never seen this tree or fruit. The only cashew nut I’ve seen came out from a tin.

Health Benefits

The young cashew shoots when eaten raw as ulam is believed to prevent and control diabetes. The Malaysian Forest Research Institute has done research to prove this point. The young shoots contain anti oxide properties that can neutralize and fight toxins in the body. From a research done by the Institute of Bioscience in the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), the other benefit of cashew shoots is that it lowers the sign of aging.

Health Benefits of eating Ulam-Ulaman

Time Tunnel Cameron Highlands

The Time Tunnel in Cameron Highland is also known as the Local Museum. But instead of displaying the usual historical items that most museums have you will


find 1,000 artifacts on display that bring you a sense of nostalgia. You will have a wonderful time there, reminiscing and laughing at the things you used to play and use when you were small. The name suits it, its really a Time Tunnel to the past. There are tin toys and even old money boxes which were given out by banks in the od days. It was nice to show my wife some of the things we used before like the refillable aerosol spraycans. She haven't one like that before. If you think it is like a normal museum then you will be disappointed, but I certainly liked it. It is only a RM5 entrance fee.

Time Tunnel Gallery is between Brinchang and Tanah Rata, at a place called Kok Lim Strawberry Farm.
Time Tunnel