According to Robert W.Lucas in his book- Customer Service- Building Successful Skills for the 21st Century, there are several steps a concept than can be applied to produce positive results in communication.

1. Plan your messages
2. Greet customers warmly and sincerely
3. Use customer focused language
4. Use eye contact effectively
5. Listen carefully and respond appropriately
6. Be specific
7. Use positive "I" or "We" messages
8.Use "Small Talk"
9. Use simple language
10. Paraphrase
11. Ask positively phrased questions
12. Communicate to your customer's learning style
13. Ask permission
14. Agree with customers
15. Elicit customer feedback and participation
16. Close the transaction professionally
17. Address pet peeves

Maybe the tips/steps given above can help you in the future...further information, refer to the book.

customer service in Malaysia

I went to a cinema to watch TRANSFORMERS, at Jusco Seberang Prai...wow, it was a great movie...don't even have time to go to the ladies...but then what i want to comment is regarding to the customer service in MALAYSIA..

the problem with our local people is the way they used to treat their customer...if we look into any customer service book, it is recommended to greet and acknowledge the customer with the formal title, miss, mdm, sir, puan, tuan, cik....but in the real environment, the front personnel/ customer service personnel love to used kak, abang, adik.....i really have problem with that...why cant these people treat us the same as the outside tourist? when they see the outsider, they can use the proper title, but not with the local people, especially if you are malay customer....i wonder why...i dont have any blood ties with the personnel, why must they acknowledge me like that???? sometimes, it feels that i m getting older when they acknowledge me with akak title...hello....i don't really like it...

hopefully the management out there will remind their employees about these. these situations usually occur in the counter for buying the ticket for cinema, public transport, stalls and other few palces...if we really want to upgrade our hospitality in Malaysia...this will be 1 of the challenge that you have to deal with....