Dear Editor,
I share something that I hope leaders, parliamentarians, ministers, public servants, private sector presences, and public commentators could appreciate, learn something, hold close, and diligently practice. It was a telephone call from the American Consulate. From the first word I recognized the caller. This was even while the voice was still registering in the lightning mysteries of how we identify and connect these things. The accent was poised and reassured; reassuring, too. There was that familiar warmth that accompanied the inflexions, rhythms and cadences: just the right pitch and volume. I think our public speakers could learn a thing or two, many things that should grace messages delivered to national audiences, including when addressing political opponents. Or those considered of lesser station. But there was more than the mechanics of professionalism at a clean, crisp, and rarefied level.
Editor, it was the warmth in the voice that carries far and captures. Yes, I am familiar to and with her, but in my visits to the consulate I have watched and listened, and it is there with other Guyanese, who sometimes are unclear or unsure as to requirements. There is that characteristic patience, as though this is the only issue in the world that the other side of the conversation is the only one that matters, amidst the noise, and the million other more important things waiting to be done, clamoring for attention. Those elements, for certain, are part of well-crafted training, but there is more; just have to be. It must be what is inside, what matters in what is represented, what is delivered, how it is delivered, and what it could mean to the recipient. I have witnessed this worker in the American Citizens Services section of the Consulate embodying all of those and more with cheer, confidence, and depthless patience. It is the way it should be.
t is my belief that our customer service managers and trainers, and especially our customer care personnel, can learn so much, if only they were to know and apply a small percentage of the ingredients of which I speak, what I look for, and which are so drastically absent here. I think that we would do well to not just obtain the pro forma aspects of canned training sessions, undoubtedly good in themselves, but that the most strenuous efforts and insights are brought to bear to get the right people for the public facing tasks and responsibilities that are so much a part of a normal day. Our public utilities could use such, and I discern that the GTT has made impressive strides in this direction. It would be encouraging if the GRA can hone some of what I sense has been painstakingly cast. Editor, as my experience with the caller from the American Consulate testifies, it all comes down to the person. To my fellow American: thank you. Now how about a little of that, a lot of the little things, from leaders and lesser citizens.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
