APISI WORKSHOP : Customer Service

In my flight home to Yogyakarta from attending the Indonesian-WIL (Workshop on Information Literacy) in Bogor, I was so tired and sleepy in the plane. The snacks from Garuda GA 214 [July 11 2008 ; 18.00] did not attract me but when I and 2 other men in my row missed the drinks I could not stop myself to get attention from the flight attendance. They were so busy. The man, on my row, who sat by the aisle finally got a chance to tell the flight attendance that we got no drinks yet but she asked us to wait and then went ahead to collect the empty snack boxes. That was when the man got irritated by the service. It's not procedural, bad service and totally not customer oriented service. The other attendance finally covered the flaw improperly: forgot to ask what drink the passenger want, and apologized by bringing up management issue [lack of attendance] which is not the passenger concern. I finally got my hot tea and drank it while it's hot due to the landing preparation [OUCH].
I sat back and recalled what I experienced in the Indonesian-WORKSHOP on INFORMATION LITERACY by APISI. APISI [Asosiasi Pekerja Informasi Sekolah se Indonesia] have a great team to run the workshop well. There are so many changes in the schedule due to many factors, however they managed to make the program flow smoothly. Each program was also a program for them to attend and participate. They didn't just work to run the workshop, but they also came as member and participated in the working group. CICO, the resort we used for this workshop, consists of villas of 3 bedrooms in each. The committee arranged that in each villa there were committee member in it. This is good for coordinating with the participants, to mingle with participants, good strategy to get feedback from participants too. They also mingled with participants during the meal time. Networking was a very visible agenda of them. The atmosphere of sharing knowledge and building networking was successfully built during those 4 days of the workshop.

Another part of my observation was the stamina of the committee. They diligently took a time to evaluate and manage the program every night after the day program ended. They spent hours until after midnight to evaluate the day program. They woke up early to set things up and had breakfast with the participants. The great stamina was also showed by the moderator who stayed in front moderating whole day sessions, 6 sessions in a row [BRAVO MENDY!] and an MC who steadily fought with the tired body and sleepy eyes to stay alert in the all sessions of the day [BRAVO STEPH]. That was the reason why there was no complains from the participants. Everybody enjoyed they learning process and loved the friendship offered:

• We were equipped with great international speakers from Puan Faridah [Singapore], Puan Norhayati and Puan Rashida, and Mr. Diljit Singh[Malaysia], Mrs. Wawta [Thailand], and Hoan [Vienam] who shared with us their experiences in IL.
• We were helped by local and wise expertises Pak Blasius, Bu Yati Kamil, Bu Utami, Bu Dora, and Pak Dhama who wisely guided us the young librarian.
• We were spoiled with good food, nice restaurant GUMATI, singing and dancing time, and the kambing guling to accompany our friendship building during those days.
• We had fun visiting the Bogor's Presidential palace, British Int'l School [BIS] Library and UPH library for the real view of library world.

My last experience with the committee was the journey to the airport from BIS. We had the tour of Banten to find the route to the airport. The eagerness of Edwin, the committee member who drove us, to take us to the airport was inspiring. This young man [freshmen student] politely asked for direction 4 times to different people and place. He had to take us on time to check in at least an hour from the flight time. He did it without complaining, and being grumpy. No complains of him about having lack of friend to drove in the long and winding road to the airport.

Thank you [left to right on the picture]: Aris, Eko, Febi, Chino, Mendy, Stephanie, Hanna, Etha, Sulfan, Robby, Edwin, David.