“3R – Recruitment, Retaining and Reactivate the Service Team” Seminar
Staff have always been considered as one of the key factors of success in the service industry. In today’s highly competitive business environment, maintaining a stable staff force and keeping up staff enthusiasm would ultimately help a company win more customers. Facing a high turnover rate in the recent employment market, many companies are focusing on attracting and holding on to high-calibre talents. In view of this, QTSA organised a seminar on “3R – Recruitment, Retaining and Reactivate the Service Team”, presented by Mr. Ricky Ng, Consultant of Tiptop Consultants Ltd, on Wednesday 3 September at the Exhibition Hall, 4/F., HKPC Building.

Through this seminar, participants were introduced to modern applications of the ancient principles of “Sun Tzu (孫子兵法)” in present-day talent management in the retail and catering industries. In addition, Mr Ng shared various useful tips for talent recruitment and retention as well as new methods to energize staff and improve staff loyalty. Mr Ng’s advice enabled members to grasp the effective techniques on talent management and to reduce the costs associated with staff turnover.


“Handling Complaints in an Excellent Way” Seminar
Nowadays, enterprises face greater challenges with complaint handling as customers are far more aware of their rights. Actually, complaints are a valuable source of information and when appropriately and tactfully handled they can help to boost staff morale and upgrade the professional service levels of our frontline staff. Successful handling of customer complaints can also help to improve the company’s reputation. Furthermore, turning complaints to business opportunities can create a triple-win situation for the customers, enterprise and the staff.

The Quality Tourism Services Association was pleased to invite members’ frontline staff to join our seminar on Handling Complaints in An Excellent Way, presented by Mr Raymond Fung, Managing Director and Principal Consultant of the Famous Talent Limited, on 26 August at the Exhibition Hall, 4/F., HKPC Building. Mr Fung shared practical skills with frontline service staff by demonstrating a psychological perspective and by using games in order to calm down the emotions of the complainants, handle unreasonable demands and advocate the practical “service recovery” skills and strategies to turn around the complainants to become loyal customers.

Due to a favourable response and popular demand, an additional seminar on the same topic will be organised in December 2008.


“How to Speed Read Clients & Get Their Buy-in via Enneagram” Seminar
Frontline staff in the service industry serve a wide variety of customers everyday. Effective communication skills are the key to establish a good relationship with customers as well as to impress them. In view of this, QTSA was pleased to invite frontline staff to join our seminar on “How to Speed Read Clients & Get Their Buy-in via Enneagram”, presented by Ms. Annie Leung, Chief Executive Officer of CEO mindPower ltd. on 5 August at the Exhibition Hall, 4/F., HKPC Building.

From this seminar, participants gained an understanding of the 9 Enneagram personality types highlighting each type’s strengths and weaknesses. Thought self assessment, interactive exercises, group discussion and case study, participants also learned how to speed read the personalities of customers in order to gain their confidence and buy-in.


“Prevention of Counterfeit Banknotes” Seminar
As counterfeit banknotes surface in the market from time to time, members are advised to stay alert to the security features of banknotes in order to prevent unnecessary financial loss. The Quality Tourism Services Association was pleased to invite senior representatives of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Commercial Crime Bureau and Counterfeit and Forgery Division of Hong Kong Police Force to present two seminars to enhance members’ abilities in identifying counterfeit banknotes. The seminars were successfully held on 22 July and 28 August at Hong Kong Monetary Authority headquarters at IFC two.

During the seminars, experts from the Monetary Authority and the HKPF’s Commercial Crime Bureau and Counterfeit and Forgery Division shared with participants the salient features for banknotes including the HK$10 polymer note, RMB, Euro and the US Dollar, and techniques for authenticating banknotes. Participants also had the opportunity to experience the difference between counterfeit and genuine banknotes on display at the seminar and gained further knowledge on detecting dud notes through the detailed presentations.

“Knowledge and Trend of Wine Selling for Restaurants” Seminars
The abolition of wine duty in Hong Kong increased the consumption of wine and created a great business opportunity for the catering industry, especially for Chinese restaurants. With the zero wine duty, customers’ knowledge on wine and expectations on wine service will continue to rise. As a result more pressure will fall on frontline staff regarding their basic knowledge of wine, wine service skills, and the techniques of matching food and wine. So as to grasp this business opportunity and boost income from wine sales, QTSA organised two seminars on “Knowledge and Trend of Wine Selling for Restaurants”. These were presented by Mr Nelson Chow, Chairman of Hong Kong Sommelier Association, to enrich the basic knowledge of frontline staff of restaurants on wine selling. Happily for those present, both seminars included wine-tasting!


“Enhancing Your Cross Cultural Communications & Selling Skills for Achieving Service Excellence” Seminar
QTSA organised the “Enhancing Your Cross Cultural Communications & Selling Skills for Achieving Service Excellence” seminar, presented by Ms. Betsy Lai, Principal Consultant (Regional Projects) of Tiptop Consultants Ltd, on Tuesday 8 July at the Exhibition Hall, 4/F., HKPC Building. The aim was to equip frontline staff with cross cultural communication and selling skills when handling visitors with different cultural background in order to grasp business opportunities and achieve service excellence.


"Creativity - The Key to Business Opportunities & Service Excellence" Seminar
Business Creativity is a core requirement for business survival in today’s competitive environment, if companies can use their creativity to enhance products and services, they will be able attract more customers and earn more profit. In view of this, QTSA is pleased to organize a seminar on Creativity - The Key to Business Opportunities & Service Excellence on 23 June 2008 at HKPC Building Extend which are tailor made for our “Professional Certificate in Quality Service Practice” programme.

We took great pleasure in having invited Mr Lee Lik Chee, Famous Director, Dr Ricky Szeto, Executive Director of Hung Fook Tong Holdings Limited and Mr William Tsui, Instructor of Professional Diploma in Quality Service Management to be the guest speakers.

Mr William Tsui talked about the importance of creativity. With the illustration of daily examples, participants realized that creativity can be applied into every facet of business, namely product, price, place, promotion, physical evidence, people and process.

Followed by the presentation of Dr Ricky Szeto, who inspired participants with his successful business case on creative products and services. Hung Fook Tong devotes itself to redefining the image of herbal tea industry with creative ideas by extending product category, introducing special packaging products, extending distribution network and developing speedy service, which made them attained the larges share in local herbal tea market.

Mr Lee Lik Chee shared the ways to be creative in retail and catering industries. He emphasised that one must keep our vision and market sense in the global. Taking himself as an example, being flexible and multi-faceted is the way for his success.

The sense of humour of the three guest speakers made all participants satisfied with laughter. The feedback from participants was positive which most of them commented that the seminar gave them insights on creativity and innovation in Business.


Food Safety & Hygiene Talk: "Upholding Food Safety for Quality Reputation"
In an effort to enhance the continuous improvement among the trade on food safety and hygiene and prevent food poisoning among the members, QTSA is glad to have the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and The Association for Hong Kong Catering Services Management, Ltd. (HKCSM) to present a Food Safety & Hygiene Talk on 3 June 2008.

The seminar was started by screening the video “Inspector Query” on food safety produced by FEHD. Followed by Mr C.W. Kwan, Chief Health Inspector and Ms W.O. Sum, Health Inspector of FEHD both shared some useful tips on how to stay away from the traps of food poisoning and adopt the food safety instructions. Mr Lau Kwong Choi, Vice-Chairman of the HKCSM and Director of the Banyan Group, then shared with the trade the best practices of the workflow and set up of the food premises to maintain food safety from a food trade’s point of view by giving a wealth of daily examples. The seminar was much welcome by the trade.


Practical Putonghua Seminars
The rapid growth of China and the closer working relationship between the various trades,in Hong Kong and China, are combining to stimulate the growth of visitor arrivals. The Mainland remains our highest priority market and as a result the popularity and importance of Putonghua have grown. There is a pressing demand of staff with an adequate command of Putonghua, specially among frontline staff, creating a need that we have been quick to recognise and respond to.

In light of this, Quality Tourism Services Association and Commercial Development Training Institute Ltd organised the “Practical Putonghua Seminar” for both Retail and Catering Industries on 13 May 2008 at Hong Kong Scout Centre, with Miss Lisa Chow acting as the tutor of the seminar.

The contents focusing on the necessary industry-specific vocabulary and useful phrases, daily conversation for the Retail / Restaurant industries and basic knowledge of Putonghua phonology. The seminar equipped participants with basic skills for communicating in Putonghua and also enhanced their interest in learning Putonghua.


Seminars on "Communicative Approach to Quality Customer Relations Management" and "Managing Customer Objections to Satisfy Their Real Needs"
In today’s keenly competitive market, companies can gain more customers if their frontline staff are equipped with professional customer service skills and the techniques of understanding customers’ real needs, helping their companies exceed customer expectations and winning their trust. In view of this, QTSA organised two seminars on "Communicative Approach to Quality Customer Relations Management" and "Managing Customer Objections to Satisfy Their Real Needs", which were presented by Mr. Raymond Yu, Managing Director of Talents Consulting Ltd, on 26 February.

Through the "Communicative Approach to Quality Customer Relations Management" seminar, participants were introduced to the best ways to master advanced communication skills for "Service from the Heart", got a deeper understanding of how to build long-lasting relationships with customers and recognise the strengths and weaknesses of Generation-Y employees in customer service.

The second seminar, "Managing Customer Objections to Satisfy Their Real Needs", was aimed at helping participants learn how to understand customers’ real needs, manage customer objections professionally and meet the unique expectations of Generation-Y customers and employees.


"Service Excellence with MBTI" Seminar
Frontline staff should always be dedicated to communicating with customers, understanding their needs and providing personalised service in order to maintain a competitive edge. Therefore, possessing communication skill is indispensable for service excellence. This was the main message of a seminar on "Service Excellence with MBTI", organised for QTSA’s members and presented by Mr. Danny Pin, Training Consultant of Synergy Training Centre, on 29 January 2008.

MBTI stands for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It is a widely used psychological tool allowing people to gain an understanding of others’ personality, communication styles and behaviour.

At the seminar, Mr Pin introduced the MBTI model and shared some real cases on MBTI application in providing customised one-to-one service with customers and building rapport with them, thus improving customer satisfaction and creating profits for the enterprise.

The seminar was enthusiastically evaluated by all in attendance. Most of the participants felt that they had gained a better knowledge on evaluating the different types of customers and strengthening their competitive power as a result of what they learned about using the MBTI techniques to provide improved service and customer satisfaction.


"Mentoring - The Key to Motivate and Retain Staff" Seminar
At a time when the “War for Talents” is continuously intensifying to echo the economic upturn in Hong Kong, companies must do much more to grow their own talented employees instead of just head-hunting elite individuals at an ever-increasing price tag in order to maintain competitiveness. To help the industry to retain and develop talents, QTSA organised a seminar on "Mentoring - The Key to Motivate and Retain Staff", presented by Mr. Raymond Yu, Managing Director of Talents Consulting Limited, on 8 January.

Among the various employee development initiatives under active discussion today, "Mentoring" is probably the most-mentioned subject. In this seminar, Mr Yu sparked many ideas about mentoring. He first benchmarked the best practices of mentoring in Hong Kong, such as CEO Attachment for principals of renowned schools, Succession Planning in a public transport corporation, Shadowing in a leading bank, Reverse Mentoring in American companies, Action Learning at multinational corporations, etc. He then outlined the 6 major approaches to mentoring – coaching, counseling, shadowing, scenario planning, anecdoting, and action learning.

Mr Yu also gave some tips on selecting, training, monitoring and rewarding Mentors / Mentees and the critical success factors in designing and implementing Mentor- Mentee Programmes.

Furthermore, we had great pleasure in having Mr Ng Ming-lam, Senior Journalist, as a second guest speaker to share his experiences with participants. The seminar was enlivened with a vivid format of dialogue between Mr Yu and Mr Ng on the stage, an interactive open forum with the floor, and highly participative group discussions among the audience.


Channel Management Seminar
In today's competitive environment, focusing purely on product quality is unlikely to make companies stand out from the others. Outlets in prime locations will definitely help companies improve their competitive edge and win support from customers. Selecting locations for outlets are very challenging issues, in view of this, QTSA organised the Channel Management seminars which were tailor made for our Professional Certificate in Quality Service Practice programme.

The Channel Management Seminar was successfully held on 3 December 2007 at Tom Lee Music Academy, MegaBox, Kowloon Bay. The Association was pleased to invite Mr Simon Kwok, Chairman and CEO of Sa Sa International Holdings Limited, and Mr Winston Chow, Director & Deputy General Manager of Chow Sang Sang Group, to share their success stories with the participants. Two students from the Certificate in Quality Service Practice were also invited to be our moderators during the Q&A session.

At the seminar, Mr Simon Kwok shared with participants his experiences on selecting locations and negotiating with landlords whilst Mr Winston Chow showed participants his strategies on channel management and his tips on selecting locations.


EQ at Shop Front for Quality Service Seminar
Facing rapidly-changing and evolving customer expectations, a frontline representative’s high Emotional Quotient (EQ) is identified as an essential attribute to ensure the delivery of service excellence at all times. Frontline representatives play a vital role in building a company’s image, so developing staff’s EQ enables them to establish a positive service mindset, further develop their communication skills and ultimately enhance their professionalism.

The seminar EQ at Shop Front for Quality Service, presented by Mr Danny Pin, Director of Synergy Training Centre Ltd, was organised with the aim of enabling frontline staff and supervisors to fully develop their EQ as well as equip them with effective strategies for mastering negative emotions. The seminar was successfully held on 20 November 2007 at the Hong Kong Productivity Council Building and was well attended by an audience of over 300 who were given a valuable insight into developing and applying EQ at the shop front.


Brand Building Seminar
In today's competitive environment, focusing purely on product quality is unlikely to make companies stand out from the others. A quality brand will definitely help companies improve their competitive edge and win support from customers. Building a brand for outlets are very challenging issues, in view of this, QTSA organised the Brand Building seminars which were tailor made for our Professional Certificate in Quality Service Practice programme.

The Brand Building Seminar was held on 15 November 2007 at Tom Lee Music Academy, MegaBox, Kowloon Bay. We invited Professor Andrew Chan, SBS, JP, Director of EMBA Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Adviser of QTSA, Mr Max Ma, Chairman of Ma Belle Jewellery Co. Ltd, and Ms Jaime Wong, Sales & Marketing Director of Wai Yuen Tong Holdings, to inspire participants with their brand building and management experience. Prof Andrew Chan was our guest moderator as well as the facilitator for the discussion between participants and our guest speakers.


"Fortification of Mindset and Work Systems for Handling Customers with High Expectations" Seminar
The customer has always been considered to be one of the key success factors of a company. As customer expectations are ever-changing, only companies who can exceed customers’ expectations and prevent unnecessary complaints are able to retain and attract new customers. In view of this, QTSA organised the seminar ‘Fortification of Mindset and Work Systems for Handling Customers with High Expectations’ on 24 October 2007 at HKPC Building with the objective of helping industry practitioners to develop the mindset and refine work systems for handling customers with high expectations.

During the seminar, our experienced training consultant Mr Raymond Yu, Managing Director of Talents Consulting Limited, shared with participants the techniques for formulating appropriate complaint handling strategies. Furthermore, the Association was pleased to invite Mr Joseph Chan, Senior Manager, Group Training and Development of New World Holdings, and Mr James Lu, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Hotel Association, to inspire the participants with their success stories.


"Excellence Leadership and Team Motivation with Sun Tzu" Seminar
"Sun Tzu" is one of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. It has had a huge influence on international military planning and can be applied to commercial world as there are many common characteristics between them. The QTSA has organised a seminar on "Excellence Leadership and Team Motivation with Sun Tzu" on 6 September 2007 (Thursday) at Exhibition Hall, 4/F., HKPC Building, Kowloon Tong.

The seminar was conducted by Dr. Jackia Lee, Executive Director of Tiptop Consultants Ltd. Dr. Lee incorporated the essences of "Sun Tzu" into the seminar to arouse the interests of participants. She helped participants to understand the application of "Sun Tzu" concept in nowadays' operation and management of retail and catering sectors so as to enhance the wisdom of team management. .


"Business Evolving from Healthy Dining Trends" Seminar
With the government’s efforts to boost healthy eating and the growing number of health-conscious individuals, the healthy eating market has a vast growth potential which means great business opportunities exist for the catering industry. QTSA was pleased to invite The Association for Hong Kong Catering Services Management Ltd. (HKCSM) to present the “Business Evolving from Healthy Dining Trends” Seminar. The seminar was held on Tuesday 28 August 2007 in the Exhibition Hall, 4/F, HKPC Building, Kowloon Tong, and the speakers were Mr Leo Yuen, Director of HKCSM, Food Scientist and Nutritionist, Ms Winnie Wong, British Registered Dietician, Ms Anna Chow and Mr Andy Chung, Directors of Fruit Stop Health Food Restaurant, and Dr Anne Chee from the Department of Health. They shared some sparkling ideas on the concept of healthy eating and explored the opportunities available through effective strategic planning with participants whilst reinforcing Hong Kong’s reputation as the Culinary Capital.


Practical English Seminar for the Retail / Catering Industry
To sustain Hong Kong’s distinguishing values of quality service and hospitality, on which our city’s reputation as a world-destination ultimately depends, good English is a prerequisite for frontline practitioners. Staff with a good command of oral English skills improve standards of quality service, strengthen their company’s competitive edge as well as further consolidate our position as a world city.

With this in mind, QTSA organised a “Practical English Seminar for the Retail Industry” and a “Practical English Seminar for the Catering Industry”, presented by Miss Nanette Ng, Marketing & Program Development Manager of Commercial Development & Training Institute Ltd (CDTI), on 13 August 2007 in room 1106, 11/F, Hong Kong Scout Centre, Scout Path, Austin Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. The seminar focused on the necessary industry-specific vocabulary and useful expressions in the retail and catering industries, enabling participants to further expand their vocabulary and to speak more fluent and professional English through interactive learning, role-play practice and group discussion.


"Achieving Service Excellence with Good Sales Targets" Seminar
Service excellence and sales targets are complementary and both will enhance the competitiveness of your company. To become an outstanding frontline staff, you should know how to strike a proper balance between service excellence and sales performance focuses. In view of this, QTSA organised the seminar on “Achieving Service Excellence with Good Sales Targets” on 23 July 2007 (Monday) at 4/F, HKPC Building, Kowloon Tong with the objective of instilling the techniques of integrating service excellence and sales performance to members and the industry.

In this seminar, our experienced training consultant, Mr Raymond Yu, Managing Director of Talents Consulting Limited, shared with participants the tips about service excellence and sales targets. Furthermore, the Association was pleased to invite Ms. Rita Agnes Wong, Training and Development Manager of the Dairy Farm Group and Ms. Florence Chow, VP Human Resources East Asia of American Express International Inc. to inspire the participants with their success stories. During the interactive discussion and Q&A section, participants actively took part in the discussion and raised questions to the speakers.


Food Safety & Hygiene Talk:“Zero-defect Food Handling for Quality Reputation”
As a quality caterer, precautions and to be alert at all times in food handling are essential for the health of customers and visitors, which also enable merchants to establish and maintain quality reputation. To further promote the importance of food safety and hygiene and prevent food poisoning, QTSA has co-organized the Food Safety & Hygiene Talk: “Zero-defect Food Handling for Quality Reputation” with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department on 6 July 2007 at Hong Kong Scout Centre.

The seminar was conducted by Ms Irene Ko, Health Inspector (Health Education) of Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. She shared with participants the causative agents and contributing factors of food poisoning in Hong Kong and showed the videos about prevention of food poisoning and the food safety instructions. Besides, Ms Ko used lively examples and real cases on food poisoning to help participants understand the importance of food safety.

The seminar has received an enthusiastic response. For those who are interested to obtain more information on food safety and hygiene, please visit the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department website at http://www.fehd.gov.hk .


"Great Talent Management, Great Business Performance" seminar
Within today’s competitive business environment, talent development and staff retention continue to be top priorities for companies. Professional development and succession management cannot be isolated from the business plan and other Human Resource processes. Companies are therefore challenged to establish a more integrated, business-focused strategy to identify, recruit, develop and retain the right talent to ensure business success for future growth.

Quality Tourism Services Association recognises such needs and thus has specially organised a ‘Great Talent Management, Great Business Performance’ seminar with The Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (HKIHRM) on the topics of Talent Retention & Employee Development and Employee Compensation & Benefits with the objectives of keeping members abreast of the latest Human Resource trends and to enable them to use effective techniques for talent management

The seminar was successfully held on 18 June 2007 at the Joint Professional Centre and received an enthusiastic response from managers, HR professionals and business executives.
At the seminar, Ms Carrie Chau, General Manager of HKIHRM, presented with participants with the latest manpower movement survey findings and gave comments on these findings. Ms Chau highlighted the factors that contribute to employee turnover and advised participants of some useful strategies for retaining high value talent. Ms Chau addressed the issue that companies should devote more resources to training for employees in order to retain their loyalty and reduce staff turnover in the long run as well as enhance their competitive edge. The seminar also provided participants with a better picture of training needs in general as well as in various levels or industry sectors by the Training Needs Survey conducted by HKIHRM recently, which enable companies to better deliver corresponding training programmes to their staff.
The seminar was followed by a subject talk by Mr K. T. Lai, the President of HKIHRM, on Employee Compensation and Benefits. Mr Lai outlined the trend of base pay and bonus distribution among Hong Kong companies as indicated by the recent survey. He pointed out that companies should make use of various kinds of pay systems, including employee benefits, career development and training as effective means of attracting and motivating key staff, apart from an attractive and fair remuneration and incentive package. Mr Lai also shared with participants his rich experience in Human Resources Management at the CLP Group.
An informative and insightful seminar best describes this fruitful event, giving the participants the opportunity to keep themselves abreast of the latest developments in professional skills and expertise.


"Prevention of Counterfeit Banknote" Seminar
As some counterfeit HK$1,000 banknotes in good quality have been appearing in the market recently, members are advised to stay alert to the security features of banknotes in order to prevent unnecessary financial loss. The Quality Tourism Services Association was pleased to invite Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Commercial Crime Bureau and Counterfeit and Forgery Division of Hong Kong Police Force to present two seminars to enhance members’ techniques on identification of counterfeit banknotes. Two sessions of seminar were successfully held n 2 April and 4 April 2007 at Hong Kong Monetary Authority located in the International Finance Centre Two.

During the seminar, two speakers including Mr. Michael Lau of Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Mr. Yu Tat Bun of Commercial Crime Bureau and Counterfeit and Forgery Division of Hong Kong Police Force shared with participants the security features for banknotes of Hong Kong Dollar, RMB and the US Dollar, some common flaws from the counterfeit banknotes as well as the techniques on identification of counterfeit banknotes. Participants also have the opportunity to experience the difference between counterfeit and genuine banknotes on hand at the seminar and they were familiarized with the topic through the detailed presentations of our two speakers

For those who missed the seminar due to limited seats, you are welcome to visit the Hong Kong Monetary Authority website at http://www.info.gov.hk/hkma for information on banknote security features and counterfeit banknote identification.


"Service Excellence with NLP" Seminar
As business evolves and customers’ expectations are higher, it is vital for frontline staff and Managers to strengthen their capability of establishing good relationships with customers and the techniques to impress customers. Training that merely concentrates on specific skill sets or outlines required practices in the workplace is no longer suited to the rising needs. Employers are seeking how to fortify the desired mindset, to use their initiative in problem-solving and interacting with customers.

In view of such needs, two ‘Service Excellence with NLP’ seminars were held on 20 March 2007 at the Hong Kong Productivity Council. The event was well-attended with over 150 practitioners in each session.

At the seminars, the Training Consultant from Synergy Training Centre, Mr Danny Pin, introduced the concept of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), which is the study of the way people process information. At the seminar, participants were involved in self assessment, group discussions and case studies. By learning some practical and applicable techniques of NLP, participants understood more about customers’ behavior and the techniques needed for building a rapport with customers.

The majority of the feedback from participants rated the seminar as good and useful in providing enriched tips for delivering quality services, raising customer satisfaction and building customer relationships. They also expressed that they wish to have more in-depth seminars on this topic.


"Complaint Handling through EQ Management" Seminar
Frontline colleagues in the service industry are facing buoyant demand of customers everyday. In this challenging situation, managing EQ fluently is the key to help getting over with the stress. QTSA always emphasizes on the continuous enhancement of our member merchants. In order to assist frontline representatives in EQ management in accordance to serve customers’ different expectations, a “Complaint Handling through EQ Management,” seminar was held on 24 October 2006 at the Hong Kong Productivity Council.

Miss Rowena Szeto, the Training Manager of the St. James’ Settlement Corporate Training Centre was invited to conduct this interactive training which incorporates theory and skill enlightenments, participants are able to learn more about themselves and diagnose their own performance in customer service. By highlighting the keys of self-motivation and EQ mastery, this seminar also shared tips on how to respond to customers’ and tourists’ complaints more appropriately, promptly and with flexibility. Besides, the trainer applied many lively examples and role plays to discuss on different types of customer complaints thus with better understanding, frontline colleagues would be equipped with more proactive and optimistic mindsets preparing them to handle similar cases with more confidence. After all, this seminar helped frontline colleagues realize their pursuit of quality service is holistically contributing to the positive image of their own companies and that of Hong Kong’s service industry in local customers’ and tourists’ minds in the long run.


China UnionPay Seminar
Many mainlanders are gearing up to spend the National Day Golden Week Holiday in Hong Kong. According to the visitor arrival figures reported by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the cumulative visitors from mainland China reached 7.9 million during the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 12.4%. In an attempt to capture the increasing spending habits of mainland visitors, the Hong Kong Tourism Board and China UnionPay Co Ltd jointly presented the ‘UnionPay Discover Hong Kong Club’ recently to encourage mainlanders repeat visits to Hong Kong by spending with their China UnionPay (CUP) Card.

In the face of the growing usage of CUP cards, QTSA would like to refresh members’ understanding of the procedures of CUP card transactions and operation flow by inviting the China UnionPay Hong Kong Representative Office to jointly present a China UnionPay Card seminar on 21 September at the Tsim Sha Tsui Hong Kong Scout Centre.

Mr Carlson Li, the Head of General Management Development of the CUP (Hong Kong) Office explained the latest developments of CUP and the trend of usage, and further explained the identification and characteristics of different CUP cards, such as debit cards, credit cards and dual-currencies cards, features of CUP cards in Hong Kong, the procedures of accepting CUP card transactions, cautions and special operations, e.g. refunds and prepayment, etc.

Furthermore, Mr Li shared with participants some frequently asked questions raised regarding the acceptance of cards and the corresponding solutions and participants were given related pamphlets as reference for taking precaution.


Prevention of Counterfeit Banknote Seminar (co-organized with HKMA)
As counterfeit banknotes surface in the market from time to time, members are advised to stay alert to the security features of banknotes in order to prevent unnecessary financial loss. Following the success of banknotes seminars in the past two years, QTSA is pleased to invite speakers from Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Hong Kong Police Force again to present two seminars, to refresh your staff with techniques on identification of counterfeit banknotes.

With thanks to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority for arranging a venue with spectacular view at IFC2, two seminar sessions were successfully held on 8 August and 17 August. The participants were familiarized with the topic through the detailed presentations of our two speakers, including Mr. Michael Lau, Senior Manager (Currency), Strategy and Risk Department of Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Mr. John Yuen, Detective Senior Inspector, Commercial Crime Bureau and Counterfeit and Forgery Division of Hong Kong Police.

The seminars were contented with different security features of banknotes of Hong Kong Dollar, RMB and the US Dollar as well as some common flaws from the counterfeit banknotes. Mr. Yuen additionally reminded the participants to take their life and properties as the first priority before they report the suspected case of counterfeit banknotes with as much as relevant information to the police. The demonstration part of different currencies at the end of the seminar gave all participants an opportunity to experience the difference between counterfeit and genuine banknotes and with thanks to other staffs from the Hong Kong Monetary authority, who explained and assisted the participants in identifying counterfeit banknotes.


For those who missed the seminar due to limited seats are welcome to contact Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which organizes regular public seminar on the security features of HKD, RMB and USD. Please contact Hong Kong Monetary Authority directly for more information.


“Leadership & Motivation for a Dream Team” Seminar
Success of any business relies on the effort of the whole team; leader plays a significant role as a motivator towards this success. To train an outstanding team towards the quality goal in customer service aspect, management and supervisor should have a thorough understanding in your subordinates and be equipped with excellent leadership, communication and motivation skills. In view of the importance of this topic, QTSA organized a seminar titled “Leadership & Motivation for a Dream Team” for our members on 25 July 2006 morning at Exhibition Hall, 4/F., HKPC Building, Kowloon Tong. Our Vice-Chairman, Mr Tommy Li, M.H., J.P., also attended the seminar and delivered a welcome speech to participated members.

Our speaker in this seminar was Mr David Cheung from the Institute For Executive Development Ltd. (IED). Mr Cheung is a well-versed trainer with over 20 years of experience in training and people development in addition to his impressive managerial background in established corporations in Hong Kong and overseas. More than 100,000 people have attended his trainings in the past. In this seminar, through the introduction of effective communication techniques, he inspired participants on how to make use of motivation in various styles for achieving the optimal leading effectiveness. Through a variety of interactive exercises during the training, Mr Cheung impressed participants by how to get staff on their side and be happy to take instructions. In this seminar, he also discussed on the keys to gain subordinates’ respect, build morale and incite loyalty so participants can well energize the team for fostering autonomy and self-management.

Since a number of merchants could not participate in the July seminar due to its overwhelming registration response, QTSA promptly organized another rerun session on 6 September for benefiting more members. This September session was filled up swiftly as well. Here we would like to thank all for your support in QTSA training. We will continue our effort in presenting more attractive seminars to you.


HR seminar series "People Management for Better Service" - 2nd session on "Development and Retention"
The seminar series on "People Management for Better Services", co-presented by Quality Tourism Services Association and Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management, was successfully held on 26 April and 24 May at the Joint Professional Centre in Central.

Mr Francis Mok, Co-chairperson, Training and Development Committee of HKIHRM and Mr David Li, Co-chairperson, Employee Relations Committee of HKIHRM were invited to be our guest speakers in the 2nd seminar on "Development and Retention" to share on topics of staff development and retention. Mr Mok firstly identified the importance and value of employees to an organization for explaining the reason to invest in staff training and development. Besides, in developing a staff training strategy, it requires not only aligning with corporate resources and development direction, but also listening to the employees in order to meet their expectation.

In addition, many corporate have overlooked the impact of staff turnover without understanding their reason of leaving and the costs involved. Therefore, through the sharing of some survey results, Mr Li suggested members with a number of staff retention measures and provided practical examples on showing how to strengthen the team spirit among employees, plus, increase employees' loyalty to the corporate to lower the turnover rate.


HR seminar series "People Management for Better Service" - 1st session on "Remuneration and Recruitment"
Service industry is a people business. Building a team of people of high performance is a real challenge for management, especially in the middle of a competitive manpower market with a high turnover rate. Management, therefore, are urged to plan strategically for staff selection, reward system, motivation and development in order to maintain an effective and stable workforce.

QTSA recently invited the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (HKIHRM) to co-present a seminar series on People Management for Better Service. The first session - Remuneration and Recruitment - was successfully held on 26 April 2006 (Wednesday) at the Joint Professional Centre.

Mr KT Lai, the President of HKIHRM and Ms Virginia Choi, the Immediate Past President of HKIHRM were invited to kick off the seminar series by sharing the recent study conducted by HKIHRM reviewing the trend of basic salary, bonus distribution and recruitment procedures among Hong Kong companies. Mr Lai focused on sharing the key points to determine pay levels that align employees' expectations with business conditions, and emphasized the importance of the internal communication on the relevant rewarding system. Ms Choi cited different examples from the companies of service industry to share the critical areas in staff recruitment and screening process and also recommended participants to study the job carefully before selection. The seminar gave thoughts to participants of developing a more precise people management strategy to achieve higher morale of employees, hence to sustain their service quality.

The second session of "People Management for Better Service" seminar will be conducted on 26 May (Wednesday) and two other representatives from HKIHRM will share the key points on "Staff Development and Retention" with the participants.

"How to Negotiate with Demanding Customers in a New, Hypercompetitive Sales & Service Era?"
Providing quality service always not limited to the benefits of the customer, a successful Quality Tourism Service merchant should also take care of everyone walks into the shop as well as maintain their business in a positive growth. In this hypercompetitive sales and services era, many retail and catering members have already aware they should not solely rely on providing excellent products or services, the sales interaction process between customers and frontlines also plays an integral part. In facing today's demanding customers, how to deal with them to achieve a win-win scenario is an interesting subject that majority of our members have expressed interests to explore.

Quality Tourism Services Association has recently organized a seminar aimed to improve members' sales negotiation skills named "How Negotiate with Demanding Customers in a New, Hypercompetitive Sales & Service Era?" on 14 March 2006 at Hong Kong Productivity Council Building. The seminar was presented by Mr. Daniel Kong of Inno:Vision Management Consulting Limited. Mr. Kong analogized different types of customer as different fruits, such as an easy-going, straight forwarded customer is like a banana and high demanding customers or who are hard to deal with are like durian! Mr. Kong also demonstrated the "high-powered sales/service negotiation missile" of which six steps of sales negotiation skills from understanding negotiation authority, pace of negotiation, understand seriousness of customer needs , apply strategies and tactics, identity necessity of concessions, to completing the business deal were explained. Dealing with customers whether it is negotiation on a sale transaction or handling a complain case, knowledge of negotiation psychology is always a critical factor to create a win-win scenario between merchants and their customers. Mr Kong reminded all participants either in the retail or catering industry would able to enhance their bargaining power by providing some ammunition to their customers such as provide delivery services, convenience and diversified payment terms, freebies and guarantee of their goods and services.

With over 185 participates from 96 companies attend the seminars, most of the participants have commented through the role play, interactive games and realistic case studies they have been explored to a different level of sales negotiation skills where they should have more confidence to deal with their customers positively.

With thanks to Mr. Daniel Kong of Inno:Vision Management Consulting Limited, copy of the handout of the seminar that day is provided for those who did not attend the seminar or want to share the practical negotiation skills taught by Mr. Kong with the frontline staffs.


Drama based service training seminar "Transform into Service Mindset through the Stage"
Service attitude, words and expression of frontline staff are all directly related to the shaping of corporate image as a whole. Their passion to service and how to communicate with customers may easily strengthen or loosen customers' perception and trust to the corporation. Therefore, management of the corporations must track on the performance of their frontline staff and be able to demonstrate the effective way of delivering satisfactory customer service through respectful attitude, body language and expression.

In view of that, QTSA has invited Mr. Alfred Cheung, a renowned director and who has introduced the use of a brand-new drama based training approach, to deliver a "Transform into Service Mindset through the Stage" seminar which was successfully held on 15 February 2006 at the Hong Kong Productivity Council.

During the seminar, Alfred explained to participants the usefulness of using drama skills to enable staff to understand and put themselves into different roles. At the same time, he demonstrated the techniques of applying the skills in their business operations and training by citing numerous lively, every day examples and playing games with members. Participants were invited to take part in the role plays to illustrate the common phenomenon of today's service attitudes and pin-point the negative points in customer service, which allowed participants to deeply experience the deficiencies in service. Participants were fully involved and learned how to apply drama skills when training service staff in the area of presenting a professional image.


Multicultural Seminar "Understanding International Visitors & Servicing to Excellence"
Facing the peak season of Christmas and New Year followed by the "2006 Discover Hong Kong Year," QTSA members should have all-round preparation to deliver the best experience to visitors from around the world.

In view of that, QTSA has invited Ms Catherine Hau, the vice-chairman of Hong Kong Association of Registered Tour Co-ordinators (HARTCO) to present in our seminar "Understanding International Visitors and Service to Excellence" which was successfully held on 15 December 2005 at the Hong Kong Productivity Council.

During the seminar, Catherine shared with the participants on psychological and behavioral difference among visitors from different countries such as Mainlander, Japanese, British, American, and Australian etc and further analyzed their shopping and dining preferences and service expectation for participants to understand of using appropriate communication and service skills to achieve visitors' satisfaction. With Catherine's long years of profession in the tourism industry, participants have been inspired with better understanding on different cultures of various countries, so as to better be able to identify the characteristics of visitors and deliver excellent customer service.


Complaint Handling Seminar "The Treats and Tricks of Complaint Handling"
Handling complaints is always a challenging task, many retailers and catering merchants urge to minimize complaint cases apparently by concealing the facts that are being complained against to or simply ignoring the cases or trying to redirect the responsibility to others. However these kinds of handling skills do not only worsen the company's reputation, give up the "Treats" of a complaint which is an opportunity for improvement, but also neglect the "Tricks" arise from a complaint which is the obligations of merchants or traders under the law.

We understand many QTSA retailing and catering merchants may not aware the importance of the "Treats" and the "Tricks" of a complaint, but both are critical of maintaining good business in the tourism services sector. We therefore invited Mr. Chan Wing Kai, the head of Complaint and Advise Division of Consumer Council, to deliver a seminar featuring effective complaint handling management for both retailing and catering merchants on 25th and 30th November 2005 respectively.

We received more than 400 applications for the seminars which were held in the Joint Professional Centre in Central. Each participant of the seminars was given a comprehensive handout in which the relevant ordinances, analysis of the trend and the nature of complaints cases for the past few years in Hong Kong as well as many complaint cases studies in various scenarios are printed. Audiences of the seminars had been benefited from the explanation given by Mr. Chan who is experienced in handling complaints cases in respect of the detailed and clear of the ordinances and cases studies. In order to make a better learning experience to the participants, Mr. Chan had prepared a crosswords puzzle to be filled by the participants when introducing the key principles of managing complaints with customers. Our members were also asked to complete a self-evaluation about their attitude and immediate responds when a complaint case happens. The class work created an interest to the participants for better memorization on the principles of complaints handling.

Case studies and discussion were the last part of the half day seminar, most of the participants found this as the most valuable part. With thanks to Mr. Chan who is experienced and in charge of the complaints and advice division of the Consumer Council, our members gained a better understanding on the application of the relevant ordinances as well as the common mistakes and negligence made by the merchants. Most of the attendants commented such seminar is practical and useful as they hope for more similar training seminars for QTSA members.

If you have missed the seminar or would like to download the handout, please click the links below accounting to your business nature


Special Talk on "WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference"
To get members familiarized with WTO Sixth Ministerial Conference that will be held in mid December and what precautions that should be taken before and during that period, QTSA has lined up with World Trade Organization Sixth Ministerial Conference Coordination Office to present a special talk on "WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference" on 24th October 2005 at the Joint Professional Centre.

During the seminar, our speaker, Mr Ngai Wing Chit, Assistant Director from the Trade and Industry Department introduced participants some background information on WTO regarding the scale and functions and the logistics provided by WTO Sixth Ministerial Conference Coordination Office to support in the preparation. After getting a picture on WTO, we also have invited Ms Grace Mak, Senior Inspector from Hong Kong Police Force to talk about the security arrangements, traffic diversion and crowd controls that will be enforced by Hong Kong Police Force during the period. She also highlighted the restricted areas and places that have been assigned as protest zones for public interest. Members were also alert on the protesting activities that might be taken place during the Conference. It is also suggested by Mr Sherman Chow, Senior Inspector from Hong Kong Police Force, that merchants should conduct risk assessment to review the existing contingency plan or formulate a new one in order to raise security awareness of staff and to minimize effect on their business.

Many participated members took the chance to raise their concerns and feedback to the respective authorities during the seminar which allowed listening to and sharing others' ideas and facilitating the preparatory works of the Coordination Office.


Service Leadership Seminar: "Get Set with Your Quality Team for Quality Service Goals"
Service leadership skill is essential for management and supervisor in order to drive staff successfully towards the common goal of quality pursuit in the customer service aspect. Effective motivation, coaching and empowerment are the crucial elements for building up team morale and enhancing staff involvement which can directly affect the quality service experienced by customers and tourists.

To get set with quality team for quality service goals with our members, QTSA presented the Service Leadership seminar on 4 October 2005 at the Exhibition Hall of HKPC Building in Kowloon Tong. Through this seminar, service management staff could familiarize themselves with the gist in enhancing leadership competencies since demonstrating leadership by creating capacity in managing and communicating with staff could set the foundation to optimal delivery of quality service.

In this seminar, our experienced training consultant Mr Raymond Yu, who is the Managing Director from Talents Consulting Limited, guided participants to recognize their roles in leading staff to deliver superior services. He also sparked ideas on integrating internal and external customers as well as establishing service standards for creating value for customers. Especially in the area of service performance management, he pointed out the importance of both attitude and effort for perfecting the result.

In this seminar, we had great pleasure and honor to have invited a guest speaker: Ms. Quince Chong, who is the Director of Service Delivery of Cathay Pacific Airways, to inspire our members with this outstanding company's benchmarking success. She had shared the best practices in service leadership as well as the straight-from-the-heart and people-oriented cultures at Cathay Pacific. Our members were impressed by her presentation and grasped the Q&A opportunity to learn more from this representative from the top quality service organization in town.


China UnionPay Card Seminar
The visitor arrival figures reported by the Hong Kong Tourism Board shows that the cumulative visitors from mainland China has reached 4.99 million during the first 5 months this year. The figure is believed to grow strongly after the opening of the Disneyland as well as the National Day Golden Week Holiday. In parallel with the growth of Chinese visitors, the China UnionPay (CUP) Card has gained wider circulation in Hong Kong.

Following the success of last China UnionPay Card Seminar in February this year, Quality Tourism Services Association (QTSA) is pleased to invite China UnionPay Hong Kong Representative Office again to organize another "China UnionPay Card Seminar" on 28 September. Many practical information of accepting China UnionPay Card as a payment method was delivered during the 2-hour seminar, such as the identification and characteristics of CUP debit cards, credit cards and dual-currencies cards. Speaker of the seminar, head of General Management Development of the CUP (Hong Kong) office, Mr. Carlson Lee also emphasized on the features and cautions of accepting CUP cards especially in Hong Kong as well as the refund and repayment procedures. Finally, Mr. Lee also mentioned about the spending behavioral patterns of CUP card holders in Hong Kong, that helps a lot to build up more confidence to the merchants on accepting CUP cards.

Seminar was ended with a Q&A section; Mr. Carlson Lee's professionalism on the China UnionPay had given high satisfaction to the participants.


Food Safety & Hygiene Talk: "Zero-defect Food Treatment for Quality Reputation"
Food poisoning incidents had recently happened one after one in town. As a quality caterer, perfect precautions and alert all the time for the sake of your own reputation and the health of customers and visitors always keep you ahead.

In response to the heightening risks on food poisoning and help reinforcing the important message of food safety and hygiene to your servicing and cooking staff, QTSA line up with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of the HKSAR Government to present members a talk by Health Inspector Ms Yvonne Yip on how to stay away from the traps of food poisoning during the treatment process, especially on high-risk food such as buffet, sushi, seafood & Chinese barbecued food, etc.

Due to the full-house session on 15 September, QTSA arranged another session in prompt on 20 September in response to members' needs and strong concern on food safety and hygiene.


CRM & CEM Seminar on 18 August: "Customers Stay... or Slip Away?"
Market changes everyday. What and who can make a customer stay or slip away? This question sounds straight forward - YET, the answer can lead to dramatic difference on business return. QTSA, in view of the rising concerns of the service industry practitioners in retaining customers and boosting loyalty, invited Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) to tailor a seminar on customer service management covering Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Experience Management (CEM) - which especially focused on discussing why frontline staff was playing an important role in making a difference. In addition, from the hot-selling book in town "Who Moved my Cheese," there were inspirations brought up probing into the gist of preparing for everyday changes in customer service.

In recent year, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become a topic catching much attention in contemporary business management. For frontline staff, why is this seemingly sophisticated concept a matter of concern, especially in the tourism services aspect that the number of frequent visitors keeps rising? What should they be aware of and perform in their roles to optimize the realization of CRM for achieving customer loyalty? In this seminar, two consultants from HKPC, Mr Philippe Tang & Mr Jacob Lau, shared with participated members the keys to retain customers: observing details for customizing services, optimizing services with the enlightenment from customer feedback after transaction, and more. Some effective cases had also been presented to members for reference. Moreover, the seminar had introduced another new trend in customer service management - CEM. This concept should be taken note of especially for serving visitor market better as customer experience in the merchant level could be directly associated with the impression of Hong Kong as a whole on their minds.

With over 240 registrants from 66 companies, this firstly presented CRM & CEM Seminar was a hot pick of our members and there were 70% of participants gave satisfaction score of 80% or more. As members' keen support had already reflected their proactive pursuit of enhancement, QTSA sincerely believed that even if someday they encountered such challenges, they were already on the alert and well prepared to get through the crisis.


Seminar on Prevention of Counterfeit Banknotes and Fraudulent Credit Card
Being an international tourism and financial centre, merchants in Hong Kong such as our members in retailing and catering industries, have to deal with various foreign currencies and international credit cards for business transactions everyday. Our association realizes the ability to distinguish between genuine and fraudulent different currencies as well as credit cards, is an essential to the daily business and thus organized a seminar in conjunction with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Hong Kong Police Force and the Visa International with the topic of "Prevention of counterfeit banknotes and fraudulent credit card".

With thanks to the venue provided by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority at IFC Tower 2 in Central, the seminar was successfully held in the morning of July 28th, 2005, more than 150 participants has benefited from the demonstration of genuine and counterfeit banknotes in HK Dollar, RMB and US Dollar, as well as the security features Visa credit cards. We greatly appreciate Mr. Michael Lau, Senior Manager (Currency) from HKMA, Mr. Michael Yu, Chief Inspector of Police (Commercial Crime) from HK Police and Mr. Michael Chan (Country Risk Manager - HK & Macau) from the Visa International who gave our members an informative training on this topic.

Not only could the participants learn the technique of distinguish genuine and counterfeit banknotes taught by the speakers, they could also able to observe and identify the sample banknotes on hand during the seminar. Furthermore, each participant was given a color-printed leaflet and a sample Visa credit card both showing their security features, and a bag of souvenirs given by the Visa International.

QTSA regrets that only limited seats were given to our members, to better serve our members, the color-printed leaflet with the information of security features of Hong Kong banknotes will be given to our members together with the July to September 2005 issue of Newsletter! If you would like to have an extra copy, please call our secretariat at 2807 6280.


"New Direction in Service and Selling in the 21st Century"
To build up a quality servicing image of the corporation, supervisors and management must learn the ways to motivate their staff to upkeep the service standard and be able to achieve successful sales without sacrificing quality services.

QTSA has organized the "New Direction in Service and Selling in the 21st Century" seminar on 8 June at the Joint Professional Centre to raise the awareness of successful selling skills in 21st century and introduce the new thoughts to sustain the quality service of the company.

QTSA has organized the "New Direction in Service and Selling in the 21st Century" seminar on 8 June at the Joint Professional Centre to raise the awareness of successful selling skills in 21st century and introduce the new thoughts to sustain the quality service of the company.


China Unionpay Card Seminar
In a bid to promote QTSA members, especially frontliners a better understanding towards CUP Cards, Quality Tourism Services Association (QTSA) has teamed up with China Unionpay Hong Kong Representative Office to organize "Unionpay Card Seminar" on 25 February 2005 at Hong Kong Tourism Board Visitor Information & Services Centre in Central to share with members some useful information on the operation and administrative issues of CUP Cards.

Due to the overwhelming responses from participants and benefiting to more members, the Association has organized an additional seminar on the seminar date.

Conducted by Mr Carlson Li, and Mr Peter Ku of China Unionpay Hong Kong Representative Office, the seminar first shed light on the circulation of CUP Cards, its background and business development in Hong Kong and identified participants characteristics of different types of CUP cards such as debit cards, credit cards and dual-currencies cards. Procedures of accepting CUP cards transactions, cautions and operational conditions were also covered during the seminar.

Since the seminar was the most comprehensive one regarding to CUP in the industries, participants were enthusiastic and pro-active in asking the speakers some of the administrative issues regarding to the acceptance of CUP, especially its related administrative issues such as Dual-Currencies Cards Handling", "Transactions Limits of Some Retailing Fields" and "Double Debits and Manual Refunds" to acquire proper handling procedures in order to provide better services to customers.


"Winning the Heart of Tourists" – Sales Technique Enhancement Seminar
In today’s market environment, tourists are high potential customers for many businesses. As they are unique segment that possesses distinctive consumption behavior and preference, how to win tourists’ heart successfully requires in-depth understanding of their uniqueness and adopting tailored approach in sales force management. In view of the importance in this regard, QTSA has organized a half-day seminar titled "Winning the Heart of Tourists – Sales Technique Enhancement Seminar" for middle to senior executives on 1 February 2005 at the Exhibition Hall of HKPC Building in Kowloon Tong. The veteran speaker, Mr Raymond Tsang from Tiptop Consultants, specializes in the design and execution of large-scaled customer care and management development projects, and has conducted many service training for a number of organizations.

In this seminar, Mr Tsang has demonstrated the new translation of selling procedures by value-adding the traditional A.I.D.A. model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action): Adopting "Interest Creating Remarks" to draw the attention of tourists with different backgrounds (Oriental vs Western) -> Making use of the "Unique Selling Point" to highlight the difference of product or service so as to arouse interest -> Pinpointing the benefits through V.A.K. (Visual, Auditory, Kinetics) for amplifying desire -> Facilitating action by applying flexible sales closing skills.

The speaker has also elaborated on the 80/20 rule for strategically targeting tourist needs. As a closing for the seminar, the management planning flow has also been touched on for inspiring participants the essentials behind the mindset breakthrough in the 21st century.

According to the evaluation results from participants, nearly 80% of respondents found that the seminar could meet 80% of their expectation. Besides, in consideration of the initial overwhelming response with over 300 registrants for this seminar, QTSA is planning to rerun the seminar for benefiting more members. Please keep an eye on our announcement soon!


"Mastering the Skills in Serving and Communicating with International Visitors" Seminar
While the spending of Mainland tourists keeps drawing everyone's attention these days, other tourist markets are in fact recovering gradually. The consumption power of international tourists should not be neglected as their spending also makes up an important part of the sales income for the retailing and catering industries in Hong Kong. In order to facilitate our members to grasp such business opportunities during the Christmas tourism peak period, QTSA especially held a half-day seminar on "Mastering the Skills in Serving and Communicating with International Visitors" on 16 December 2004 (Thursday) at the Lecture Theatre of Joint Professional Centre (JPC) at the Center. The seminar had gained overwhelming response with full house of 215 registrants from 100 companies.

The key speakers of this seminar were Mr Raymond Siu and Mr Stephen Wong from the University of Hong Kong School of Professional and Continuing Education (HKU SPACE). Both of them have solid working experiences in dealing with international clients in the hospitality and PR industries. In addition, two experienced guest speakers, Mr Edwin Chan and Mr Simson Sin, were also invited to share their hands-on experiences in the catering and retailing sectors respectively during the seminar.

This seminar led participants, mainly the frontline staff, to understand their customers from various cultural backgrounds more thoroughly and also highlighted the do's and don'ts in their service or communication. The speakers introduced the concept of multiculturalism and brought up the importance of being open-minded to avoid stereotyping. In addition, the customers' differences in terms of attitude, behavior and preference on food & beverage were also covered in detail by the speakers so as to facilitate participants to achieve better relationship with international customers.


Seminar on "Communication & Service Skills for Dealing with Mainland Customers Successfully"
With the further extension of Individual Visit Scheme, Mainland tourists have become a major target segment for the Hong Kong tourism services industry. In order to seize the business opportunity in the long run, merchants should have an in-depth understanding in their potential customers. To cater to the needs of our members, QTSA organized a free seminar titled "Communication & Service Skills for Dealing with Mainland Customers Successfully" on 8 October 2004 (Friday). It aimed to give participants, especially frontline staff and their supervisors, the technique on how to serve Mainland tourists better.

The key speaker, Mr Raymond Wong has over 30 years of retail experience and is well-versed in the area of serving Mainland customers. He shared tactical skills and tips that could practically facilitate participants enhancing their communication and service levels in dealing with customers from the Mainland.

In addition, being moderated by professional training consultants, Mr Raymond Cheng and Mr Jacob Lau of Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC), the seminar had been conducted as an interactive workshop for providing participants with opportunities to put what they had learnt into practice.


"Integrity - Our Winning Edge" Corruption Prevention Seminar for Retailers
Corruption brings unfairness, crookedness and in its more serious case, puts the lives and properties of a business and even the community at stake. In order to enhance members' awareness of the corruption risks and cultivate themselves preventive measures in the workplace, QTSA teamed up with the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) to organize the "Integrity - Our Winning Edge" Corruption Prevention Seminar for Retailers on 16 September 2004 at ICAC Operations Theatre in Central.

Targeting to staff at management/supervisory level, the seminar was delivered in the form of presentations and open forum by Mrs Helen Lee, Programme Coordinator (Business Sector), Community Relations Department and Ms Eileen Lau, Senior Assignment Officer of ICAC. Participants were also given a chance to tour at the ICAC Exhibition Hall to soak in the real work environment of ICAC working staff. The seminar was well received by members, with a total of 95 participants from 38 companies attending the seminar. Many of them have familiarized themselves with the recent corruption scene, importance of business ethics and some corruption prevention guidelines and measures after the seminar.


Paradigm Shift in Service Mindset & Service Motivation Seminar
Satisfactory customer service from the heart originates from having a quality service mindset. In the competitive market today, merely equipping frontline staff with service skills cannot drive long-term business success. Cultivating a positive mindset in them is the most crucial part and is a pre-requisite in sustaining the consistent delivery of top services.

In view of this, QTSA organized the "Paradigm Shift in Service Mindset and Service Motivation" Seminar on 28 July 2004 with the objective of instilling the concept of quality service mindset and the techniques of driving service motivation to management and supervisors, for their top-down dissemination to frontline staff in the pursuit of company-wide breakthroughs for top quality tourism service.

The trainer in this seminar, Ms Jackia Lee, has over 10 years of professional consulting experience in training and development in Hong Kong and overseas. In the seminar, Jackia shared with participants the gist of paradigm shift for achieving breakthroughs in service mindset. A variety of cases were brought up to demonstrate the pursuit of quality service and customer satisfaction when staff could be motivated to think out of the box.


New Hong Kong Banknotes Seminar 2004
In response to the increasing number of crimes related to Hong Kong & RMB counterfeit banknotes which are threatening the profits of the retail and catering industries, the QTSA is jointly organizing a monthly event titled "New Hong Kong Banknotes Seminars 2004" running from May to September in conjunction with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Commercial Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force. The seminars aim to introduce the security features of HKD notes, RMB notes and credit cards to enable traders to distinguish between genuine and fraudulent currency notes. The seminars also include presentations of some actual examples of counterfeit notes to alert the audience to the quality of some of the fraudulent reproductions.

The first seminar has already been successfully held on 28 May at the Auditorium on the 56th Floor at Hong Kong Monetary Authority located in the International Finance Centre. The three speakers at the seminar were: Mr Michael Lau, Senior Manager (Currency), Banking Development Department of Hong Kong Monetary Authority, who focused on the introduction of the security features of HKD banknotes; Mr Michael Yu, Chief Inspector of Police, Commercial Crime Bureau, Counterfeit and Forgery Division of Hong Kong Police Force, who discussed the latest ways of identifying new RMB banknotes; and Mr Kim Mak, Senior Fraud Control Analyst of American Express Bank, who discussed cases involving credit card fraud that commonly affect retailers and caterers.


Seminar on "Emotional Self-mastery in Handling Difficult Customers/Complaints"
In order to enhance frontliners' skills of members in handling difficult customers and complaints, QTSA organized a half-day free seminar on "Emotional Self-Mastery in Handling Difficult Customers/Complaints" on 29 April 2004. Conducted by veteran training consultants, Mr Raymond Cheng and Mr Jacob Lau of Hong Kong Productivity Council, the seminar helped participants shed light on hands-on customer servicing techniques and practical skills on complaints handling through the effective mastery of Emotional Quotient (EQ). The Association also invited Governing Council Member, Mr Peter Lau, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Giordano International Ltd to kick off the seminar and share with the participants his valuable experience on customer service.