Dhammika Kalapuge to Repeat ‘Lead to Serve’ program

Friday, 13 June 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Dhammika Kalapuge presented his new program ‘Lead to Serve’ for the second time, on 29 May at The Kingsbury, and the same will be repeated

on 18 September for the third time in response to the overwhelming demand for the program. There were nearly 200 participants representing 60 varied organisations. The audience comprised of CEOs, heads of human resources units, service champions, entrepreneurs and other senior management staff who actively took part in the program. Commenting on the program, many participants shared and agreed with the fact that customer service is not rocket science, but it is important to be reminded that by doing the basics right in customer service organisation’s in most industries can make a sustainable differentiation to attract and retain customers and to establish a competitive edge. The facilitator, Dhammika Kalapuge, explained the needtoday “to hire people for their attitude and train for the aptitude in setting up a service culture right”. To prove these points, in this learning experience, many case studies were discussed covering both local and foreign entities. Moreover, the role of a leader in setting up the service culture right by recruiting the proper service providers with the right passion to serve, giving them an exciting orientation that deals with service philosophy of the entity and steps to be followed in the preparation and presenting a ‘service credo’ too were discussed at length. In strengthening a service culture, the importance of empowering the front-liners, recognising the good performers and encouraging idea generation from the staff were given due emphasis in the program. Beyond ‘service training’ in which one is told ‘what to do’, the need to have the ‘service education’ where the service provider creating value through ‘attuning the mind-set and improving the skill set’ was discussed with storytelling. National significance “For the tourism industry, with over 6,754 hotel rooms getting added to the country in the coming 12 months, emphasising the development of a service culture is of national significance. In these hotels alone there can be over 16,000 new job opportunities. Very soon the hospitality industry will be a significant player in our economy. However, the service culture is needed not only in hotels and restaurants but in every other

sphere of economic activity such as retail trade, health sector, transport sector and even service delivering government institutions including the police department as well. In this context I consider that Dhammika is making a valuable contribution to the nation,” commented well known corporate leader and consultant Deepal Sooriyaarachchi who was in the audience. “Over the years Dhammika has mastered the art of delivering a full days’ program with the same level of enthusiasm and intense engagement of the participants. His method of case story based teaching is one of the most effective ways of imparting knowledge. In addition to bringing in best in class global examples Dhammika now presents a number of local examples increasing the confidence of the local executives and inspiring them to drive for service excellence,” concluded Sooriyaarachchi. Many participants were delighted with the manner in which the program was organised and in particular they commended Kalapuge’s ability to keep the audience focused and engaged, throughout the day, by taking the message simply and effectively to reach the hearts of people from all walks of life with true to life stories. Kalapuge has a reputation for conducting inspirational programmes both locally and overseas. During the last decade and half he has conducted over 2,200 programs, to more than 400 private and public sector institutions, mostly to achieve excellence in service quality as he works on a theme ‘Sri Lanka So Lovely, Serving Lively’. The repeat program which is scheduled on 18 September at The Kingsbury is organised by SIPCOM-1 Ltd., a company focusing on total people development. SIPCOM-1 housed at Galadari Hotel organises and promotes in-house and public programs mostly on service quality, exclusively designed and conducted by Dhammika Kalapuge. They can be contacted via [email protected].