Chinese Government Launches Customer Service Training with Service Quality Institute
Service Quality Institute of Minneapolis, the global leader in customer service, signed three agreements with its Chinese government partner in China, World Expo Group Shanghai Foreign Service Co. Ltd. (SFSC)to help it drive world-class service in China
(PRWEB) June 11, 2005 -- Service Quality Institute of Minneapolis, the global
leader in customer service, signed three agreements with its Chinese government
partner in China, World Expo Group Shanghai Foreign Service Co. Ltd. (SFSC), and
Shanghai FESCO International Training Center (ITC), a branch of SFSC.
Service Quality Institute, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, recently
signed agreements with the Chinese government to help it drive world-class
service in China. The first agreement is the licensee agreement to translate
SQI's customer-service training programs into Chinese and duplicate and print
its learning systems throughout China. For 34 years Service Quality Institute
has been helping organizations improve the performance of their workforces in
order to provide superior customer service. SQI has representation in more than
40 countries and its customer service training program are available in Chinese,
Russian, Spanish. Arabic, Portuguese. More than 70 percent of its revenue is
international.
The second agreement is for SQI to provide the
customer-service training and certification for more than 1.4 million workers
for the World Expo. This might well be the world's largest training contract.
The third agreement is for the Chinese foreign rights for a new
book--Loyal For Life--by John Tschohl, president and founder of the Service
Quality Institute, who Time and Entrepreneur magazines describe as a "customer
service guru." This is one of the first books ever published on service
recovery.
Shanghai World Expo (Group) Co., Ltd. was founded on February
18, 2004 with the joint investment from state-owned Assets Supervision &
Administration Commission of the Shanghai Municipal Government, Shanghai
State-owned Assets Operation Co., Ltd., Shanghai Media & Entertainment
Group, and Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shanghai. Its
registered capital is $135 million. Authorized by 2010 Shanghai World Expo
Organizing Committee, Shanghai World Expo (Group) Co., Ltd. is solely
responsible for the construction of the World Expo Park and the World Expo
Village, the management during the World Expo, the venue disposal and reuse
after the World Expo.
Shanghai Foreign Service Co. Ltd. (SFSC)
specializes in human resources services. Established in Shanghai in 1984, the
company leads the human resources services in China in the realm of human
resources consulting, outsourcing, agency, education and training, immigration
and overseas study. The company has more than 100,000 staff members working for
more than 8,000 multinational companies and foreign enterprises in China, 280 of
which are Fortune 500 Enterprises.
SFSC, as the key part of Shanghai
World Expo Group, is responsible for recruiting, training and utilizing human
resources for 2010 Shanghai World Exposition and the municipality of Shanghai as
a whole.
Shanghai FESCO International Training Center (ITC) was founded
under the auspices of Shanghai World Expo Coordination Bureau. As Bridge of
Sino-Foreign Cooperation and Base of World Expo HR Development?, ITC is serving
foreign and Chinese organizations as well as 2010 Shanghai World Expo. ITC
conducts services in three areas: training (mainly customer service, foreign
languages testing and training, logistics, event management and public
relations), foreign education (teaching Chinese as a second language) and
culture exchanges (cross-culture communication and immersion programs), and
interpretation and translation (in various languages).
SQI training and
Certification in China
China's international economic influence grows every
year, and has now become the focus of the world. Shanghai aims to become a
world-class city of international economic, financial, trade, and shipping with
world-class customer service. In 2010, this city's attraction to the world will
reach the climax with the hosting of the 2010 World Expo. It is conservatively
estimated that this event will welcome more than 70 million visitors from
throughout the world during 184 days.
The 2010 Shanghai World Expo is
expected to dramatically increase Shanghai's GDP and employment rate and will be
the launching event for Shanghai to achieve its vision and strategy of becoming
a world-class city. The local government is investing over $10 billion in
infrastructure, including harbor, airport, city transportation, and cultural
facilities. However, it is consensus of the government and residents that the
hardware, such as infrastructure, is easy to improve with enough investment,
whereas software, such as service, is difficult to improve within a short period
of time.
In February of 2005, Shanghai drew up a guideline for the
development of its service industry, which means the city has recognized the
significant impact of the service sectors on the growth and efficiency of its
overall economic performance. Until now, GDP from the service sector has grown
to more than 51 percent of total GDP in Shanghai, a figure that is expected to
reach 80 percent.
Shanghai has more 17 million people now; the number of
residents in "the Yangtze River Delta" area (including Shanghai) will reach more
than 90 million by the end of 2010. On average, people age 20 to 65 account for
70 percent of the total population, and 50 percent of them work in the service
industry. Approximately 1,420,000 people will be using Service Quality
Institute's customer service training and certification programs by 2010.
It is estimated that there will be 300,000 volunteers and 20,000
professionals serving 2010 World Expo directly, plus tens of thousands of others
working in other areas such as hospitality, security, finance, banking, medical
services, automobile, and higher education. At least 70 percent of them will
attend training in customer service, and a large number of these people will
need to be certified by Service Quality Institute's partner, Shanghai Foreign
Service. Thousands of organizations will take the certification seminars as a
proof of their service quality.
Two or three SQI products will be
launched in China each year. SQI's Service First Video Library and Leading
Empowered Teams were recently released in Chinese. Four books by John
Tschohl--The Customer is Boss, Cashing In, Achieving Excellence through Customer
Service and e-Service--have been published in Chinese. By 2010, all of SQI's
products and services will enter the China market, and SFSC and SQI jointly will
provide the certification and training programs to build exceptional service and
customer loyalty throughout that country.
It is estimated that the
revenue from service quality training and certification in China will grow by 60
to 70 percent each fiscal year during the next five years will have a continuous
and steady income for Service Quality Institute and its Chinese government
partner SFSC . In the Yangtze River Delta alone, the annual revenue will reach
several million dollars by the end of 2010, a figure that could double or triple
by 2015.
The 2010 Shanghai World Expo is an unprecedented opportunity
for SFSC and SQI's joint success in launching Service Quality Institute products
and services, first in Shanghai, then in the Yangtze River Delta, and then in
other parts of China.
(John Tschohl is the founder and president of
Service Quality Institute, the global leader in customer service. He is the
author of five books on customer service and more than 40 training programs.
John can be reached at 952-884-3311, e-mail protected from spam bots or www.customer-service.com. He is available for
interviews.)
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb250051.htm