Referrals and repeat customers fuel business

Editor;

Re: Tourism companies encouraged to embrace technology (PM June 8 2012): Referrals and repeat customers are the main fuel of any business. Generally this is accompanied by user good reviews and technology just gets in the way here. The front line is the person who actually, hands on, has customer contact - airport/bus terminal information booths (TAT), staffed with knowledgeable people, hotel reception personnel, govt. supplied shuttles, a one stop govt. complaint dept. Machinery will never replace really service oriented people and this is where training money should be spent. Check out the Singapore Sands for how this is done and, though computers are a large part, it is the people who operate them that are “on the firing line” and produce repeats or send unhappy people home.

Don Aleman

Correcting info about maidaeng

Dear Sirs,

With reference to the item in the Pattaya Mail issue of Friday June 3rd regarding the ‘Stonehenge’ arrangements of maidaeng wooden trunks, some of the information given there is incorrect.

According to the information I have of the U.K. Timber Association, its properties are the same as that of teak, except for its density, that of maidaeng being 0.993 and that of teak 0.641. Both have a durability of 1 on a scale of five, and similarly permeability of 1. Durability signifies resistance to decay and 1 indicates that it is extremely resistant. Permeability signifies resistance as regards preservative treatment; i.e., it can only absorb a very small amount even after long treatment, thus it will not absorb water, in fact its density is such that it sinks.

As for its cost, tongue & groove planks 10cm x 2cm are, or were, available at 100 baht per metre at timber yards in Chacheongsao.

My personal experience of this comes from having bought, about ten years ago, the whole skeleton framework of a two floor house built of maidaeng in a village northeast of Sakon Nakhorn in Isaan, consisting of 12 pillars 6m x 0.17m x 0.19m and 6 similar ones about half a metre longer together with side planking and cross beams for 75,000 baht. Thus in my house, in mock Tudor style with exposed external pillars, the floors are of maidaeng, plus the ceiling of the lounge and balconies, rails, staircase, doors & frames, and some furniture.

Yours faithfully,

Roger Womersley,

Koh Sichang

Double pricing is bad news

Editor;

(There was) a very interesting article in the Bangkok Post by Unisa Sakhsvasti Monday June 4 - “What is the price of goodwill? Here in Thailand we are in danger of essentially barbecuing the goose that lays the golden egg so we can have one delicious, satisfying meal of Peking duck, never mind if we end up starving tomorrow. Uninformed thinking goes along the lines double pricing is OK. There are potentially so many first-time visitors to target it won’t matter if we lose a few repeat visitors, will it? How long would a restaurant survive with that kind of thinking? How long will Thailand be a favourite tourist destination with that kind of thinking?”

She goes on to say, “I would feel discriminated against if an Arabic sign that said I had to pay more at the Pyramids of Gaza simply because I was a tourist, or the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Statue of Liberty in America, or the Tower of London”

Double pricing is bad news for the tourist industry. Wake-up Thailand, take notice of the rotten smell and do something about it before it is too late. But perhaps it is already too late, so enjoy your BBQ Peking duck today and don’t be surprised if you go hungry tomorrow and the days after!

RW

Referrals and repeat customers fuel business

Correcting info about maidaeng

Double pricing is bad news