Talking to James Hogan, CEO of Etihad, during his acceptance of the Aviation Executive of the Year award by CAPA in Hong Kong last week, it’s clear the Australian-born airline chief is madly focused on customer service.

He knows, like every chief executive of businesses whose products have been commoditized, that service can be the only differentiator because if you compete on price, it’s a downward spiral to nowhere.

And everyone knows that “the most powerful brand building comes from the actual use of the product”, as Cathay Pacific’s CEO John Slosar said when he talked about his airline’s bid to make premium travel (which will soon incorporate premium economy data) more than 40% of Cathay’s overall revenues, up from the current lower 30s.

In premium travel, he said, repeat business is critical and so you have to give customers great reasons to come back – it’s not just product but service attitude and style that’s the differentiator between airlines, said Slosar – “little things that make a difference”.

While Hogan says he is focusing on guest service at every point of contact – better products, better lounges etc – one area he touched on during my conversation with him is the empowerment of inflight staff to solve problems before they get to the ground. The idea is to free ground staff from as much of the problems before passengers touch down.

I saw an example of that onboard the Singapore Airlines flight to Hong Kong. Now while I feel that SIA’s inflight service has been patchy of late – and let’s not get into their website issues – this incident showed me how a well-trained and motivated staff can make the difference.

The guy sitting next to me was having problems with his entertainment system. He told a junior male attendant about the problem – at least twice – and it wasn’t fixed. After his third complaint, a senior female attendant asked if he’d like to move seats as they couldn’t fix the problem. He said no because he was sitting with his girlfriend.

The staff apologized and then offered him a voucher to pick a gift from the duty free catalogue. You should have seen the surprise, then delight, on the couple’s faces. They had a great time browsing through the catalogue and picking out an item for her. “My Christmas present for her,” he said, winking at me.

With that, I dare say SIA has won over two customers who’ve got a lifetime of travel ahead of them. In their mid-20s, they had just returned from a holiday in Bali and was planning another one over the Christmas period.

While in Hong Kong, I couldn’t help but observe how efficient and professional hotel staff were. As busy as they were, they always had a smile and showed an eagerness to engage with the customer – you never felt you were taking their time.

On check-in at the Grand Stanford Inter-Continental, the receptionist asked me if I needed her to show me what was around the hotel. When I said no, she smiled, “Too busy? Don’t work too hard.”

It’s the kind of interaction I remember.

The staff at the Tapas bar at Kowloon Shangri-La work the outlet like a charm. They are friendly, natural and confident.

At Hotel ICON, the hotel that’s attached to and owned by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the vibe is distinctly more youthful and vibrant and just as helpful. When I asked the doorman how I could get to Harbour City, he said, you can take our shuttle bus which leaves in 3 minutes – and I wasn’t a guest.

The story is the same every service outlet I visit – there’s an efficiency in Hong Kong that cuts like a well-sharpened blade. And at the heart of it is an attitude to solve problems.

My friend, who was born and grew up in Hong Kong, told me it’s probably because “from young, we are taught that we must always get things done and if we can’t, then get out of the way for someone else who can”.

On my return to Singapore, I find a news report that says customer satisfaction at hotels has dropped the most out of all service sectors.

The Customer Satisfaction Index released by the Institute of Excellence says that visitors are less satisfied by the service in the tourism sector this year, compared with previous years, and the hotel sector dropped 4.4 points or 5.9% to 70.2 points. The satisfaction levels of tourists showed the sharpest decline of 8.2%.

And the most common complaint was the lack of attention to detail.

See, details become much more important when prices are high. If I pay $500 for a room, I expect lots of details. If I am paying $150, I don’t.

When I checked in at the Kowloon Shangri-La, the staff said they had arranged a late check-out for me in case I needed it. Now that’s a detail I welcome.

Yes, Singapore hotels are suffering from a severe labour crunch due to the tightening of foreign labour but I dare say service standards in Singapore have never been as well-honed as in Hong Kong’s even when hotels were fully staffed.

So what’s the difference? That’s a detail I’d like to see addressed.

Photo: Marina Bay Sands taken from the Marina Barrage – the detail is in the sculpture