SIA to deploy some staff to provide specialised training services for other companies

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) will deploy some of its staff to share its experience and expertise in customer service with other companies and organisations, in a bid to diversify its non-airline revenue streams.

This can be done through speaking engagements, courses, workshops and programmes tailored to the requirements of these companies and organisations, SIA announced in a statement on Thursday.

The national carrier will explore further training opportunities in areas such as customer experience and service excellence, human factors and resource management, digital transformation and airline operations.

Starting from September 2020, SIA will conduct a customer service training course for Khoo Teck Puat Hospital's (KTPH) new Patient Care Officer (PCO) programme. The PCO is a new service professional role inspired by the Care Ambassadors programme the hospital and the airline jointly launched in April 2020 - which saw 60 ambassadors from SIA being deployed to KTPH to support care teams in the hospital.

PCOs will work closely with doctors, nurses and allied health staff to provide quality care service, caregiving and end-to-end coordination for patients in the ward. The role will also support the clinical work of nurses.

SIA's cabin crew trainers will conduct a three-day course for the PCOs - part of a 20-day overall training curriculum - where the PCOs will be trained in effective interpersonal communication and customer handling. They will also learn how to exemplify values such as empathy, warmth and person-centred care.

SIA and KTPH are exploring other potential areas of collaboration - including the application of SIA's crew resource management practices to the hospital's operations. These practices are a wide range of skills used to enhance flight safety and reduce human error, SIA said.