I WOULD like to start with a recommendation: If you feel down and out, or just plain stressed or depressed, head down to the Toyota and Lexus showroom at Leng Kee Road.

Chances are, you will come face to face with an affable security officer by the name of Rajoo.

If he's on duty that day, let me assure you that you will hear him before you see him.

Rajoo makes his presence known with an authoritative yet reassuring voice that puts you at ease immediately and makes you feel right at home.

He directed me to a parking lot meant for VIPs. Somehow, I had a strange feeling that, to him, all the parking lots in the compound are for VIPs, simply because he treats every customer like one.

This is all the more remarkable, given that sales are hard to come by today.

As I waited at the reception area for my friends to arrive, I glanced around and saw Rajoo again.

This time, he was opening the door for a supplier carrying a floral bouquet and commented how lovely the flowers were.

To me, Rajoo is a model employee, whether he is showing someone to a parking lot or exchanging niceties with a customer or employee.

But lest you think that it's all in his words alone, I assure you that it takes more than that.

When mass global consumer brands first came here, just about every one boasted that their staff were trained to be consistently polite.

But their staff's robotic, formulaic service seems caught in a time warp and, to me, it has not progressed much since then.

To use a modern analogy, it's as though they are stuck in Web 1.0.

It's time we upped the ante on training and teach staff how to provide service that injects life and soul into the words they articulate.

That particular week, up to the moment I bumped into Rajoo at Leng Kee Road, had been a rough one for me, with meetings and presentations stacked back-to-back.

I was feeling drained and exhausted when I arrived at the showroom, but Rajoo turned my gloomy, melancholic mood into bright and cheerful humour.

I should add that, even though I'm singing the praises of this gentleman, I don't actually know him personally.

But, somehow, I feel I should thank him for lifting my spirits that day, in whatever way I can.

What's more, I realised that Rajoo's bright and breezy attitude is highly contagious, as I stayed exuberant for the rest of the day.

This goes to show that a positive attitude can make all the difference to the people around us, and I'm sure there's a bit of Rajoo in all of us.

So why not bring it out, and make our world a much better place!

myp@sph.com.sg

The writer is a senior vice-president of the SPH marketing division and the general manager of SPH NewMedia for Zapcode.

For more my paper stories, click here.