Your Current Position is 6

I am elated. The automated voice on the other end of the phone says "Your current position is 30". I was the 30th person on hold to speak to the enquiry hotline office of the HK Immigration Dept. As I am typing this, my current position is 3. OK, HOLD THE BLOG. I need to speak to the officer soon.
 
I am back.
 
It took only a jiffy 10 minutes to climb from 30th to 3rd, averaging 20 seconds per position.
 
Well, there is a gratifying sense of hope on the other end of the line when you can visualise a queue of people in front of you.
 
The immigration department of HK has the best service people I have come across in the government services category. I was so impressed with the way HK handles the upgrading to smart IDs. Systemtic and super efficient. Total time taken for the registration (starting from entering the building to leaving the building) was a mere 20 minutes. You take a queue number and 30 seconds later), you were ushered to one of the hundreds of temporarily installed cubicle offices.  A smiling uniformed staff (English speaking) greeted me and apologised for having kept me waiting for 30 seconds. He started to process my registration, including a brief interview, taking your mug shot and finger printing all my 10 fingers. He thanked me for my time and explained that if I didnt understand any part of the registration, I can call him.
 
HSBC HK still tops my list of friendly and effective services in the non SME category. Note that I say effective and not efficient. I'll blog about this some other time.
 
[post 16/1997]