He Makes your Coffee and your Day!

We all know and love Prabu. He is the superstar in Santai who cheers everyone up. He seems to remember everything about us: from our name and order to what class we have next. But how much do we know about him?

Well, fortunately, Prabu was more than happy to chat to me in between serving customers. Prabu Krishnan is originally from Malaysia but he now lives in Singapore despite his family still being in Malaysia. He is a coffee connoisseur, having worked at Dome coffee for 12 years before joining Sodexo in 2014 and finally working at UWC 2 years later. He has always worked in service because it is his “nature” and he loves talking to people which is apparent to anyone who meets him.

He chose to work at UWC because he likes the environment, working with kids and all the holidays (of which he jokes there are “too many!”).

He enjoys having fixed customers as he can form a connection. “I try my best to memorise as many names and orders as I can,” he told me modestly.

This effort is appreciated by many people: “He always says your name and addresses you politely and it’s really sweet because it’s little things that make your day!” A Grade 10 student  answered when I asked why Prabu is so popular amongst his customers.

His positive effect on the community is apparent whenever you ask students about him: “He always puts a smile on my face,” says a Grade 12 student. But after asking Prabu why he maintains a cheerful attitude and a helpful manner towards everyone he smiled and said his philosophy for his job is “to treat every customer like a king.” This only goes to show why the service in Santai is so amazing and welcoming.

“Santai” means “relax” in Bahasa and the hospitality of the staff in Santai ensure it lives up to its name. In fact, one new teacher I spoke to said Prabu welcomed him to the school on his first day by giving him a free drink as he was his first customer.

Paul says “It was a small action like this which showed him the atmosphere of the school was something special,” and introduced him to the welcoming and friendly energy here at East. This is the sort of culture we are trying to cultivate in our school.

But it’s not just free drinks, Prabu exercises absolute professionalism and keeps his staff on their toes because he believes the most important aspect of his job is to “deliver a good service.” Prabu and his team work exceptionally hard to reach these high expectations and focus on even the smallest things, like decorating your coffee with a heart. He takes pride in his job but more importantly he finds happiness in it.

So what can we all learn from Prabu?

An individual’s contribution can greatly affect our community. If you start your day with good intentions to help others, friends or strangers, and share a bit of positivity or joy, the same goodwill will be returned on days when you might feel down. Little things make a big difference. As Prabu says:“It’s common sense- treat people with respect and they will return it!” Let kindness become a habit and friendliness become a personality trait and discover more about other people.

So ask yourself: how many people does Prabu know? Do we take him memorising our names for granted? And how many of us have put in the effort to get to know more about him, or any facilities staff? What does that say about us? We all need to aspire to be better! Let’s all try to make the people we interact with everyday feel better.

Who could not feel better by going into Santai and getting personal recognition from Prabu. Small acts of kindness are really important within a community to improve other people’s day. So thank you, Prabu, for your kindness that is greatly valued by many, from parents to infants. You make us happy!