York Castle High School Student Wins JaCSA Song Competition Again

Grade-10 student of York Castle High School in St. Ann, Adryan McNeish, is the 2022 winner of the Jamaica Customer Service Song Competition, adding to the crown she won in 2021.

She first entered the competition in 2021 and when the opportunity presented itself to enter again in 2022, she did and walked away with the winning trophy, a certificate and $80,000 prize money, with her entry dubbed: ‘Celebrate the Excellence’.

In an interview with JIS News, Miss McNeish encourages other young people to enter next year’s competition.

“I am encouraging them to enter. But they must know that they have competition, which is me. I am the two-year winner. I would like to call myself the Customer Service Queen and if they can dethrone me, then so be it. We will see,” she said.

The Song Competition is organised jointly by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) and the Jamaica Customer Service Association (JaCSA). It is a highlight of the annual National Customer Service Week (NCSW) activities and Service Excellence Conference each October.

The winning song was featured in the NCSW Conference that took place on October 4 and 5, under the theme ‘Celebrate Service Excellence: Re-igniting a Culture of Care’.

Miss McNeish told JIS News that she was encouraged to re-enter by her music teacher.

“My music teacher sent me the poster for the Competition, which I had entered the previous year and won, so I decided, why not try to enter again and see if I will win again, which I did,” she said with pride.

“I was very excited to win… . I couldn’t believe that I’d won again but listening to my song I really can see why. I believe that it really depicts everything that the theme was, which is celebrating service excellence and reigniting a culture of care”.

The singer and songwriter said that she felt that she had a good chance of winning, because she had learned a lot about the Competition and knew what the judges wanted.

Entries were judged based on musical arrangement, originality and creativity, customer service message, presentation and interpretation and relevance of lyrics and expressiveness.

Miss McNeish credited the Song Competition to improving her talent, creativity and interpersonal relationships.

“I have gained a lot of confidence from entering the Competition over the past two years. I think it has developed my ways of writing songs. I have developed as a person. It has allowed me to see how much I can do and how far I can reach in life,” she said.

The two-time winner said that she was inspired to write the song through her customer service experience.

“And I really wanted to depict what good customer service should be like in the song, and that’s how I did it,” she said.

“I believe in having a good rapport with your customers or a good mutual respect between a service worker and a customer. It is very important to have good customer service,” Miss McNeish said.

The talented student said that employers should observe how their employees operate while serving customers.

“I think they should pay more attention to how they actually treat their customers and see where improvement can be implemented,” she added.

Young people aged 13 to 17 are being encouraged to start preparing their entries for next year’s staging of the competition.

JCDC Music Development Specialist and Executive Member of JaCSA, Avory Crooks-Campbell, is imploring youth to take advantage of the opportunity.

“The Jamaica Customer Service Song Competition is an excellent way to showcase your talent and assist you with becoming more aware of service excellence, its many facets and its importance to nation-building,” she said.

Persons can also visit the JCDC’s website, www.jcdc.gov.jm, and social media pages for further details about the song competition.