QUALITY OF INFORMAL SECTOR SERVICES IN THE NEW NORMAL ERA

Pandemic covid 19 has made the economies of the countries in the world including Indonesia destroyed. Almost all sectors can be said to be paralyzed, based on a release from the Central Statistics Agency, the number of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia in the first quarter of 2020 also dropped dramatically to only 2.61 million visits, a decrease of 34.9 percent when compared to last year. This is in line with the inter-country flight ban, which took effect in mid-March. The absence of activity for three months since mid-March still leaves opportunities for several businesses belonging to the informal sector to rise slowly.

Two sectors in the economy coexist namely formal and informal sectors. In recent times the experience of the economic crisis, especially in Indonesia such as; the 1997 monetary crisis which hit the economy and business, the Bali bombings of 2002, 2004 and several other events have shown that the informal sector still exists and is able to survive compared to the formal sector.

According to Widodo (2005) the informal sector is an unorganized, unregulated, and mostly legal but unregistered sector. The informal sector has characteristics such as the large number of business units on a small scale; individual or family ownership, simple and labor-intensive technology, low levels of education and skills, access to financial institutions is very low, labor productivity is low and wages are also relatively lower than the formal sector. Besides that, it has no relationship with the government, both in terms of licensing, taxation and protection. These small businesses can take the form of trading businesses such as street vendors, meatball vendors, hawkers, transportation services such as pedicab drivers, motorcycle taxi drivers, including small and home industries (cottage industry and home industry).

The purpose of this scientific work is: first, to find out whether the informal sector still exists in the new normal era. Second, what steps do the informal sector need to take in the new normal era?

Before the pandemic covid 19, the standard of service in the informal sector in the service business was very simple, for example a warteg, what made customers satisfied was good food, cheap prices, friendly service, a clean and comfortable place. Likewise, the business of cutting hair that makes customers satisfied is different, namely a good haircut, plus massage. Gojek online (gojol) is enough just to order through the application, gojol comes given a helmet then to the destination and finished. So this is the simple process of delivering services from producers to service users. Entering the new normality phase (new normal), the informal sector needs to adjust its service quality.

New normal is a change in behavior to keep running normal activities through scenarios to accelerate the handling of Covid-19 from the health and socio-economic aspects. Thus the public is allowed to return to their activities by following the health protocol before the vaccine is actually found. World Health Organization (WHO) has established several criteria to be able to carry out new normal that is not increased transmission and the health system to respond to Covid-19 services.

In the new normal era so that the informal sector can still exist, the quality of services must be able to adapt to the health protocol a la pvidemic-19 pandemic. All health signs in the style of covid-19 must not obstruct and be a reason for limitations in providing services to customers. Management of service quality must be a concern and continue to be improved. The purpose of quality management is to ensure that consumers expect a quality match with the goods or services that are actually received. There are 5 criteria according to Juran (2010), namely time (reliability), psychology (taste), technology (strength or endurance), contractual (guarantee), and ethics (courtesy).

Adaptation in the new normal era, the Quality Management System (SMM) can be either informal or formal. The informal sector as in the example above to be able to exist, several health protocols must be implemented. Formally, every stall or outlet has begun to arrange its place by setting the distance between one table and another table as well as chairs. In the front, one or two hand wash basins have been prepared with soap or handsoap. In the cashier section, a handsanitizer is also prepared for consumers who finish paying to spray the handsanitizer and leave the outlet healthy and clean. Informally, quality of service is still carried out such as; greet customers with a friendly smile and welcome customers to follow the health protocol. Adaptation of formal and informal service quality creates a comfortable atmosphere and consumers are free from doubts about hygiene in the new normal era.

The conclusion that can be taken from the description above is that the informal sector will still exist by adapting the quality of services in accordance with health protocols and integrated with friendly services and still maintaining courtesy to customers.