Kerrie you completely misunderstood me. I will rephrase:
1. The 'tendency' of 'most' people to say "Thank you' and 'sorry' is a UK trait (as you know some of them are far cuter, actually, such as when the old ladies say "darling" and "love"). (i.e. You will not find it as prevalent in USA or Germany or France or India or Greece or Turkey or Iran). However I did NOT say "Customer Service is a UK trait" - though I wish it were :P
2. Luckily (or unluckily), being connected to shipping, I have been globe trotting for the last 15 years (including 3 years in UK) and I have found stark differences in the way customer service is perceived in different places. As you mentioned there are mixtures and "there have always been people that through common sense say please, thank-you and can I help you?". Maybe I mis-concluded but are you suggesting that there are NONE here? I can imagine if you said they were less accommodating, but to say that there are NONE will mean Qatar is an oddity, no? But if you did have some decent experiences, then I suppose it will be within the realms of "being different" rather than being the "odd man out". While I am no fan of customer service in Qatar, I just think its different to what you and I are exposed (rather conditioned) to.
3. The differences are not because of lack of motivation ALONE or lack of training ALONE or cultural / language barriers ALONE.....its a equilibrium which has been attained by market/historical/cultural forces. Since there is no great competition, organisations will not invest in something that will not create a competitive advantage. Once there is a large enough customer base and significant competition amongst suppliers THEN you will see customer service being exploited as a competitive advantage and the whole equilibrium shifting again.
That said, and I am sorry to sound brusque, but there is no NEED for anyone to be nice to anyone else. If you happen to speak to Greeks who are in UK, for example, they will tell you "Malaka what is all this bull sh*t about 'Thank you' and 'Sorry'. We never apologise to anyone unless we feel like and we never show gratitude unless we feel it in our hearts". Now most of my best friends are Greeks and I just love them, but MAN they are FAR from polite. So thats where I was referring to your (and even mine) "conditioning" where we expect politeness to be a "normal" social practice. What you and I perceive as normal is not. In fact on our MBA project we did a Mergers and Acquisition project and I was surprised (initially) to be told by investment bankers and company heads that many acquisitions are not undertaken simply because of the "cultural differences", i.e.: The financial and other operational synergies may be the best, but if the cultures don't match, the merger will result in a failure in most cases. And their definition of "culture" included, but was not limited to, cultural differences between nationalities.
My Tuppence.
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it"
Kerrie you completely misunderstood me. I will rephrase:
1. The 'tendency' of 'most' people to say "Thank you' and 'sorry' is a UK trait (as you know some of them are far cuter, actually, such as when the old ladies say "darling" and "love"). (i.e. You will not find it as prevalent in USA or Germany or France or India or Greece or Turkey or Iran). However I did NOT say "Customer Service is a UK trait" - though I wish it were :P
2. Luckily (or unluckily), being connected to shipping, I have been globe trotting for the last 15 years (including 3 years in UK) and I have found stark differences in the way customer service is perceived in different places. As you mentioned there are mixtures and "there have always been people that through common sense say please, thank-you and can I help you?". Maybe I mis-concluded but are you suggesting that there are NONE here? I can imagine if you said they were less accommodating, but to say that there are NONE will mean Qatar is an oddity, no? But if you did have some decent experiences, then I suppose it will be within the realms of "being different" rather than being the "odd man out". While I am no fan of customer service in Qatar, I just think its different to what you and I are exposed (rather conditioned) to.
3. The differences are not because of lack of motivation ALONE or lack of training ALONE or cultural / language barriers ALONE.....its a equilibrium which has been attained by market/historical/cultural forces. Since there is no great competition, organisations will not invest in something that will not create a competitive advantage. Once there is a large enough customer base and significant competition amongst suppliers THEN you will see customer service being exploited as a competitive advantage and the whole equilibrium shifting again.
That said, and I am sorry to sound brusque, but there is no NEED for anyone to be nice to anyone else. If you happen to speak to Greeks who are in UK, for example, they will tell you "Malaka what is all this bull sh*t about 'Thank you' and 'Sorry'. We never apologise to anyone unless we feel like and we never show gratitude unless we feel it in our hearts". Now most of my best friends are Greeks and I just love them, but MAN they are FAR from polite. So thats where I was referring to your (and even mine) "conditioning" where we expect politeness to be a "normal" social practice. What you and I perceive as normal is not. In fact on our MBA project we did a Mergers and Acquisition project and I was surprised (initially) to be told by investment bankers and company heads that many acquisitions are not undertaken simply because of the "cultural differences", i.e.: The financial and other operational synergies may be the best, but if the cultures don't match, the merger will result in a failure in most cases. And their definition of "culture" included, but was not limited to, cultural differences between nationalities.
My Tuppence.
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it"