Customer Service with a smile, but?
CUSTOMER SERVICE WHAT A SHOCK TO MY SYSTEM
Hi John from UK here,
Having spent most of my life in the retail game in the UK from Saturday boy right up to senior management, I must admit it still comes as a shock to experience the Customer service within the Mindanao area.
I always feel great when I see smiling faces and what is a culture of enjoyment amongst my Pinoy hosts.
However I get a little puzzled and even confused, and YES sometimes annoyed at the lack of what I would call customer service, and its down in my opinion to the lack of training that exists in this great culture.
We shop at many supermarkets in and around Mindanao and went getting to the checkout area I am so pleased to see smiling packers eager to assist you, what a pleasure that is until they pack all the heavy items in one bag!! Results apart from broken back trying to carry it, is split bags and a crooked spine.
So being a nice guy I now ask for the bags to be of about equal weight and explain why, sometimes I will even get my pinoy friends to explain this.. and the result is to pack as they want..no luck there.
My next approach was the direct approach get in quick pack it myself, surly that will work…….WRONG.
This only ends up in a group of packers rushing to my assistance thinking that I am angry so they pack fast and with all their might. yes you guessed it. as much in one bag as possible.
Don’t get me wrong this is just something that with a two minute training session can be sorted out and every customer and even every packer will benefit from it, my open question is why does it not happen what am I missing?
I would be grateful to be educated on this or even to offer my training service, you never know?
As you may tell from some upcoming blogs that the customer service and training is something that i love to stay involved with and am already doing some seminars and other activities here in the Philipines to keep my hand in. Anybody wants to comment on similar, come on get it off your chest.
Regards JOHN
I think this country is fantastic.
John
Good to hear from you, i joined Bobs “friends” a few weeks back and have had immense enjoyment reading his very interesting tips and stories, they coincide with my experiences very realistically and Bob’s experience is helping me very much, yours will too….i can tell
i hope very much to meet you and Bob sometime next year (i am from the uk, we have a house in bangkal, central park and will retire there next year) and would love to attend the friends of Davao meeting, its what i need to get comfortable in my new life, but i already have quite a few friends in mindanao, i just need to be involved and busy….
regarding your packing expeiences i have had many similar ones and they make me smile because…..well as you say people are so helpful and friendly…even the packers (”sorry sir we are not allowed to accept tips”) it makes up for any deficiencies and as there are so many things i am not happy with in the uk, that i can’t change, well the problems in the Philippines, generally speaking just don’t annoy me
Bob has discussed the manana and other cultural isssues recently and so i realise its not all straightforward…but as i mention, a smile usually works for me, helps me anyway…cheers for now
John
Good one here, loooking forward to more… have had this experience loads always makes me smile because the packers and girls at the check out are so friendly as you say (”sorry sir we are not allowed to accept tips”)
training………well they are so slow, last year i went from dvo-mnla-hk and it took me about 20 secs at clk to book a hotel / taxi the contrast was scary but….. i prefer mindanao…. like you i think
all the very best
Hi John,
Welcome to the site and my hometown! I look forward to your posts. It’s interesting to know an Englishman’s perspective on life in the Philippines.
I agree with you 100% on the need to improve customer service in the Philippines - in supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, etc. Yes, these employees mean well, they just have not been trained properly. I put the blame on the management. It is not enough to hire able-bodied individuals to pack groceries or serve food. They need to understand that the customer is the reason they were hired. When I find myself in situations like yours, I have to bite my tongue because I realize it isn’t their fault. I try to explain to them calmly why I am asking them to do it a certain way. I should have gone to the manager and bring it to his/her attention. Sometimes, though, these middle managers get defensive when you try to tell them something. I find that if you really want to see change happen, you have to go to the top or you’ll just be wasting your time.
John
Good one here, loooking forward to more… have had this experience loads always makes me smile because the packers and girls at the check out are so friendly as you say (”sorry sir we are not allowed to accept tips”)
training………well they are so slow, but it will happen eventually so if i have my patient mood together……….99% of the time….
last year i went from dvo-mnla-hk and it took me about 20 secs at clk to book a hotel / taxi the contrast was scary but….. i prefer mindanao…. like you i think
all the very best and look forward to more………..
John and Bob of course (and Tina)
Good one here John (Tina i am english too)
i have been to davao many times and shopped loads inc christas at SM supermarket and survived
honestly i find the check out as slow as drying paint….but when you eventually get there, they are so pleasant, really they for me make up for any anoyance (”sorry sir we can’t accept tips”)
but i do know what you mean, looking forward to your contributions John and i would like to join your friends of mindanao meetings when i get there next year
cheers and keep it up
John and Bob
i know what you mean John but it helps because the people are friendly, mean so well and very polite (i am english too Tina)
good luck on your blogs John, looking forward to more
Hi John!
Your experience isn’t really unique. Indeed, customer service training is needed but what can we do if management changes employees as often as they can to avoid Labor Regulations ? We may not know that baggers are instructed to minimize the use of plastic bags/sacks when packing to minimize company’s expense. But with all these inconveniences when shopping, their smiles make a difference. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to reading your blogs about your experiences in my beloved island.
[...] got thinking about this because of John’s excellent article about Customer Service in the Philippines, and also Tina’s comment on that post, saying that it was a training problem that caused some [...]
John / Bob
apologies for my multiple entries here, had a bad computer day yesterday, or it may have been me
all the best
No problem, Rick! It just showed us how much you believed in your ideas! ha ha… just kidding…
Lack of training is not so much the issue, my fiancee worked many retail jobs in the Davao area and they all give you training. The more plausible explanation is bags are made of plastic (or cellophane as they call it), plastic is made of oil and oil is expensive. They are not a consumerist culture like the USA and will pack a bag heavier to save plastic. Personally if it’s too heavy for me to carry I pay the bagger P10 to take it to my cab, they are more than happy to oblige as that’s an hour’s pay for them. When I get home, my maid helps me get the bags inside.
Hi to all I was just in the philippines to marry my fiance of 2 years (we were married in Gensan on May 22). I spent 3 weeks in gensan with my new wife as we lived like regular gensan residents. I found the fridliness and smiles of the retail workers very refreshing. My thought is this: are we to we teach philippine people the European or American version of customer service? It would be a great loss to Europeanize or Americanize this deveolping country — let the philippine people evolve their own from of customer service and thereby preserve the philippine pride that makes this counrty so inviting.
Carl
Hi Carl - Welcome to the Blog! I just want to say that as residents of the country, I don’t see any problem with us offering suggestions and such. I don’t think any of us are bad mouthing the Philippines. Just talking about the differences we find here, our suggestions on how to fix some things, etc. We offer many positive points, as well as suggestions on how to fix things that aren’t as positive.
In Hong Kong you will find that most businesses that cater predominantly to Westerners employ Filipinos because their customer service skills are far superior to the local Chinese.
Also, on the subject of supermarket shopping bags….I thought it was pretty much accepted practice now to take our own cloth bags when shopping and prevent our drains and waterways from being clogged with plastic.
Hey John (and others frustrated with breaking bags),
While this may not help the issue of weight, one way to keep the bags from breaking is to bring your own! I’ve used shopping bags constructed from old rice sacks over and over, and I heard that SM is offering a “green bag” with a minimum purchase that is meant to be re-used.
I am personally more appalled that everyfreakingthing goes into a plastic bag (that will definitely split and become useless) which becomes trash itself. Another plus of the re-usable bag is that the handles are wide and do not crinkle up like the plastic ones so they don’t cut into your hand. Happy shopping!
Hi Elisa - I saw a sign at SM Supermarket the other day that if you use your “greenbag” they give you a discount. It was only a few pesos off, but hey, every bit helps!
I think the main reason for stuffing each bag with as much items as possible is due to the management trying to cut costs.
Hi Gari - I would tend to agree on that. It is such a tiny savings, though, and it would be well worth spending the extra tiny bit to make the customers more happy! That would keep them coming back again.
[...] “Customer Service with a smile, but” - John Grant made his debut on the site with this article. [...]
it is there way of doing thing , they are trained to minimize the overhead so they stuff everything in one bag.. I think they should do as the china is doing banning plastic bags altogether ..then they wouldn’t end up on the river banks and storm drains ..like in CDO
Hi John what can we say every issue and angle as been covered here.Yep plastic bags are a main part nowadays of Phil cultue every where you go you see them. Maybe the pastic bag should become the national flower of Phil.( JOKE).
When Wal Mart entered the German market, one of the things that they recognized they had to do was to improve the surly German retail folks to be a friendlier “how can help you” types. They did this via training, of course. But periodic checks and training commitments by Wal Mart management eventually fixed the problem for them. I hate to generalize, but people who operate these establishments need to realize that this is a continuing process.
Hi John,
I am even get frustrated even i am born from Davao but living here in Sydney for 13 yrs. But i go to Davao for holiday at least once a year. But everytime i go back always noticed the bad service most of the time. You see i been in the retail industry for 10 yrs and been working for David Jones the flagship store in Australia. And i am beauty consultant and make-up artist for Yves Saint Laurent,french cosmetics.And been trained with 5 star service. I think the people in Mindanao dont have proper training in customer service yet. Like you a am planning to do something to help the industry when i live there permanently soon. When i visit the department store there i always feel what they can do to move the stock.They dont have much idea. I feel like if they can trained them they can make more money instead just stand there doing nothing and they think they are something.(im talking about the cosmetic area though)
Good Luck John and maybe we should work together to make the service much better for Mindanao.
Regards,
Berlin
The Filipino people are intelligent but just need proper training. Thats all. But not too late yet.