{"id":5748,"date":"2011-05-17T10:34:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T10:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/travel-trends\/adjusting-to-customer-service-norms-in-other-countries\/"},"modified":"2018-10-04T06:29:19","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T10:29:19","slug":"adjusting-to-customer-service-norms-in-other-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/adjusting-to-customer-service-norms-in-other-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"Adjusting to Customer Service Norms in Other Countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Americans have really set the bar for customer service, and if you are a North American yourself, it can be quite hard to understand how other countries around the world can be lacking in this area.<\/p>\n

The truth is that many countries don\u2019t see customer service in the same light.<\/p>\n

While it may seem outrageous to us to think shop owners or hotel managers might not be taking customer service quite as seriously, they, on the other hand, may not understand why being at the customer\u2019s beck and call or telling them they are always right is worthy of their time.<\/p>\n

It tends to be a cultural difference.<\/strong> I\u2019m currently traveling in Malaysia<\/a>, and customer service is a feature sorely lacking, but I must take it in stride.\u00a0 Fast food restaurants should not be classified as \u201cfast\u201d in these parts; you will easily find yourself standing in line for what feels like an eternity just to place your order.\u00a0 At one hotel, the concierge told me to get my own ice from the hotel\u2019s cafe, or to go up to my room and call down directly. Imagine my confusion as I stood there wondering what this concierge\u2019s job actually entailed.<\/p>\n

Confusion aside, I was aware that Malaysia had different standards when it comes to customer service before I came, so I try not to let any of this get to me.\u00a0 I simply laugh it off as one of those silly cultural differences you encounter while traveling and get on with my next activity.<\/p>\n

Bad customer service may be frustrating on holidays, but we must learn to take it lightly.<\/strong> Unless you are paying for it, or staying in fancy resorts that cater to the overseas traveler, expecting impeccable customer service while traveling in some areas of the world will only lead to disappointment.\u00a0 In many cases, it can just waste your time and your good mood to put too much emphasis on the issue.<\/p>\n

Doing some research in advance of your trip can help you enter with the right frame of mind.\u00a0 Knowing that customer service is of a lesser grade in your country of choice will lower expectations, and it may even lead to a nice surprise when the service is quite good. When encountering a stressful situation with poor service, take a deep breath.\u00a0 Getting angry with owners, managers or service attendants may only aggravate the problem instead of leading to a resolution.<\/p>\n

Understand the issue may be caused from a cultural difference.\u00a0 We must remember that the local way of life does not change as soon as a foreigner steps foot in the door.<\/p>\n

If the quality of service is normal, try not to think of it as \u201cbad\u201d.<\/strong> The overall lesson of this article is to think about the customer service as relative to the country you are in and not to your home country.\u00a0 As long as the service is considered \u201cnormal\u201d for that area, and you are not being singled out for any reason in particular, then a good idea is to tell yourself you\u2019ve had a \u201cstandard\u201d experience.\u00a0 It may not be easy \u2013 I know \u2013 but realizing the differences in advance will only help us focus our energy on the thing that matters most:\u00a0 travel<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Flickr: LisaW123<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Americans have really set the bar for customer service, and if you are a North American yourself, it can be quite hard to understand how other countries around the world can be lacking in this area. The truth is that many countries don\u2019t see customer service in the same light. While it may seem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel-tips-intel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5748"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98896772,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5748\/revisions\/98896772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}