Customer service is certainly not one of China’s strong points. I have a new view on service, however, after a few trips to Beijing. If you define customer service as a proactive behavior, then China scores terribly. If you define customer serice by what you can get done, it’s actually not bad at all. You just need to ask. Sometimes not once, not twice, but multiple times. Actually, I mispoke – asking is a bad idea. Demand, otherwise you will set yourself up for a rejection.
This seems to be the same in India as well. In a CNBC speicla called “India Rising”, a call center staff made a comment that Americans are very polite. Even if they’re really upset about something, they’d ask (rather than demand) certain things.
Point to self: do as the Romans do!
