Friday 14 January 2011

Terrible service in the UK

When I think of a good customer service in Thailand, one of my favorite Korean restaurants located on high-end street comes first. Paying for cheap tasty food without any service charge, but the best service to their clients makes me very impressive and become their loyal customer then. It is opposite to service served in the United Kingdom from the article “Why is service still so bad in the UK?” on the BBC’s news magazine. I wonder how bad it is in the UK as well as whether UK people’s habits are the same as service they acquired, and further. As I looked for news in the UK section on BBC News website, linking further to magazine section leaded me to the interesting article which was skimmed and chosen to retail to you all.

In the article, there were complaints about the awful service everywhere in the UK by a chef and manager of restaurants. For instance, clients are not acknowledged by merchants or waiters, when they are served foods or even purchase newspapers in stalls. UK customer service was ranked 14th in the international customer service from the Nation Brand Index which means that it is correct according to the complaints. However, people know that good service is as significant as good food, but why terrible service is provided even in top restaurants. The important reasons are a problem in British class system implied service as servile and that providing service is seen to be a lower-class occupation with no any sector valuing as a career. In addition, even college students were found difficult saying please and thank you, meaning that the respect maybe lost through the generations.

I think of Thai people who teach their children to behave politely to older people; for example, by paying respect to, when I heard foreigners saying that paying respect is a good manner in Thailand. The source of respect may be from cultivation since we were young. I wonder whether it is necessary to learn how to be a mannered person in the society, although some people are uneducated. I think it depends on how people choose to act to others and also their environment. Even though students are taught in the best school, but they can behave badly to other people as well, such as bullying. Hence, why UK citizens deserve bad service, I question. They are civilized in my opinion and that makes them snobbery, is that right? Or they do not have respect to others as a manner to live in the society, I definitely disagree with. Nevertheless, I do not know actually what their cultures are, but why uttering please seems very hard to say by them. I do understand one thing that people living in metropolitan areas all think about their benefits first and others’ last as well as care less to other people. Moreover, they might have been obsessed by materialism contributing people to disdain lower-class people such as waiters. All in all, all causes mentioned significantly leads to see the providing service as low class in the UK society.

In my opinion, customer service is very important in any business. It is a key to persuade clients to give their loyalty in spite of low-quality products, but best help. It is the same concept as what you give is what you want. That’s why many universities around the world have classes for hospitality and tourism. They teach not only how to serve but how to impress clients with best intentional service. This occupation, in fact, is a profession that needs special training and abilities. It is actually a large profitable job especially working in top restaurants. Maybe in the past, UK was not the favorite place for tourism which caused populations of UK not concern in the hospitality. Accordingly, service providers perform themselves equally to payment they will receive.

I think one of the best solutions to the low standard of service in the UK is useful complaints which help improve the quality and develop practical skills. Also, service sector itself needs to cooperate in order to enhance standards and maintain the quality. Consequently, service industry in UK can become one of the best in the world.
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References
Waites, R. (2011, January 12). Why is service still so bad in the UK? BBC News Magazine. Retrieved January 13, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12123463

1 comment:

  1. Praew,
    I agree with you that complaining can be a good thing. If customers let businesses know that they want, what they are doing well and perhaps not so well, or just what could be done better, it helps everyone, or at least it can help everyone; sometimes managers aren't very good at listening.
    Maybe the poor customer service in the UK is the manager's fault? After all, they are teh ones responsible.

    And is Mr Roux right? Perhaps he's just had a few unpleasant experiences and jumped to an unwarranted conclusion about service generally in the UK. I don't know, but the British people I've known have seemed OK to me, and when I've met them serving as waiters and so on while on working holidays in Australia, I haven't had any real problems, but perhaps it's only the polite ones who visit Australia?

    I think serving must be a pretty boring job, and dealing with customers isn't always easy. My youngest brother works as a complaints manager for a large AUstralian Telecom company, and he tells me some pretty unpleasant stories about the rudeness from teh customers, although he does also admit that they sometimes have good reasons to be upset with the technical or personal service that they have received.

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