Customer service - Vietnamese style
When I first arrived in Saigon I spent much of my time in the District 1. Almost every coffee shop and restaurant in this district is used to foreigners, and therefore delivers a level of customer service commensurate with our expectations. At the very least you receive a constant warm smile, and a guarantee that you will quivkly receive the meal and drinks you select.
Now that I am living in Binh Chanh and working in District 5 I am experiencing a very different level of customer service. I have the biggest troubles in the District 5 cafes. Most of these cafes are staffed by a large number of average-looking girls (by usual Vietnamese standards) with too much make-up and wearing clothes usually glued to a cheap stripper. The better cafes will give the girls a uniform (still relatively revealing - some may say "sexy", but not I), and some of the girls will actually be genuinely attractive without the makeup. So when you arrive you expect to be fawned over for the duration of your stay, and drink coffee, beer or juice in a manner fit for a king.
Not so.For the most part, the girls don't understand a word of English. Fair enough, but they also can't interpret my version of Vietnamese nor what it means when I point directly to the menu item I want. In the case of a cafe menu, there's only a certain number of drinks available, and "cafe sua da" in any accent can't be that far away from what she is expecting to hear. Also "Tiger bia" doesn't sound like Heineken or any other product on the menu. So the way this has been working lately is that first of all I receive blank stares from the girl.
Once she thinks she knows what I want, or she has gotten bored of staring blankly at me, she goes off to fulfill the request.
Maybe ten minutes later, longer than it takes to make a coffee or find a cold beer in an almost empty cafe, she returns with only one of the two drinks I ordered. That one drink will usually be the second of the two I ordered, probably the beer, and a lot of the time it won't be the brand I ordered. When you point out that you ordered two drinks they look at you in a confused manner, as if they can't understand why anybody would want two drinks. The fact that this occurs in literally every cafe I visit leads me to believe that Vietnamese simply don't consider that a customer may want exactly what they ordered, and that it would be better if they received what is considered "normal" instead. Having said that, there is never any hesitation in bringing out an iced tea to the table, even though I don't order them, don't like them, and already have at least one drink in my hand. So, go figure.
The explanation I have received from my local friends is that they think you have changed your mind after the first order. So I guess I have to practice my Vietnamese for "and".The issue of bringing a different label beer instead of the one I order is getting on my nerves. Not because I have to drink the other label, because I always hand it straight back - bottle open and all. I get annoyed because you should always let the customer know that the beer he/she ordered is not available before you leave to fulfill the order. If you only find out when you get to the beer fridge, you come back and ask the customer what else they would prefer. I guess over here they think all beer is the same, and maybe in some ways (when it's served over ice, instantly losing it's character and flavour) it is, but one thing's for sure. All the prices are not the same. Tiger usually goes for around VND11000 whereas Heineken can be around VND20000. I'm not paying an extra 9000 dong for beer cordial. If these things happened only occasionally I would just be amused and deal with it. The fact that they happen in almost every instance leads me to believe there's an opportunity for someone to open up a Hospitality school in Saigon. Mind you, I think the girls working in these cafes only get the job because they will work for next to nothing - they are effectively slave labour. They don't speak any English so can't work in the bars in District 1, and their only other options might be to go back to living in city poverty or return to work on a family farm in the Provinces somewhere. They certainly haven't been employed for their customer service skills, nor have they been trained since being employed.
A friend was speaking with one of the girls at a very large and popular-looking place (one that only sold coffee, and it was awful coffee at that). She said the girls live on site and work 16 hours a day, sleeping for the rest. I was horrified, but it was explained to me that they are on a good wicket. They are given clothes, meals and a bed, and don't need money for anything else other than to save, or send back to their families.
I still don't like it, even if it sounds like a good opportunity to them. I also hate to imagine in what other ways they are abused by their employers and/or regular customers.Now this post does sound like a whole lot of complaining, but it's not. I just observe things and write them down as I see them and feel about them. And I like to do it in a straight-forward, Australian way.
Ultimately, "it is what it is". These experiences are mere observations, and at the very worst are minor inconveniences in my life. What I go through in Vietnam to get through each day is not even in the same universe as the world of trials and tribulations of most locals in this country. I shall, of course, continue to adapt to this new environment, because after a hard day's work you need your coffee, and the weather demands cold beer. Drinking them at home in front of "reality" TV does not quite match the experience of watching REAL life move around you on the streets of Saigon.
Not so.For the most part, the girls don't understand a word of English. Fair enough, but they also can't interpret my version of Vietnamese nor what it means when I point directly to the menu item I want. In the case of a cafe menu, there's only a certain number of drinks available, and "cafe sua da" in any accent can't be that far away from what she is expecting to hear. Also "Tiger bia" doesn't sound like Heineken or any other product on the menu. So the way this has been working lately is that first of all I receive blank stares from the girl.
Once she thinks she knows what I want, or she has gotten bored of staring blankly at me, she goes off to fulfill the request.
Maybe ten minutes later, longer than it takes to make a coffee or find a cold beer in an almost empty cafe, she returns with only one of the two drinks I ordered. That one drink will usually be the second of the two I ordered, probably the beer, and a lot of the time it won't be the brand I ordered. When you point out that you ordered two drinks they look at you in a confused manner, as if they can't understand why anybody would want two drinks. The fact that this occurs in literally every cafe I visit leads me to believe that Vietnamese simply don't consider that a customer may want exactly what they ordered, and that it would be better if they received what is considered "normal" instead. Having said that, there is never any hesitation in bringing out an iced tea to the table, even though I don't order them, don't like them, and already have at least one drink in my hand. So, go figure.
The explanation I have received from my local friends is that they think you have changed your mind after the first order. So I guess I have to practice my Vietnamese for "and".The issue of bringing a different label beer instead of the one I order is getting on my nerves. Not because I have to drink the other label, because I always hand it straight back - bottle open and all. I get annoyed because you should always let the customer know that the beer he/she ordered is not available before you leave to fulfill the order. If you only find out when you get to the beer fridge, you come back and ask the customer what else they would prefer. I guess over here they think all beer is the same, and maybe in some ways (when it's served over ice, instantly losing it's character and flavour) it is, but one thing's for sure. All the prices are not the same. Tiger usually goes for around VND11000 whereas Heineken can be around VND20000. I'm not paying an extra 9000 dong for beer cordial. If these things happened only occasionally I would just be amused and deal with it. The fact that they happen in almost every instance leads me to believe there's an opportunity for someone to open up a Hospitality school in Saigon. Mind you, I think the girls working in these cafes only get the job because they will work for next to nothing - they are effectively slave labour. They don't speak any English so can't work in the bars in District 1, and their only other options might be to go back to living in city poverty or return to work on a family farm in the Provinces somewhere. They certainly haven't been employed for their customer service skills, nor have they been trained since being employed.
A friend was speaking with one of the girls at a very large and popular-looking place (one that only sold coffee, and it was awful coffee at that). She said the girls live on site and work 16 hours a day, sleeping for the rest. I was horrified, but it was explained to me that they are on a good wicket. They are given clothes, meals and a bed, and don't need money for anything else other than to save, or send back to their families.
I still don't like it, even if it sounds like a good opportunity to them. I also hate to imagine in what other ways they are abused by their employers and/or regular customers.Now this post does sound like a whole lot of complaining, but it's not. I just observe things and write them down as I see them and feel about them. And I like to do it in a straight-forward, Australian way.
Ultimately, "it is what it is". These experiences are mere observations, and at the very worst are minor inconveniences in my life. What I go through in Vietnam to get through each day is not even in the same universe as the world of trials and tribulations of most locals in this country. I shall, of course, continue to adapt to this new environment, because after a hard day's work you need your coffee, and the weather demands cold beer. Drinking them at home in front of "reality" TV does not quite match the experience of watching REAL life move around you on the streets of Saigon.
