Originally Posted by
LHR-HUB
Jeesh, I really despair sometimes at the general levels of the "Service Industry" in the UK. Having spent most of January in the USA, South East Asia, Australia etc. where people go out of their way to help you, be polite and generally seem to understand that as a passenger / hotel guest / restaurant customer etc. you are paying their wages, and if you get good service you might even come back. ^ (OK, in the USA the service is mostly for tips).
Me too, in some places it's like customers are doing the staff a favour by being there.
Never been to Australia (no real desire, sorry) so can't comment about there; and it's a long time since I've been to SE Asia but I do remember the service as being excellent. I spend a lot of time in the US and service remains very, very good in most places and it comes across as being genuine, not forced. Though I have to say 1 or 2 places on my last visit (November) seemed to have caught the British attitude.
I was having a chat with one of the stylists at my hairdressing salon last week (she's a new young lady with barely a handful of clients so far). But I was horrified when she told me that when working in a local supermarket she was expected to offer to help customers pack their shopping. She said "why the f... should I, they can do it their f...ing selves, I ain't nobody's f...ing slave". The saddest thing was, she could see absolutely nothing wrong with that attitude.
