Service with a smile

Belarus is a net exporter of services just like Britain, so I discovered recently.  I was surprised, and have been wondering which services Belarus is exporting.  After my blog about tourism to Belarus, I wanted to write about a key element of tourism:  service culture.

Services and service culture aren’t the same, but understanding one does, I think, help understanding of the other.  I came to this conclusion after searching for a good definition of “service culture”.  But the more I delved into the subject, the more elusive the idea became.

Defining a “service” itself is complicated.  I was reminded of my education in economics of some decades ago, when I found the definition of services as “intangible commodities”.  There is no physical “thing” given by someone to somebody else.  Rather, somebody (a “service provider”) does something for somebody else (“a customer” or “client”).  And a good synonym for “service culture” is “customer experience”.

In historical terms, services for all are relatively new.  In the pre-industrial era, services were really only for a very few – the aristocracy, who had lots of people “serving them”.  With the industrial revolution and mass consumption, “services” were rendered to many more people, so that nowadays everyone has some sort of “customer experience”.

In Britain, we tend to think of service as something given in restaurants, hotels and shops.  All provide physical things, food and drink in restaurants, a bed for the night in a hotel, and all sorts of products in a shop.  But it is how the products are provided that is the service, or the “intangible”.

Shops can sell goods in many ways.  In supermarkets, customers usually serve themselves by taking a trolley around – so the service given by the staff in the shop may not be so important.  But in other shops, like a clothes shops, the staff in the shop can be much more important, as customers may be looking for certain sizes or styles, and may need help or advice on what suits them.

I often interact with shop assistants, waiters and other service staff in Belarus.  I think the service culture has improved since I arrived in Minsk over two and a half years ago.  I notice more staff able and ready to talk in English in Minsk – certainly since the ice hockey championships of last year.  There were English announcements on the metro but they have stopped.  But there are many more English signs now.

Of course, this is all about interactions between people, and that’s the problem with coming up with a definition of good “service culture”.  Different people have different needs, preferences and tastes.  The focus of service for companies that maintain passenger jets is going to be very different from that of hairdressers, and the culture is likely to be different.  .

When I was growing up, one of the most popular television shows was Fawlty Towers.  It centred on a bad-tempered hotelier, Basil Fawlty, who behaved erratically with hotel guests.  It was very funny because of the awkward situations that he got into, which often led him to be very rude to customers – exactly how a service provider should not behave.

Good service culture requires good communication, so that a provider makes clear to a client what service they are providing, and in turn is able to understand a customer’s particular preferences so as to modify how the service is provided.  It is about making customers welcome, of interacting with them in such a way that they enjoy the experience of whatever service they are getting. As attracting new customers costs more than retaining existing customers, giving good service once is a good way of attracting returning business.

The possibility of cultural, behavioural and language differences, and the misunderstanding that can arise, increase markedly when the service provider and client are from different countries, as is the case with foreign tourism.  What is usual, acceptable and even polite in one country, can be quite different in another.  In some places, it is rude to look directly at someone, in others it helps establish rapport.

So what sort of service are Britons looking for?

Courtesy is important – we like people to say “please” and “thank you”.  We like to know about what sort of service we’re getting, and are keen on things that are prompt or “run on time”.  We like to be welcomed and given attention, but we tend to be a bit shy so we don’t like overly friendly service.  In that respect, I don’t think Britons are so different from Belarusians.

In Britain, probably the paragon of good service is provided by a certain chain of department stores.  The company trains its staff – who are known as “partners” – to greet customers politely and ask if they can help.  They usually know about the products or, if they don’t, they will find someone who can help.  It is a pleasant experience to shop in their stores, and the company remains successful.

I think we like “attentive, but discreet” service.  We like to be well looked after, but often prefer to be left alone to enjoy whatever is being served.  But this is only my opinion.

Tourism is about going somewhere different.  I dislike going somewhere new and staying in a characterless hotel room that could be anywhere, and eating food in a restaurant that I could eat at home.  I don’t want the whole world to be homogenised, and to be given the same service everywhere I go.  I like to encounter different cultures, including different service cultures.

According to the UN’s World Tourism Organisation, Britain was the 8th most popular tourist destination in 2013.  Britain’s travel industry is very aware of the importance of keeping their customers happy, and hold annual competitions to promote good service.  Britons are ready to complain about poor service, and such is the drive for constant improvement, that businesses recently set up an organisation to improve the professionalism of staff working in the hospitality industry.

I think that there’s an element of Britons not being easily satisfied and being contrary – like me, with my taste of wanting something different when I go somewhere new.

As service culture is about human interaction, and is subject to changes in behaviour.  The Britain I grew up in was far more formal than it is now.  How we interact with each other has changed a lot.  I expect most elderly Britons still like to be addressed as “madam” and “sir”, whereas my sons would be bemused to be greeted so formally.

If there is one element though that I think is still valid, it is being made welcome.  We like to be greeted with a smile, and asked a few questions to check we are all right.  But don’t give us too much attention.  We are British, after all.