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The customer is always wrong

Communist approach lingers in new service economy and differing definitions persist
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October 31st, 2007 issue

By Simon Pardek

and Jessica K. Ulrich
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The negative past of Czech customer service lingers on.
“The customer is always right,” taken as a given by most Western shoppers, often fails to hold true in the customer service industry of the Czech Republic.
It may be 18 years after the fall of communism, but the effects of a system that eliminated the motivation and necessity for courteous customer treatment still remains. Instead of a toothy grin and a cheery “Good day!” disinterested stares and brusque greetings still characterize many customer interactions.
Why? Under communist rule, since everything belonged to the state, no one really cared about losing a customer to the competition. Politeness was simply irrelevant. During those times, when asking a shopkeeper where one might find so and so, it wasn’t at all uncommon to hear “Find it yourself!”
Today, the Czech Republic, and Prague in particular, has accumulated a global reputation for poor customer service — the kind that often leaves visitors scratching their heads, wondering what they have done wrong.
As one frustrated EuroBlog writer expressed, “Prague continues to have the lowest standard of customer service anywhere.”
Whether or not this is true, it is certainly not an irregular occurrence for a waitress to simply walk away in the middle of taking an order or a cashier to grumble at the query of a customer.
A new word
These traits were perhaps most apparent to expatriates returning home soon after the 1989 revolution, often only for a visit. Only a presumptuous “Westernized” Czech could be so shocked by how customers were dealt with, and only a presumptuous foreigner would have the good sense (or guts) to firmly react to such impoliteness.
When Prague became a popular tourist destination, a kind of segregation soon occurred in which “artificial” politeness was afforded visitors who had money to spend in tourist areas, while genuine change was far slower in the rest of Prague.
During the late 1990s, the metro changed its unmistakable pre-recorded announcements from “Stop embarking and disembarking, the doors are closing.” to “Please stop embarking and disembarking …”
For weeks, one could see passengers doing double takes and grinning at what they had just heard. It was a small difference, but, in many ways, it was hugely symbolic. Suddenly, individual politeness mattered.
Indeed, metro employees have in recent years clearly become more polite and approachable — a sign that things are getting better. It wasn’t so long ago that daring to peek into their isolated glass booths and asking a question meant risking a stern dressing down.
They were, after all, the epitome of the institutionalized communist-era worker — demoralized, unmotivated and utterly unapproachable. Those staff booths were subtly redesigned in recent years to invite rather than to intimidate passengers, and, today, rudeness is slowly making way for the kind of polite service that Westerners take for granted.
But the old ways are, sadly, still common.
Supermarkets are another good example. They have in many ways become models for the transference of communist-era treatment of both customers and staff into the post-communist age. Stories of overworked and underpaid employees being forced to do double, even triple shifts for “the common good” of the company (instead of the state) are plentiful.
Jealous of my neighbor
A notable side effect of communist rule was a readiness by many ordinary people to posture with whatever power they possessed against their fellow citizens. In a society where everybody was supposed to be the same, the slightest bit of authority, such as that which a shopkeeper might appear to have over a customer, was more often than not subconsciously perceived as a license to be stern, unhelpful and rude. The phenomenon of oppressed societies turning on each other rather than their oppressors is nothing new, and continues to be witnessed to this day.
Furthermore, communism had a very particular effect: The institutions were always right. The emphasis was not placed upon customer service, but rather the other way around. A visit to a shop often mirrored a visit to one’s local government institution, a place where the individual became lost in a Kafka-esque maze of bureaucracy and stern inhumanity.
Often, “corrupt” unofficial contacts became the only way to secure various products or services — for such friends, anything was possible, for the rest, an emotional distance would be kept at all times.
As former Czech dissident and professor at New York University in Prague Jan Urban explained, the worker did not make money “by being good” as “his utmost loyalty was to the regime.”
Interactions became mechanical and infused with fear. Protection against an outsider came in a mask of rudeness.
“When anybody around you could become a danger,” Urban adds, “the safest path was to create a shell and not to appear open.” Today, the avoidance of eye contact by many cashiers appears to represent a continuation of a deeply ingrained trait.
Urban’s stark description of service under communism is also reflected in Václav Havel’s novel The Power of the Powerless. The isolated, gruff behavior of the shopkeeper is explained in the meaningless slogans that populate his windows.
“I, the greengrocer XY, live here and I know what I must do,” Havel writes. “I behave in the manner expected of me. I can be depended upon and am beyond reproach. I am obedient and, therefore, I have the right to be left in peace.”
Communism certainly left its mark on professional conduct. There is a true story of the Czech farmer whose cucumber crop failed while those of a neighboring farmer didn’t. The farmer whose crops failed was so jealous of the other farmer, that, in the middle of the night, he snuck out and destroyed his neighbor’s crop.
“People here envy the success of others,” is a common local saying.
A lottery
Beyond the influence of communism, the general definitions of politeness and rudeness differ from those in the Western industries.
A fake grin or sugary “Have a nice day” are generally frowned upon as they are considered false and therefore rude.
A Czech blogger explains that “saying ‘Hi, how are you?’ even though you don’t know the person, or asking for service before you think about how to help yourself” is also considered rude. Simply put, Czechs prefer a more genuine form of interaction, and workplace transactions are still viewed as distinctly different from social ones.
While a do-I-really-have-to-help-you look often confronts the customer upon approaching a shop counter, overall, the service industry is improving.
Urban explains that there are “definitely changing values” within the service industry due to a “generational change” as well a growing influence of the “business ethos of Western companies.” New jobs exist, such as “marketing firms and media constancy companies,” that deal directly with popular opinions and customer feedback.
Furthermore, with an influx of Westerners and tourists, services are now catering to those used to Western service standards, which is certainly making a difference.
Finally, many small businesses are realizing that good customer relations are crucial to their very survival. In the Czech Republic, fair, friendly and polite competition often competes with unfair competition (those who pay bribes, etc.). The net result is that, in Prague, customer politeness has become less of a rarity and more of a lottery. One can still encounter abject rudeness, but one can also be very pleasantly surprised.
— This article first appeared in The New Presence magazine (www.tnp.com). It has been edited slightly to fit this space.


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