Customer Service?

Hangin out in Lima with Bethany June :)

Bethany and I have recently decided to make a list of things that we would require if we ever open a business here in Peru. Most of these have been directly seen throughout our informal cultural observations, during daily visits to local businesses. What follows are the ¨requirements¨ we would include in every employee handbook:




1. If someone calls for take-out delivery, make sure that you don´t send the food out unless they call 2 times, just to make sure they are actually interested in receiving the food, and that they are good and hungry by the time it gets there. If necessary, take two hours. :)



2. If you create a special sale, such as a roundtrip ticket to Lima for 79 dollars, be sure to appear uninterested in giving them information about it, in order to encourage them to buy a more expensive ticket.



3. Make sure to shuffle around curiously, (yet appear disinterested), behind each customer, so that they won´t be tempted to steal a product.



4. At public internets, don´t worry about making people form lines. Assume that if someone really wants to be attended to, they will move aside all obstructions, including people, to get to the front desk. (May it be known that there are certain places where lines are extremely valued, such as ATM´s and government buildings where documents are processed.)



In order to be fair, there are also some shining moments of great customer service that provide some hope for improvement. For example, just tonight, a waiter perfectly brought our order in record time, and if asked if there could be a salad included, which is the norm with that dish, he promptly brought a nice sized salad, no extra charge. And Bethany, at the grocery store the other day, had a lady help her tremendously in getting the price of a product right, when it rang up at a higher price. She even accompanied her to the aisle where the price was obviously displayed, and the woman corrected the error. Things like this show us that good service here is possible, but it´s just not usually the norm. We just have to find the balance between helping the country improve, and not being too rude or ¨holier-than-thou¨ while pointing out flaws. Sometimes it´s not easy, and I tend to just let things slide and not make a big deal, since I grew up with similar customer service in Brazil. But then again, maybe I should be pointing out things and helping employees become excellent. I´m still not quite sure every time. Missionary life is a day by day, experience by experience deal.