[quote]

But out of curiosity has anybody else experienced a similar situation where the customer service was less than par. Why is it more so in Geneva than other cities? The service in the same stores in Zurich are above par so what's the problem?![/quote]



They're only competing for the low-hanging fruit (Sheiks and their wives/kids)?

;-)



I think that most employees of these types of stores get some sort of bonus from sales - but I doubt it's more than 10-15% of the yearly income (educated guess).



Anybody from retail want to comment?

;-)



rainer_d, Jun 4, 2009 @ 00:03

[quote]

But out of curiosity has anybody else experienced a similar situation where the customer service was less than par. Why is it more so in Geneva than other cities? The service in the same stores in Zurich are above par so what's the problem?![/quote]



My guess is that they have a good salary so they do not need to rely on commission as opposed to the US- so they can be mean to whoever they chose to... I have noticed this attitude in restaurants too, and they also have a salary and do not need to bother with tips. I don't think geneva has a customer service culture like the US, although this may change- retailers know competition is tough!
xanderking, Jun 4, 2009 @ 00:53

Oh man, I could go on for hours about the poor service (on average) in Geneva. I run into it everywhere, from corner shops to luxary stores. I'm not sure why it's there, but it's definitly there.

My guess is that it's there for 2 key reasons:

1. Lack of the right incentive for the sales person.
Folks covered this on the earlier replies.

2. Lack of a general service culture and of 'hunger to make the sell', even when the financial incentive it there.
The local sales people I saw (and I'm generalising ofcourse) were far less hungry then their counterparts in other places. Partly cos of the incentive, but partly cos I think it's not in their culture to go out there and give the best service they can in order to sell. They prefer to take it easy...

I miss the good service!

Nir
Nir Ofek, Jun 4, 2009 @ 02:12

I agree that on average, the service in Geneva is not fantastic (and sometimes downright horrible), but, that said, Swisscom has totally upped their game. When I first arrived, you could stand for hours in line at a Swisscom shop and then finally be served by incredibly rude people who could not have cared less about your needs and in fact seemed to go out of their way to add to your misery. Now, if I need to go to Swisscom, in the past couple of years, it has never taken more than half an hour, they are sunny, accommodating and helpful and it is as painless an experience as possible. Sometimes, they even offer me coffee.







Don't forget that you can recycle your techno trash (old phones, computers, modems etc...) by dropping them off at any Swisscom location.

misskate, Jun 4, 2009 @ 13:53

This is just an assumption but I've noticed that most of the staff in shops & restaurants are French (frontaliers) & don't really care what image they give of Switzerland. I would complain to the Tourist Office.
jindalee, Jun 4, 2009 @ 17:13

I call it "Saturday Girl Syndrome" if you want the job, smile, if you dont, there are others that will do it better! And as for a hotel, you want the Metropole!
MissBehave, Jun 4, 2009 @ 18:33

[font=Tahoma]@Jindalee ur assumption is right on target... most store clerks & salesfolks are paid ca 3500 at most. At that rate only frontaliers can really survive and most leave the job after they find out that next shop will pay 100 more... [/font]
swisskiss, Jun 4, 2009 @ 19:05

Erkan: great to see you again here bro! Nir
Nir Ofek, Jun 5, 2009 @ 01:50

[quote]

I sent an e-mail complaining at Intercontinental about the bad reception and that I find it sad. As a conclusion, I added that I manage the Executive Managers travel arrangements and that I would not send them to Intercontinental.

[/quote]



Nowadays, almost all big companies run customer-relationship-management-software (CRM).

Your email ended up in one of those and someone will have to deal with it.

Surprisingly, the impact of these emails (esp. if they are written in a polite and constructive manner) can be big.

The reason is that the people who operate the CRM-systems (and manage the complaints) are a couple of layers higher in the hierarchy than those that you actually complain about.

Also, complaints look bad in the statistic (which is the whole point of running this kind of software).

I'd say that someone is getting an admonition because of this "incident".



I once complained to Migros about the quality of their food in one of their restaurants.

(A friend had gotten a bad fish and fermenting pineapple-juice a few days later)

I got a callback and some days later, a woman was on site, handing out questionnaires to visitors to poll their opinion about the location and the food.

As they say: the word is mightier than the sword ;-)

rainer_d, Jun 5, 2009 @ 02:13