Delicious LiveJournal Links for 2-7-2010

[andrewducker]

• In Paris, the customer is not always right
  (tags: paris culture france travel)

Comments

[meihua.livejournal.com]

> It is made clear from the start that no-one has the upper hand.
> The strict code of manners in Paris is a deliberate class-leveller.

Nailed it. When I'm exposed to that style of "customer service", I feel very weird, because it's like an invisible veil of protection is ripped away. I think it's right to rip it away. I'm not saying everyone involved in that piece is an angel, unpleasantness is still unpleasant. But I like the idea of not showing deference just because one of you's the master and the other's the wageslave.

[andrewducker]

I agree on both counts - I think that deference is bad (and am very glad to be working in an office where people generally talk to each other as people, not positions), while thinking that being stuck in that situation with crutches really sucks.

[simont]

Coming back to this after spending a week mulling it over, what surprises me about this article is not that some people exist who value their self-respect more than grubbing every last penny of profit by grovelling to customers. What's surprising is that they haven't been out-competed by people who are willing to grovel. I wonder if that's because nobody in Paris wants to grovel, or because the commercial incentives don't point the way one might suspect (e.g. many Parisian customers wouldn't appreciate it if they did).