Customer Service – 10.26.10

Many businesses and organizations in America pride themselves on their high levels of customer service. It's not at all unusual to find 100% satisfaction guarantees.

Over the past few weeks, it has become clear to me that there are major – let's call them – "cultural differences" in the realm of customer service between America and Israel.

• Ester and I decided to open a new bank account with Bank Yahav. Rafi (our helpful landlord) had told us that he uses them and they don't have a lot of the fees that most of the other banks do. We did not have to wait long to meet with Mali, the woman at the bank who would open the account for us. Mali was very friendly and walked us through the process of opening the account, instructing us where to sign on each of the dozens of forms she printed. (Why so much paper?) But throughout the process, Mali kept answering her cell phone – personal and work related.
  
• The other day, we stopped off at "Kim'at Chinam", your average supermarket. We picked up a bunch of items and headed to the checkout. For some reason, a ten shekel grocery item rang up as a 100 shekel alarm clock. No problem – we just need to void the item. (Even in the States, I was always amazed that cashiers can ring up hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise all on their own. But, to void a single item that might be worth a dollar, a special key – usually in the possession of the supervisor or manager – must be used.) Well, in this case the manager/supervisor was working one of the checkout lanes, so it took 15 minutes for her to finally come over to void the alarm clock. I'm glad I wasn't behind us in line.
  
• Have you ever gone into an electronics store where all of the employees are sitting together and no one asks you if you need help? I have.
  
• Misrad Haklita here in Teverya – It turns out the person with all of the information in the office, only comes in once a week. Unfortunately, we did not go on "her day". Still, we were able to get some of the information we needed. Of course, any info we got, was received between the numerous cell phone calls that the woman answered as Ester and I sat there feeling bad for the people whose difficult personal situations were being discussed as we waited.
  

On the positive side, Mali gave us her cell phone number, so that in the future we can interrupt other people that are sitting with her. Cultural Differences.